The driest, hottest and busiest weekend of the whole season. Two days of 40 kart fields, and tough ones at that.
The team came up on Friday to set up the kart for the weekend ahead. With Daniel consistently showing speed, and the setup improving, it allowed Daniel to clock in a 1:07.9, his first sub 1:08 time ever.
Daniel continued to make progress in his racing lines, yet qualified towards the back end of the field as often happens on CRFKC days. He avoided a big crash in turn two despite being on the outside line. Daniel moved up the field on the start, but lost a few places later on.
On the start of the second race there was a massive crash involving FMR driver Anthony Garfalo (https://demaras.com/2017/07/29/anthony/) which ended up bringing out a red flag. The race restarted in the order the drivers qualified. Daniel had another tricky race with quick drivers coming from the back. In the end, Daniel had a reasonable finish, but his day was far from done.
The Briggs drivers practiced on the reverse track for the Summerfest the next day. Daniel came to terms with the configuration, did some offroading but managed to improve by two seconds per lap by the end of the day, and after a debrief with the team, knew what he had to do in order to improve.
On Sunday, the race format was quite different. Instead of qualifying, there were two heat races. The order was decided randomly for heat one and that starting order was reversed for the start of heat two.
Heat one was very difficult with several quick drivers randomly placed behind Daniel. He was getting quite frustrated, and he team made changes to the kart for heat two.
Daniel started further back in the field for heat two, and like in heat one the first corner and the immediately succeeding esses were home to a big crash. Once again Daniel avoided it, and for most of the race held position. On the final lap the was a crash in the outer bowl, and Daniel got his tires on the sand that had been kicked up onto the track, and then spun, losing all the ground he’d made up. With his combined results, Daniel was set to start 38th.
During the lunch break before the final, Chris found a fatal flaw with the power unit, and the team was forced to replace Daniel’s Briggs & Stratton LO206 motor. This triggered a grid penalty, forcing Daniel to start the race from the back.
The prefinal went incredibly well for Daniel. He avoided the inevitable first corner wreck, made up many positions and ended u in a three car fight for 32nd. Daniel got passed kart 666 and was in a battle with Michael Nalli when Kart 666 pushed Daniel through the corner, causing Daniel to force Nalli off the track. 666 managed to get past Daniel on the final lap.
Daniel had another good start on the race, but two front-runners. Avery Miller and VRS teammate Keidon Fletcher, got past Demaras. Soon a tangle between these two drivers caused a red flag. The restart was single file to avoid another big first corner crash, which worked effectively. Daniel was battling with a driver who went down his inside on the hairpin. Daniel stuck on the outside, but his competitor pushed him off the track, costing Daniel several positions. Daniel ended the day right where he started in 32nd.
“Wild weekend. I was lucky enough to keep my nose clean and my kart shiny side up. I’m satisfied with these two races. I did my fastest times, and we’re making changes to the kart. There are some problems with the motor that need to be fixed. I can’t wait until next time out when I get to hop right back into the #12 and race these guys again, with my equipment in top notch condition.”
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