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| June 21, 2011 News |
| Factory Pilot: Gary Carlton - An American in Europe - CIK/FIA European Championship |
| Article by: garycarlton.us |
For 2011, American karting star Gary Carlton will be the lead driver for the Chiesa Corse operation in the KZ1 category aboard factory-prepared Zanardi/IAME package. eKartingNews.com has partnered with Gary to help produce segments over the course of his time as a new factory driver. Working with him on forum blogs, race-event journals, photos, video footage and more, viewers will be able to see first-hand what it is to be a factory driver for one of the top European teams in karting.
To follow his progress throughout the season, visit the official EKN Gary Carlton Page in the Features section.
Do you have a question to ask Gary about his experience thus far in Europe, then post your question in the forums section HERE where Gary will select a few and answer them through a video blog to be released at a later time. If you want Gary to answer your question directly, don't waste any time and publish you question.
It’s a busy month for Carlton as he spent June 8-12 in Germany at the CIK-FIA European Championships for the KZ1 division. It will be a quick turn around as Gary will prepare for the next round of the WSK Euro Series - set for the popular La Conca facility in Southern Italy, June 23-26. The following entry is a review of his time in Germany.
 | The road to Germany took Gary through Italy and Austria, all in just five hours
(Photo: garycarlton.us) |
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
The day started off like any other day waking up in my apartment inside the CRG Factory at my normal time of 7:00 am. But instead of going down stairs and into the factory to build karts, I stepped into the Chiesa Corse van heading up to Wackersdorf, Germany for the 2011 CIK-FIA European Championship for KZ1. It would just be Dino and I during the short trip. Once my bags were inside and Dino showed off his new tent for the race, we set off on our five hour drive (Editors Note: That’s traveling through three different countries…show’s just how large the United States is, sometimes you can’t event get through one state in that amount of time). During the drive we got caught up on everything that is going on and talked about some future plans with the team and myself that seemed very exciting, which made the ride go by very quickly. Also, the scenery passing through Austria was unbelievable and now I have yet another place that I want to visit when I have enough down time. Once we passed through Austria, we crossed the border into Germany and even though I have passed through the Munich airport in what seems like a million times, it was the first real time I have been on Germany soil and I was little excited. On the way up we met my mechanic Blaz on the highway just as our exit for the track had come. Blaz, who lives in Slovania, woke up early in the morning and drove himself up to Germany and made some good time, probably burnt a serious amount of gas to catch up with us before we got to the track. After taking one wrong turn, a few looks on the map, and then asking a fellow resident, we found our way to the Pro Kart Raceland Circuit.
Once inside the track, we found our parking place. Dino was quick to park the van and seemed very eager to show us the new tent he had bought. He seemed really proud of it and talked about it pretty much the whole trip. He kept on saying we were doing it "American Style". Once the van doors opened and we took a few boxes out there she was, the new tent. When I first saw it I actually had a feeling of joy. It was an EZ-UP, but on steroids. Now this might not seem cool and glamorous to most but to me it meant it was going to be fast and easy to put it up and take it down. Being there was no KF2 or KF3 classes this race, I would be the only one under the tent because my other teammate Nyck De Vries had his own personal tent, it was a perfect fit for me and the team. Having big trucks and tents looks nice and all, but at the end of the day it does not make you go any faster. When your a factory driver, it just means more work before and after the race. So to say the least, I was really stoked on my "American Style" tent for the weekend but for sure not as excited as Dino. After a quick set-up of our pit area and quick look over the karts, we put the kart covers on and headed to the track side restaurant to get something to eat.
Usually ordering dinner is not a big deal but I have to admit I was a bit scared to eat the food in Germany. I am always one to try new foods from different places, but after seeing all the people die from this unknown bacteria going around Germany and some other parts of Europe made me nervous to eat. But once I realized that my whole team was going to eat the same thing, I was okay with it. I figured if I went down, I would not be alone so I decided to eat up as much as I pleased. After meeting up with all the boys from IAME, we all piled in Blaz's car and headed to the hotel. Dino, Blaz and myself were staying in the same room but we were all lucky that the room was more spacious than normal European hotels. I set up my stuff for the week before I knocked out for the night.
