This past weekend I ran the inaugural Texas Lonestar Grand Prix. It was my first street race, first national race, first race somewhere other than North Texas Kartway, and only my ninth race ever. My dad and I put a lot of effort into this race beginning in January all the way up until two in the morning the day we left to go to the race. We got my kart together and loaded the truck up at two o'clock in the morning Friday and left at eight to get to the track and set up. Once at the track we had a lot of time to unload the kart and just focus on getting our minds ready for Saturdays first practice session. At five on Friday afternoon we were able to finally walk around the track and figure out our plan and decide what final changes we needed to make to the kart. Upon walking the track we got to see just how rough the track was. We knew right away that this race was going to be fast, difficult, and dangerous.
On Saturday morning I went out for the first practice at 9:15am. Once on the track I began to build confidence in my kart and the track. It was bumpy but manageable. Each turn required you to drive a perfect line or you would be headed to the back either from going slow or crashing but that made this race so much fun! After eight minutes of balls-to-the-wall, edge-of-your-seat, hang-on-for-dear-life driving, we finally came in. I went straight back to the pits to start working on getting my kart faster for the second practice. Once I found a few minutes of free time I went to check the practice results. Third. There were 22 drivers in my class and I was the third fastest! The only two faster than me were rolling in with huge budgets and racing shifter karts and have full trailers full of parts and a full team to help support them. I rolled in with a pickup and open trailer with a small tool chest and an old kart. You bet I was excited for this weekend!
After wrenching away for a couple of hours it was time to head back out to the track for the second practice. Extremely excited, nothing was going to get in my way! Except maybe a thrown chain. On the very first lap, all of my tires got in the air and my rear wheels spooled up so fast that my chain went flying off. I would sit and watch my class race for the next eight minutes while I was behind a wall. I got back to the pits to get my chain back on but when nothing was lining up we knew it was time for a new chain because this one was ruined.
I went back out a couple hours later for the third and final practice before qualifying and AGAIN threw my chain on the first lap. I could not believe what was happening! I got back to the pits after the practice session ended and began trying to decide what to do. I could not lose my chain during the next session because that would mean I start dead last for the pre-final. My dad and the rest of the Lochner Racing team began getting the kart ready for qualifying and hoped the fix for the chain was what we needed to run all of qualifying without losing the chain.
After only getting four actual laps of practice while almost everyone else had over ten laps, I went out for qualifying and pushed the kart as hard as it would let me. I wanted to be sure to have a clear track ahead of me so I went out first. I was wishing I had gone out last though because I did not know how strong the draft was. You could go down the straightaways and reel someone in so fast with the long, high speed straights. Without a draft I managed to run a 1:43.xxx lap which was good enough for fifth place out of twenty two karts. There were three drivers within a couple tenths running a 1:41.xxx lap and one driver less than a tenth ahead of myself. Knowing that I have a great kart, I can run consistent times (I was the most consistent driver in my class both sessions I ran the full time in), and that I was able to pull up to and pass one of the drivers that ran the 1:41.xxx lap time, I was definitely excited for what I could do during the last three sessions of the weekend.
On Sunday we got up early to go over everything on the kart, get the oil changed, and just get ready for the big event. We got gridded up for the warm up session and were ready to go. Although I qualified ahead of Kevin, I still was not sure how he was getting through a couple of turns so quickly because I missed two of the three practice sessions. I decided I was going to follow him and see what I could do to learn the track better but on the first lap at full speed disaster struck. Kevin and I both hit the barriers in turn three hard and broke a lot of parts on our karts and bent even more parts up. I was ok, not even startled by what just happened even though i fell out of my kart, but Kevin was lying face down in the middle of the track about ten feet from his kart. I went running over to check in with him and thankfully he was ok and got up under his own power. Neither of us were injured very bad, Kevin had a couple scrapes and bruises and I had a sore shoulder.
We both returned to the pits and neither one of us wanted to go back out. But after some encouragement from my dad we started working on our karts to get ready for the final which was only five or six hours away by that point. I will be honest, I refused to go back out, my dad refused to let me sit out. Simply put, with him being the dad, he won.
