The team was at sharp end of the field at the Carolina Grand Prix in every category entered. After the dust settled we came away with 3 podiums including a 1st in micro, 3rd in mini and 3rd in x30 jr.

Micro was as dominant as you can get with Parker Ives sweeping the weekend and nearly the season. It came down to 1 event (round 4) missing the tuning on the carburetor that hurt the chance at a perfect season. That is one of the most impressive runs I have seen in this category.

In mini Michael Mcgaughy was fighting for the win in all 3 heats as well as the final. He ended up p2 in the championship and p3 in the final.

In x30 jr Davin Roberts took a massive step forward and was able to contend at the front all weekend showing really good speed the entire time. Davin was also up front in ka jr. Ending p12 in the final after running as high as 6th. This momentum will carry into next season as this was the last national event of the year for him.

Additional top 10s recorded by William Kim in mini after having to fight back from a difficult qualifying session and a bad heat, Brandon Carr in the highly contested x30 sr category. Ka sr Josh Campbell struggled to find speed early, but was closing the gap throughout the weekend. It was difficult to find his way to the front with qualifying out of the top 20. But managed to drive forward to p10 in the final and found good speed throughout the heats.

It is worth to note that both Parker Stewart and Camila Canache were well within the top 10 in the final, it just didn’t work out in the end. Riley Dobbelaer had a positive moment going p2 in one of the warmups. She struggled to find pace which made it difficult to get toward the front. Luke Giglio and Gabriel Lopez-Velarde showed good speed in mini. Gabriel was involved in a lap one incident in the final while Giglio drove to 12th. Cameron Marsha was a front runner all week but was shuffled back in the final. In x30 sr Brian Garcia showed improvement all week. I look forward to seeing what he can do the next time out. Alexander Young was caught up in a lap one incident, but also showed some good speed at times on the weekend.

Last but certainly not least, Jared Clarke was solidly in contention as he continued to improve pace each time on track. Qualifying saw the steering hub to shaft bolt break. Not being taped it came out. Losing the steering after lap one. Not producing a lap, qualifying almost dead last. P57. First heat saw Jared drive from 27th to nearly top 10 before getting caught up in a wreck in front of him resulting in a crash that destroyed the kart and fractured elbow. After missing the 2nd heat due to being at the hospital, the team built up another chassis just in case. 3rd heat came from last to as high up as 14th finding pace at the end of the session after having to get used to the replacement kart. Bumper penalty ended up 18th. Coming from the lcq opting to run used tires Jared finished 2nd on track. 3rd after a half push back. Unfortunately having to start from the rear means that there are bigger risks of being caught up in the lap 1 chaos. Lap one, out for Jared. He showed a tremendous amount of heart to come back and race even after having bruised ribs and a fractured elbow. He will bounce back stronger.