I race three types of cars. A Senior Animal has a Briggs and Stratton motor with a golden restrictor plate. A Light 160 has a Honda 160 motor with a driver under 100 pounds and no restrictor plate. A Senior Honda is a Honda 120 motor with a driver under 100 pounds. I like the Sr. Animal the best because it is the fastest. Lately, the Light 160 has given us the most trouble. Last week it was making noises and wouldn’t start in the B Main because of the spark plug. The Sr. Honda is in pieces and we use parts off of it for the other two cars. It was broken, and then Dad and I decided to concentrate on the other two divisions.

This year’s racing season is tough! There are more experienced drivers and more drivers. Some weeks, the Sr. Honda division is so big that there is a D Main. That means that there are more drivers than there are spaces on the track to race. If you don’t qualify for the A Main, you have to try to race up through all those other mains. This is hard because the Sr. Honda drivers are really good. Some of the kids in this division go to tracks in other states and do really well.
Things started out pretty good. I made it into the A Mains for all three of my divisions during the first week of the season! For a couple of weeks, I either qualified for the A Mains or I raced in from the B Main. But, as the season went on, we started to have some trouble. Sometimes I wasn’t consistent. Sometimes we had car trouble. It is always exciting! One week, I started tenth in the Sr. Animal. I followed another driver all the way up to fourth! The car was really loose (which means that it wanted to spin out). I got passed twice, but was able to catch up to people in the corners. I bumped bumpers with somebody and then I spun out! During the yellow light, I was sent to the end of the line. There was a green, white, checkered finish and I finished second to last. Another thing that was cool about this season was when I got to be the flag carrier. Before the features start, somebody goes around the track in their car with the American Flag duct-taped to their car during The National Anthem. Not every kid gets to do this, but I got to do it twice. I did it when I was a rookie and I got to do it again this year. It made me happy to be able to do it again.

Last week was hard. We had a two day race weekend. It was the Family Fun Weekend at Little T. It was the last race of the year in the Northeast Series Championship. That meant that there were racers from New York, New Jersey, and even Florida! We did not race the Honda because there were a lot of cars in the division, and it was torn apart. In my heat for the Sr. Animal I was up to 4th, and could have passed the kid in front of me. I lifted because I didn’t think I could get past him without hitting him. If I had been able to get past him, I would have automatically made the A Main. Instead, I had to go into the B Main. In the B Main, I started second and was passed by two drivers. Then I spun out and was sent to the back. Because it was later in the day, the track had changed and the Animal was loose. I got sent to the back for spinning and couldn’t work my way up to get into the A Main. In my heat race for the Light 160, I started fourth and worked my way up to second, but something went wrong with the motor. It started making popping noises and the motor slowed down. I didn’t make the A Main or the B Main. Daddy and Craig didn’t know what was wrong with the car. In the C main, things seemed better and I made it to the B main. A car spun out in front of me and I couldn’t miss him, so I bumped into him. The car wouldn’t start up because a spark plug fell out and I didn’t make it to the A main. Because I didn’t get into an A Main, I did not get to race the next day. That made me sad. There are a few more two day races at the track left this season and I hope I make the A Mains.

So far we have had two lemonade stands for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. We are going to have another one soon. The Lemonade Stands were a success! Our first one was at Promotional Day in June. Promotional Day is when kids come to Little T to try racing to see if they like it. I worked at the stand with Dad and about five other racers. We raised about $40 and had a lot of fun. Our second stand was in July. Mom and Anna came to the track to help. It was a really hot day and we had some really cold lemonade. Dad had to freeze the lemonade because we had made it the week before. We had wanted to have the lemonade stand that week, but we got rained out. Because we had such cold lemonade, we raised $83. Some people even donated to us without buying lemonade! So far, we have raised $123 just at the race track.