IAME Final Games

First time for me in an international race, first time on the Lonato circuit, the temple of karting.

Weekend Operation:

On Saturday, there's a warm-up, followed by three-group qualifying, which locks in our starting position for the day's three group battle races. