As the sun rose and the rain fell, the rumbles and screams of go karts filled the air in the Mosport Kartways paddock. In amongst it all was series rookie Daniel Demaras. Daniel and his mechanic were working on getting rain tires on the kart for the first practice session.
Daniel struggled in the practice session. He was a seven seconds off the fastest time of the session, a development he wasn’t crazy about.
The team struggled to adjust the setup before the second practice session to try to improve lap times. They did, and Daniel improved by three seconds. The story was the same in qualifying, where Daniel was twelfth out of fifteen racers, with his times steadily improving, and the gap to the leaders closing.
By the pre-final session, the track was drying out. Daniel chose to stay on the treaded wet tires, a decision shared by all but two other drivers. Of those running the dry tires, one spun off and into a wall on the formation lap. The other would go on to win the pre-final.
On the start of the pre-final, Daniel made up two places, lost one later on and nearly lost another, but managed to hold on to eleventh.
For the final (the only points paying event) all racers switched onto slicks. Daniel lifted off the gas to avoid bumping the driver lined up in front, something Daniel would later learn is standard protocol on club racing starts. By lifting, Daniel lacked momentum going uphill to the turn one-two complex. Daniel made one place back, and then found himself trailing a group of three drivers, with one breathing down his neck. Daniel fended off the driver looking for a move successfully, and managed to catch up to the group ahead.
As the race wound down, Daniel made a pass, but lost it a few corners later. The white flag fell, and Daniel had some distance. Through the esses and the final corner, a leading driver made an ambitious move through the final corner, but it didn’t work. Daniel capitalized by drag racing him down the straightaway, snatching the place right at the finish line.
“Overall I’m very happy how today went,” Daniel said after the race. ” I need to improve in certain elements, but that’s a given seeing as it was only my first MIKA race. My biggest accomplishment over the course of the day was keeping it on the track in the wet. Getting passes done and competing with drivers that no doubt have more experience than me was also superb. I’m sure I can take this Intrepid kart to the podium this season. I can’t wait until the next race at Goodwood!”