Because we missed the pre final, which determines the starting order for the final event, Kevin and I both had to start at the rear of the field. Kevin started sixteenth but moved up to fourteenth because another driver had a hard time getting on track and I started seventeenth out of the seventeen karts that ran the final. Going into turn one, I was right behind Coy Dayton who sat on the pole but lost a chain during the pre final moving him to the rear, and beside Tommy Muth of Texas Karts who qualified second but was in a wreck in the last turn on the last lap of the pre final sending him to the back of the field. this means that four of the top six karts in qualifying would start on the last two rows. In turn one I was able to follow Coy and pass three drivers in the first turn. Turn two was completely covered in karts when Coy got into Joe Criswell causing both to spin right in front of me causing me to go off track into the hay bales. I kept my kart running and began to fight my way back up to the rest of the field. I was now in fifteenth and heading back to the turn where I had wrecked just a few hours before. I went through turn three faster than I had all weekend and the kart stuck! I was so pumped up by this point. I began catching a few of the drivers off the pace and made my way up to around twelfth by the end of the first lap. I now had to drive hard to be able to catch and then pass drivers. I was taking my kart beyond what I thought were its limits and made up some serious ground on the rest of the field. Over the course of the next two laps I had worked my way all the way up to sixth place. Then disaster struck again. I began losing power, oil was spraying everywhere, and people I had just blown by were catching back up. After fighting up through the field with over half the race still to go and the leaders in my sight, my motor let go and I was finished for the day.
It was a disappointing way to end the weekend but those things happen in racing. I have an awesome engine builder who I will be in touch with a lot over the next two weeks preparing for my next race and I have an awesome group of people who stand behind me and support me more than I deserve. I wish I could have finished the race because if the race had ended the lap before I retired, I would have finished fourth because the top two finishers were disqualified. And had my engine been running well there is no telling where I could have finished! But the racing is done for now and it is time to move on because the results are official, I finished seventeenth, Coy dayton fought back from his first lap crash to win, Kevin fought from the back of the field up to the front to finish second, Tommy fought carburetor issues throughout the final to work his way up to fourth, and Austin Hunter had to deal with me spraying oil all over his visor and kart before my engine let go to finish fifth. Congratulations to all of the top five chonda drivers who overcame adversity to end up with and awesome finish this weekend!
The Texas Lonestar Grand Prix was the most fun racing I have ever experienced. White knuckle driving, high speeds, and all of the other characteristics of the racing came together to get me addicted to street racing. I look forward to racing against all of the chonda racers I raced for the first against again in the future and cant wait to get back to North Texas Kartway to race in the Chonda Light class again this year! And finally, if there is a street race in north Texas and there is a chonda class, look for the Lochner Racing team because we will be there!
After wrenching away for a couple of hours it was time to head back out to the track for the second practice. Extremely excited, nothing was going to get in my way! Except maybe a thrown chain. On the very first lap, all of my tires got in the air and my rear wheels spooled up so fast that my chain went flying off. I would sit and watch my class race for the next eight minutes while I was behind a wall. I got back to the pits to get my chain back on but when nothing was lining up we knew it was time for a new chain because this one was ruined.
I went back out a couple hours later for the third and final practice before qualifying and AGAIN threw my chain on the first lap. I could not believe what was happening! I got back to the pits after the practice session ended and began trying to decide what to do. I could not lose my chain during the next session because that would mean I start dead last for the pre-final. My dad and the rest of the Lochner Racing team began getting the kart ready for qualifying and hoped the fix for the chain was what we needed to run all of qualifying without losing the chain.
After only getting four actual laps of practice while almost everyone else had over ten laps, I went out for qualifying and pushed the kart as hard as it would let me. I wanted to be sure to have a clear track ahead of me so I went out first. I was wishing I had gone out last though because I did not know how strong the draft was. You could go down the straightaways and reel someone in so fast with the long, high speed straights. Without a draft I managed to run a 1:43.xxx lap which was good enough for fifth place out of twenty two karts. There were three drivers within a couple tenths running a 1:41.xxx lap and one driver less than a tenth ahead of myself. Knowing that I have a great kart, I can run consistent times (I was the most consistent driver in my class both sessions I ran the full time in), and that I was able to pull up to and pass one of the drivers that ran the 1:41.xxx lap time, I was definitely excited for what I could do during the last three sessions of the weekend.
