Payton Westcott traveled to Valencia, Spain for the second stop for Champions of the Future Academy Program (Photo: Payton Westcott Racing)

The EKN Driver Diary returns for 2024 with a focus of international competition for a driver from the United States of America. California driver Payton Westcott is taking part in the new Champions of the Future Academy Program. The six event series is based around the ‘arrive and drive’ concept, promoted and hosted by RGMMC. The OK-N Senior and OK-N Junior categories competing on Kart Republic / IAME entries with the Mini 60 all aboard Parolin / TM machines.

Payton is among the rising stars in the Junior ranks here in the USA, earning her first victories at the California ProKart Challenge this season while finishing third in the championship standings for Challenge of the Americas.

Westcott is providing EKN with a look into her travel and weekend competing at the Champions of the Future Academy Program. The first event was held on March 27-31 at the Kartodromo Cremona Circuit in Italy, with her first entry available HERE. Below is her second entry on the trip to the Lucas Guerrero Karting Circuit in Valencia, Spain over the May 10-12 weekend.

Travel

The octopus plate! (Photo: Payton Westcott Racing)

My parents and I boarded the first of two flights to Valencia, Spain on Wednesday May 8, arriving via London on Thursday the 9th. We arrived at our hotel in the evening and had a great meal – served on some very odd dishes – My dad and I teased my mom that we were going to get this octopus shaped plate – and quickly got to sleep.

Friday, May 10, 2024

We had about a 40-minute drive to the track; however, we went to the wrong track first, which took a little more time…because someone (could have been a parent) refused to do a U-turn in the middle of the street and ended up driving many more miles in the wrong direction.

We arrived at the Lucas Guerrero track just after 1pm and Matt, my mechanic, had already selected our pit spot. The series was much more lenient about pit spots this go around – with each of us selecting our own and being mixed amongst classes. This was great because we were able to see our old pit mates and meet new ones too. Having said that, my one pit mate was new to the series and aside from sharing some oranges, there was not a lot of conversation. Same too with our other pit mate.

After participating in the engine lottery and picking up tires, we started to work on the kart and then took our time doing a track walk. Matt enjoyed my show of a British accent during our track walk. He was impressed I was able to go the whole length of the track without breaking character. Compared with the last race weekend, I only had one day with five driving sessions to come up to speed. The track was impressive with speed and technical areas.

The Formula Medicine crew was on-site to teach us about nutrition. The presentation lasted about 45 minutes and was followed by a review game – which I won. The presentation centered around when to eat and what to eat to maximize performance on track. While we eat clean at home, the information about how long each type of macro takes to digest was great and will be helpful moving forward.

Friday’s practice sessions were quick. We had a single 15-minute session followed by four 12-minute sessions. Those of us who raced in Cremona were able to use our race tires from Cremona for the first session while those who had not raced in Cremona had to use their new tires. I struggled with pace and the track Friday, but we were allowed to have cameras on our karts and one of the other drivers was generous enough to review my video. This was her home track, and she knew it extremely well and the advice she provided was excellent.

My parents decided to visit the grocery store about 20 minutes away to get food for snacks and lunch. The food was amazing with freshly baked breads, all kinds of prosciutto and cheeses, and fruits and vegetables.

After getting to the hotel Friday night, we walked around Valencia, did some shopping and then we walked to a traditional Spanish restaurant for Seafood Paella. The City of Valencia is vibrant at night. Everyone was out walking, eating, drinking, shopping, and just hanging out. The sidewalks were packed. The sightseeing was incredible too. We had a reservation at 8pm, which is when the restaurant opened, and while we were not the only ones there, it was clear the majority didn’t eat until much later.

Saturday, May 11, 2024

Westcott reviewing onboard footage (Photo: Payton Westcott Racing)

We took an early morning walk to see more of the city. It was incredible. The city has a park that runs through the center for runners, walkers, bike riders, and dogs so you don’t have to deal with traffic – which there was a lot of. We saw the more modern architecture in Valencia, including the Museums of Science, Oceanography, the Arts Center, and the Aquarium. The buildings were incredible, and they were primarily surrounded by reflecting pools.

After the walk, we got ready to go to the track for our first race day. The race days are structured the same for every race, with a quick warm-up, qualifying, two heats, and a main. We arrived at the track in plenty of time and got ready for the day.

Unlike Cremona, the weather was sunny and warm. A few clouds rolled in midday which would then later open a bit in our final heat of the day. I did not do well in qualifying and while the schedule was the same from Cremona to Valencia, because the weather was so different, the European drivers behaved very differently. We had a six-minute qualifying session; however, about 90% of the field waited for just over 4 minutes of the qualifying session on grid, allowing for one to two laps for qualifying.

I continued to struggle Saturday. In the first heat I managed to move up 11 spots in before getting helped into the grass and only gaining five spots back. In the second heat, I moved up five spots, but the overall result was not great. During the qualifying and heats, we are not allowed to use a camera and warnings are provided on track through a screen we pass at the start finish. This screen also displays how many laps are left. Almost as soon as we are off track for each session, penalties have been assigned and they cannot be contested. Finally in the main I moved up five spots to finish 22nd.

Saturday after the race we turned in our engine, cleaned up the kart and picked up our tires for Sunday.

Saturday night after getting back to the hotel, we walked to dinner again. Valencia is packed with so many restaurants and everything is open much later than in the US. We decided on sushi and ate outside. Outside dining is essentially on the sidewalk so all the shoppers, students, families, and others are walking by. Next to our restaurant was an apartment building with a constant stream of people and very old dogs coming and going.

Sunday, May 12, 2024

Downtown Valencia was unique and made for great morning or evening walks (Photo: Payton Westcott Racing)

Sunday morning meant we were up and off to the track early, with extra time set aside to shove all our bags into the tiny rental car. We had decided to fly to London Sunday night to start the trip home since I needed to be back in school Tuesday and on a plane Wednesday to USPKS in North Carolina. Before warm-up we made some adjustments on the kart. The adjustments were good, so we kept them for the remainder of the day.

Unfortunately, the day would not go well. Qualifying was ok and I was excited to make progress in the heats; however, that was not to happen. Things only got worse in the Main when an incident in front of me would cause me to watch almost the entire race from the infield. After returning our material, we went back to the airport for a late but quick flight to London and then on to Los Angeles on Monday.

Spain is incredible and the track was great. The people were fantastic, and I was able to practice my Spanish. My pit mate from the first two rounds was on the podium both Saturday and Sunday so that was great too. I’m excited to go back one day to see how I’ve progressed.

Rounds Five and Six will be in Franciacorta, Italy. We are taking a different approach to the remainder of the Series, which is to include a Driver Coach, and to go to Franciacorta early to test. The series does not allow a driver on the track two weeks prior to a race which makes it challenging because I’m based in the US, but we will fly over right after the 4th of July to test for three days, before racing there July 26-28.

Payton Westcott Social Media

Instagram: @paytonwestcott

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