 | The 'American Style' tent for GFC during the weekend in Germany
(Photo: garycarlton.us) |
Thursday, June 9, 2011
After a great sleep, we had a quick breakfast in the hotel lobby and then we all piled back into the car and headed to the track. It is normal for any driver to be excited for the first day of a race weekend and being it was going to be the first time I have ever driven on the track, it made it just that much more exciting. With the added excitement of the new track comes the more difficult part of learning the new track. After talking with a few old CRG teammates and a quick look at the track from the outside, it was not going to be an easy track for the drivers. It had been almost three weeks since I had driven last, so to say the least, I was itching to get out there. With the rules of the CIK-FIA races, you only get two sets of tires for all of the practice sessions. You have to start on new tires for your very first session and being the track had not been used for over a week and rain had been in the area, the track was going to be really slick. Many drivers opted not to run the first session in order to conserve their tires. Being I had never seen the track before, it was crucial to get some laps in as soon as possible but with the tire situation, I had to be very careful not to do many laps. The Dunlop tires, in my opinion, have gone down in their quality over last year and it is very easy to ruin your tires if you drive to many laps, so the first session I drove very calm and got an idea on where the track goes. There were only three classes racing but there were many karts at the event, having 120 drivers in the KZ2 class, so the practice sessions were quite slim having only two official free-practice sessions for the day. For the second session, the track was clear of all the dirt and dust so I was able to push and try to get a good grip on the track.
The Pro Kart Raceland Circuit is very old school, in being very narrow, very tight, and very bumpy. It only took a couple laps to realize this was not going to be one of those tracks you can pick up in one session. At the end of the second and final session of the day, I started to find the groove of the circuit and my pace was not too bad considering where we had started off. I knew for the next day I would really have to use my time on the track wisely and have to get everything up to speed and tuned in quickly. So with all that in mind, we headed to the restaurant at the track to grab some food and then headed off to the hotel. Its funny to think, I only did two sessions for the day and probably only did 15 laps total, but I was really tired. I think when you are at the track all day and you have to sit around for 95% of the day, you get more tired than if you had done 200 laps in a day of testing. Or maybe that’s just one more thing that makes me the strange guy that I am.
Friday, June 10, 2011
The night before, I had checked the weather report and there was a good chance we were going to see some rain early in the day but when I woke up and had a look out the window all I saw was blue sky. It was a plus because we only had four more Free Practice sessions left and we needed as much dry laps as we could get. The day started off as any other day by Blaz heading over to the IAME van and mounting the engines on both karts. In the CIK-FIA, you are only allowed two engines and two chassis through out the whole weekend. Along with your two sets of tires, they check that you only run your declared material throughout the whole weekend even during the free practices. They control this by putting small bar code stickers on everything and have officials with hand held scanners that scan the whole kart to make sure your not bringing in anything that has not been declared. Some might think this is a great system that would cut costs and make everything more equal. But at the end of the day, I think it might cost the factories even more money in the long run and having to wait in the long lines to have your kart scanned before you go on the track is just a real pain in the ass. If you are only allowed a certain amount of tires and what not, it really limits your track time during the free practices and in turn, that means to be competitive with the others you have to come test before the race. I know almost every big manufacturer had done at least 2-3 days of testing before the race to prepare themselves for the limited track time you get during the official practice for the race. If you would open it up a bit more for the competitors, it might not be necessary for people to come and test before hand and in turn save the people more money. Just my opinion and it might be biased because I was one of the few drivers that were not able to come and test before the race.
 | The Pro Kart Raceland Circuit proved to be a challenging course for the fast KZ1 category
(Photo: garycarlton.us) |
The day went okay without any technical problems, which was a nice change of pace and showed we were making progress in that area of our program. The rain kept away for all the day and we were able to test many things with brakes and different chassis combinations. The Pro Kart Raceland Circuit was turning out to be a challenge for myself to find the right set-up with both engine and chassis. By the end of the day, I was still lacking quite a bit of speed. I was a somewhat frustrated with myself because it seemed like it was difficult for me to evaluate the changes we were making with the engine and chassis, which is really crucial to moving forward when you have very little time to do so. I never really felt comfortable with the chassis, engine, and myself throughout the whole day and was hoping to have a better understanding of all those before we came into the Qualifying Practice. After cleaning the karts up and a look at the data from the day, we came up with a game plan for the next day and during dinner, Blaz and I had a great talk that got my mind in reset mode. Before we left the track, I saw Luca from Lucky Design and he informed me that he had my new helmet done, so I went to his van to pick it up. It is always exciting to get a new helmet and as always, Luca did a great job in making the helmet represent where I come from, which is very important to me. Before I went to bed, I thought long and hard on the changes I wanted to make within myself to get back on track and really make the best of the morning warm-up, being it was the last session before one of the most important parts of the weekend, Qualifying Practice.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
I had a great sleep during the night and was very eager to get back to the track. When I finished breakfast, I was like a small child waiting impatiently for Blaz and Dino to finish theirs so we could head out to the circuit. The weather had turned cold and very cloudy over night and you could tell there was rain close by. Once at the track, it was the normal procedure of putting the engines on the karts and checking the carburetion by running the kart on the stand. Before we headed to the grid, Blaz asked me if I had seen the card for our transponder. I remembered seeing it sitting on our work bench just minutes before so you would naturally think it would still be sitting there. When I looked on the bench it was not there. I looked to see if I had dropped it on the floor, but still it was no where to be found. Then Blaz and Dino also started to search for it. We had all seen the card just minutes before and now it was vanished into thin air. Being the session was about to be begin, we had to go and try to see if we could talk the officials into giving us our transponder without our card. At first, they were not going to let me on the track but after some smooth talking by Blaz they gave us our transponder and we had orders that we had to present the card the next time we came through Parc Ferme.
The Warm-Up session went well. The changes we had made over night made me much more comfortable with the kart and being that many drivers had less laps on their tires I found our pace was the best it had been all weekend. It was definitely a positive session and as a driver, it is always nice going into Qualifying Practice with a good last session. Once back under the tent we had a look at the data and made our game plan for Qualifying Practice. The session was going to be 8 minutes long and we had planned to do 3 hard laps, one slow lap to cool the tires, and then another 1-2 laps depending on how our speed was after the cool down lap. And then once you think you have your game plan all set, the racing gods always like to make it a bit more interesting.
 | Gary's new lid from Lucky Design
(Photo: garycarlton.us) |
The Qualifying Practice was broken up into two groups and at the time I thought I was lucky to be in the second group. After the first group of KZ1 drivers they would have a session of the KF1 drivers and some times running after the KF1 drivers that use the special Bridgestone tire the track can have a little more grip. While in Parc Ferme mounting up the Dunlop slicks onto the chassis, I felt water on the back of my neck. At first I thought it was nothing but then I felt another one straight after. I looked around and you could see it in every ones face, it was starting to rain. Blaz quickly ran back to our pit area and grabbed the rain rims to get the rain tires ready. Once again Parc Ferme was in complete chaos. Blaz made quick work of mounting the rain tires but we left the slick tires mounted on the chassis because even though it was raining, there was not enough water on the track to be able to use wets. Usually in the 8 minute Qualifying Practice, you will see most drivers wait for the first couple minutes to go out on track but with the weather coming it was full gas once the green flag was waved and the track opened for the session.
The rain was not as steady as before but the track was still slick and it was hard to get heat into the tires. After two laps the track started drying and heat started to build and the times dropped considerably. I noticed, compared to many drivers, my pace was quite good and better then most. After I had put in a really good lap for the conditions I saw more rain on my visor and I thought the next lap would be it before the rain started to come down hard. I had a driver in front of me but had enough distance that I would not catch him during the lap, but then he looked back and suddenly slowed down. Not only did he slow down, he blocked me from getting past him and I almost had to go into the grass to avoid hitting him. Once back in control of my kart, the driver was still in front of me and to let him know that I was really unhappy about his actions on the corner before, I decided not to even think about braking into the next corner and push him straight off the track. With that out of the way and being able to check the front bumper durability off our list, the rain had stopped and the track was completely dry. The last laps of the session were extremely crucial as the track was getting faster and faster by the second. At the sessions end, I was classified 8th in my group, three-tenths off the pole man, whom happened to be the driver I earlier pushed off. I guess I should have done it a bit harder. The only problem due to the rain, the times where a bit slower than the first group but not slow enough to mix the groups so in total I was classified 27th overall. Some times luck is on your side but for all the drivers in Qualifying Practice Group 2, myself included, it was not and it saw a lot of fast drivers starting near the back during the Qualifying Heats.
