TRAK Race 11: Heat Racing

Although TRAK 11 was ‘only’ a club race, it’s late in the season. Every point counts towards the championships the divers are aiming for. With that in mind, Daniel arrived at the track on Wednesday to practice and by Friday night, he was ready.

Random order heat racing is supposed to mix things up, by putting drivers who might not normally be at the sharp end of the grid right up front. Demaras was randomly assigned starting positions of 6th in Heat Race 1 and 5th in Heat Race 2.

After intense on-track battles, Daniel managed to advance the No. 412 kart up to 3rd place finishes in each of the Heat Races. The system used to determine starting position was a little confusing, but what really mattered was Jeff Conte would be start on pole, with Daniel Demaras starting fourth (outside row two).

They don’t give out trophies for Heat Races, so while Daniel enjoyed starting mid-pack and fighting his way to the front with aggressive passes, he couldn’t wait for the Final to start.

Daniel had a poor start, bouncing off the 2nd place kart’s bumper just as the green flag dropped. Dropping back a little, Demaras had to run the outside lane through Turns 1, 2, 3 & 4. Very sketchy out there.

Demaras made an outside pass at Turn 4, climbing up to 3rd place. Later in the race, Daniel caught the kart of Steven Chan and started an aggressive pass on the outside of Turn 6 … but it was only a ‘dummy’ move to fake out his rival. Switching back to the inside line at Turn 7, Demaras completed the pass.

Chan pushed Demaras for several laps, trying to catch leader Rothman, but on the last lap / last corner, Steven went for the pass. Briefly sliding sideways through the grass, Chan got the inside line and drag raced Demaras to the checkered flag. The No. 412 kart finished 2nd, a razor thin 0.021 seconds in front of Steven Chan!

Demaras was ecstatic to be on the podium after a tough weekend, and he gladly added 175 points towards his total for the year. Watching teammates Santiago Ramirez, Elijah Joshi and Rocco Simone (who also brought home a 2nd place finish for NSM) compete in their races made the weekend complete.