On Sunday we got up early to go over everything on the kart, get the oil changed, and just get ready for the big event. We got gridded up for the warm up session and were ready to go. Although I qualified ahead of Kevin, I still was not sure how he was getting through a couple of turns so quickly because I missed two of the three practice sessions. I decided I was going to follow him and see what I could do to learn the track better but on the first lap at full speed disaster struck. Kevin and I both hit the barriers in turn three hard and broke a lot of parts on our karts and bent even more parts up. I was ok, not even startled by what just happened even though i fell out of my kart, but Kevin was lying face down in the middle of the track about ten feet from his kart. I went running over to check in with him and thankfully he was ok and got up under his own power. Neither of us were injured very bad, Kevin had a couple scrapes and bruises and I had a sore shoulder.
We both returned to the pits and neither one of us wanted to go back out. But after some encouragement from my dad we started working on our karts to get ready for the final which was only five or six hours away by that point. I will be honest, I refused to go back out, my dad refused to let me sit out. Simply put, with him being the dad, he won.
Because we missed the pre final, which determines the starting order for the final event, Kevin and I both had to start at the rear of the field. Kevin started sixteenth but moved up to fourteenth because another driver had a hard time getting on track and I started seventeenth out of the seventeen karts that ran the final. Going into turn one, I was right behind Coy Dayton who sat on the pole but lost a chain during the pre final moving him to the rear, and beside Tommy Muth of Texas Karts who qualified second but was in a wreck in the last turn on the last lap of the pre final sending him to the back of the field. this means that four of the top six karts in qualifying would start on the last two rows. In turn one I was able to follow Coy and pass three drivers in the first turn. Turn two was completely covered in karts when Coy got into Joe Criswell causing both to spin right in front of me causing me to go off track into the hay bales. I kept my kart running and began to fight my way back up to the rest of the field. I was now in fifteenth and heading back to the turn where I had wrecked just a few hours before. I went through turn three faster than I had all weekend and the kart stuck! I was so pumped up by this point. I began catching a few of the drivers off the pace and made my way up to around twelfth by the end of the first lap. I now had to drive hard to be able to catch and then pass drivers. I was taking my kart beyond what I thought were its limits and made up some serious ground on the rest of the field. Over the course of the next two laps I had worked my way all the way up to sixth place. Then disaster struck again. I began losing power, oil was spraying everywhere, and people I had just blown by were catching back up. After fighting up through the field with over half the race still to go and the leaders in my sight, my motor let go and I was finished for the day.
It was a disappointing way to end the weekend but those things happen in racing. I have an awesome engine builder who I will be in touch with a lot over the next two weeks preparing for my next race and I have an awesome group of people who stand behind me and support me more than I deserve. I wish I could have finished the race because if the race had ended the lap before I retired, I would have finished fourth because the top two finishers were disqualified. And had my engine been running well there is no telling where I could have finished! But the racing is done for now and it is time to move on because the results are official, I finished seventeenth, Coy dayton fought back from his first lap crash to win, Kevin fought from the back of the field up to the front to finish second, Tommy fought carburetor issues throughout the final to work his way up to fourth, and Austin Hunter had to deal with me spraying oil all over his visor and kart before my engine let go to finish fifth. Congratulations to all of the top five chonda drivers who overcame adversity to end up with and awesome finish this weekend!
The Texas Lonestar Grand Prix was the most fun racing I have ever experienced. White knuckle driving, high speeds, and all of the other characteristics of the racing came together to get me addicted to street racing. I look forward to racing against all of the chonda racers I raced for the first against again in the future and cant wait to get back to North Texas Kartway to race in the Chonda Light class again this year! And finally, if there is a street race in north Texas and there is a chonda class, look for the Lochner Racing team because we will be there!