The rain had started to come down pretty heavy right after the end of our session but we had two hours before our first heat so it was better to grab some lunch and just wait and see what the weather was going to do. The rain did not last long and the track was drying quickly due to all the KZ2 Qualifying heats that were running through out the day. After a quick look over of the kart and a good look inside the engine, we decided not to change anything for the first heat if the weather stayed dry. We still had a good amount of time before we had to return to Parc Ferme, so we searched our pit area high and low for the transponder card. After a good 30 minutes of all three of us looking, it was still no where to be found. Dino even went to the extent of emptying the garbage can out on the floor and going though every piece of trash to find it. It was a complete mystery. It was there one minute and then all of a sudden gone the next. I even started to wonder if there was another driver in the KF1 class that was also the number 29 and came in our pit and took it. We all started thinking of crazy things because, I mean, the thing just vanished into thin air! Dino went to the FIA to explain what had happened and smoothed everything out and the officials were informed of our situation, so we would not have any problems going through Parc Ferme.
 | Gary on track in Germany
(Photo: Chris Walker - kartpix.net) |
The weather had turned sunny in time for the start of the first Qualifying Heat and I was eager to finally get out and do some wheel to wheel racing. To be honest, I do not remember what my starting position was for the two Qualifying Heats but I want to say it was around 17th-19th position (Editors Note: Ninth row, outside for both heats so 18th). When the lights went out, I got a great jump off the line and by the time we rounded the long and fast first corner, I had picked up a good amount of positions. Just after the first corner is a very tight hairpin and with the track being so small and narrow, there was bound to be a pile up. I was able to get in the right lane that would have gotten me past the crash, but with all the chaos another driver ended up driving up and over the rear of my kart, taking out my exhaust and ending my heat before it really even started. The damage was an easy fix once back under the tent and being we had made a corner and half during the last race, there was no reason to make any changes to our set-up. We did have some luck going for us as there was not too much damage, because it seemed like we had just come back from the first heat and it was already time to head back to the Parc Ferme for the second heat.
I would start from the same position as the first and again got off the line with a great jump on the start. The only thing was, I was squeezed by the row in front of me and when I let up, I lost all the spots I had gained. The Pro Kart Circuit made for some really rough driving in the first couple laps, being the track was - in my opinion and many other drivers - too small for a big race like this with the power KZ style karts. I found myself in the wrong place twice during the opening laps and fell back even further than where I had started. With the track as it is, many tight and twisty sections, it is not the easiest circuit for overtaking and requires a lot of side by side "nerfing" on others to make it through the packs. I ended up 14th after it was all said and done, which was nothing to write home about but our pace was very good as our best laps were faster than the winner of the heat. Having a dead last finish in the first heat and a sub-par finish in the second, there was a really good chance I would have to get into the Finals through the Last Chance Qualifying race.
Once we finished up the normal cleaning and inspection of the karts, we headed down to the restaurant to grab a bite to eat and see what our ranking was at the days end. A quick look on the information board and we had not yet qualified for the Finals, forcing me to start the Last Chance Qualifier from the 5th position. It would be only the second Last Chance race that I could remember being in and to be honest, I was a bit nervous about it since the last one I raced I had my engine stick just two laps into the race, watching the Finals from the stands. But starting 5th and having the top six drivers transfer into the Finals, I was confident with no bad luck or me doing something silly, we would be in the Finals come Sunday afternoon. After finding a table to sit, the whole team, including the IAME Engine tuners, we thought we could get the normal service we had been given throughout the whole week. But after waiting an hour and having to ask the waitress more than three times to at least clean our table off from the party that had used it before, Dino had seen enough and took charge of the situation. After a very brief discussion with the waitress and Blaz stepping in because he was the only one that could speak German, we were finally served by a very unpleasant German girl that probably spit in our food. I hope I don’t offend any German people that might read this diary, but at least with all the people I had dealings with in the Wackersdorf area, I have come to the opinion the German people are not very nice people to deal with. I can understand that there are language barriers and we are staying in their country, but I think when you are working at an international event like the European Championships, you would know what you are dealing with and make an effort to be more hospitable. After a quick look on the television to see the next day’s weather report, which was all sunshine, I knocked out for the night.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
I was able to sleep straight thru the night and wake up again feeling better than the day before. After a wicked hot shower to loosen up my right shoulder, I packed up my bag and we said goodbye to the hotel reception lady that informed us we were going to miss a great night of Italian food, which really made me want to stay...or not. For some reason, Italian food made by German people does not seem the same when you can get the real thing at home. But we did stay for breakfast and once everyone was filled up we headed off to the track.
 | A look at the mobile station for IAME
(Photo: garycarlton.us) |
When we arrived at the track, we did everything as we normally do. Open up the tent, take off the kart covers, fill the water jug with water, get the engines from the IAME van, and tape the current day's program to the tent...wait what the hell is that…The bloody transponder card! When Blaz went to take yesterday’s program down and put up Sunday’s, he noticed the transponder card was stuck to the piece of tape holding up the program. After a good laugh, we asked who had put up the program. Everyone was silent and then Dino finally gave in and admitted it was him. The card was lying on the work bench like we had all seen it when we started the day, but when Dino went to tape the program to the tent; the card stuck to the back of the tape, and then was placed against the tent where no one could find it. Bravo Dino, bravo.
It was one of the funnier moments of the weekend and without having to call Scooby Doo and his Mystery Gang, we finally found the stupid transponder card. When we came into Parc Ferme for the morning Warm-Up, Blaz explained to the officials our little story and for some reason they didn’t think it was as funny as we did but hey, we did find it and bring it back, The Warm-up went without any problems and the balance of the chassis felt the best it had all weekend and we quickly turned around and got everything ready for the Last Chance Qualifier.
I would start 5th on the grid and with the top six drivers transferring into the Finals, so the only goal for the race was to qualify. I was able to get a good start and after the first lap I was sitting in third. The driver ahead of me was quite slow so I made a move the second lap and passed him easily. With everything in control, the driver made a crazy re-pass on me in the next corner that slowed us both down and allowed the first place driver to pull far ahead and let the rest of the pack catch right up to our rear bumpers. I quickly re-passed him back with him giving me trouble, letting me through the corner which let everyone behind us catch up even more. It wasn't the best tactics on his part because he did not have enough speed to qualify, but I’m sure if he would have just let me go and stayed behind me he would have had enough gap to keep ahead of the others to be able to qualify. I ran second the rest of the race and just kept a constant pace not wanting to do anything silly. Winning or finishing 6th makes no difference when you’re in a Last Chance race. The only thing that matters is if you’re in those 6 positions. We crossed the line second and most importantly, we went through the scales and tech with no problems meaning we were qualified for the Finals of the European Championship.
After the final heats of the KZ2 category was the Drivers Presentation. In many races in the States, the Drivers Presentation is something you really don’t look forward to and is quite boring but the CIK-FIA does it a bit different than most. Instead of standing next to your teammates, they divide the drivers into the country you represent. Even though it has always been a dream of mine to live and race here in Europe, especially Italy, I am extremely proud of being an American and representing where I come from. Normally, I am the only driver flying the American colors and I make sure I do not miss any Drivers Presentations when I race outside the States. They had a lot of very good looking girls holding each countries flag and sign and I am always proud to stand next to my USA sign even though at this race they gave me a girl corner worker instead of an umbrella girl dressed in spandex like all the rest. Hey, you win some, you loose some right?
After the Drivers Presentation it was time to get ready for the Pre-Final. On my way back to my tent, I saw a very familiar face in American karting, Tom Kutscher from Superkarts! USA. It was great seeing him and catching up on what’s going on back States side. I have always had a lot of respect for Tom and his SKUSA crew as you can see why the SuperNationals is now one of the biggest races in the World. It takes a lot of dedication to build what he has and seeing him come over to these races just to speak with the factory teams to accommodate them better when they come to his race is really cool to see. I have to say after chatting with Tom, I already can’t wait for this year’s race.
Once back under the tent, Dino had come up with a strategy for us to maximize our end result for the weekend. Being the Final is the only thing that counted for the whole weekend and knowing we were starting too far back to get a top 5 result, we had opted to see if I could get into the top 20 in the first few laps of the Pre-Final and if not, we would come in to save our tires for the Final. Everyone would start the Pre-Final with new tires, so no one has an advantage but going into the Final with 15 less laps on your tires can have a huge advantage in the first few laps of the Final, which as I said before, was the only thing that counted. I slipped the clutch a little too long for the start of the Pre-Final and did not gain any spots coming into the first corner. The first lap was hectic as usual but there was no big pile ups or people crashing each other out so I did two laps running slow just to break in the new tires and pulled off. After seeing the tires of the drivers that had finished the whole Pre-Final, it was looking like we had made a good choice and with some luck, we could maybe be able to pull out a top 15 finish for the weekend.
I would start the Final of the 2011 CIK-FIA European Championship on the last row of the grid in the 33rd position. You know your far back on the grid when you can barely see the starting lights and your row is not even worthy of an umbrella girl. After our two warm-up laps, we all lined up and I was the last kart to come into my position. I did not even have to put my kart into the neutral gear because by the time I had parked in my starting box, the starting lights sequence had already started. I made my best start of the weekend and immediately gained a few positions before we all headed into the first corner. I was able to navigate myself through the first corner pile up while picking off a few more positions. Once everyone was somewhat in order, my new tires were giving me a huge advantage. I was able to brake much later than the others, which made it easier for me to overtake. In the first few laps, I was able to pick off two drivers per lap and my pace was very good.
The way the track was laid out, the racing was really rough and we all were doing our fair share of bumping and leaning on each other. I was steadily moving forward and how the race was shaking out, it had seemed we had made a great decision for our situation. I really have no idea what position I was in at the time but Blaz said it was around the 19th or 20th coming into what I think was the 12th or 13th lap. I had made a really aggressive pass on another driver coming into the hard braking zone of the second corner. Not wanting to give up his position he gave me a good hit from the back and I went very wide collecting a lot of marbles and clag onto my tires. Racing in Europe, you get a lot of rolled up rubber outside the racing line and if you get on the far outside it can take up to two laps before you get your tires clean again. With all the debris on my tires and getting hung out on the outside of the double right hander, I lost many positions. Once I got my tires clean, I started picking off as many drivers as I could.
 | Reigning KF2 world champion and current point leader Nyck De Vries with the IAME crew
(Photo: garycarlton.us) |
The problem was, there were now gaps in between the groups, in turn making it harder to catch up. I was moving steadily forward with a good pace when coming into the tight second corner hairpin, I was again ran over by another driver, making me lose all the spots I had just gained. Once back in control, I could feel something holding back the kart and a huge decrease in power. I finished the lap and decided it was best to come into the pits to see what might have been broken. I speeded down the narrow pit lane and Blaz was already down in the repair area waiting. The plastic rear bumper had been pushed inside of the rear tire which we both thought was the reason for the decrease of the power. When I came back out on the track at the back of the pack, I noticed the power of the engine, even though better than before, was still much less than usual. I did two laps but my pace was now over one second slower than before and could feel something was not right, so I headed back to the repair area. With all the problems that we had before when I came off the track, I went a lap down putting us out of the race. Once we put the kart onto the stand we noticed that the heat deflector for the exhaust silencer had been hit and it was completely blocking the exhaust, which explained the loss in power. It was a disappointing end to another weekend filled with promise but ended with bad luck. I wish I could have at least finished the race in any position being I have yet to see a checkered flag during a Final in 2011.
Once back in our pit area we made quick work of getting everything packed up and into the van. I loved our "American Style" tent even more this time around because we were able to take it down and pack it into the van in a matter of minutes. After everything was packed and the back door of the van was shut, we headed down to the restaurant at the track for the last time. Dino and Blaz opted to skip out and start their drive home so it would be only myself and all the IAME engine tuners. Once we sat down I saw the waitress from the night before walking towards our table. Could it be? Yes she was going to be our server for the night. She did not look pleased to see us and now that Blaz and Dino had left to go home, we had lost our German speaking people. But luckily she spoke good enough English and now I had become the translator for all of us. After a little flirting and a few complements, the waitress had a whole different attitude towards our group and we received great service the whole evening. I was just happy knowing our food probably didn’t have spit in it!
For the ride home I would not be traveling with Dino but with the number one guy of research and development in IAME, Andrea Bossaglia. Andrea comes to every race and over looks everything we do and is a huge part of the IAME Engine program. Being that he would be passing through Desenzano, it was perfect that I could get a ride from him so Dino did not have to go out of his way to drop me off. It was really neat getting to speak with Andrea about different things and I was able to get a better insight about how the IAME factory works and the other departments that they are involved in. Here I am, being a factory supported IAME driver and I did not even know they build engines for Mini Moto bikes and many other aspects of Motorsports. It was a late arrival into Desenzano and once I got into my room with all my stuff, the clock had just turned to 3:00 am. Once in bed all, I could think about was the next race in La Conca. After a rough weekend like we had, I was really glad I only had one week to wait before we get to race again and I am ready to get back out there and give 100% moving forward. On to La Conca!
To One Very Special Family
I would like to take this opportunity and the time to send out my love and thoughts to the entire Speed family during these difficult times. The Speed family is some of the very first people that I had met during my first years of karting and I have been extremely lucky to become close with them. They have been a huge part of my karting life and friends for all these years. I cannot thank them enough for all their support and love they have given me and I will cherish every moment I got to spend with their loved ones. To Mike, Scott, Alex, Amanda, Jackie and the rest of the Speed family, I send out my deepest condolences and just wanted to say “I love you guys and I’m always thinking about you”. |
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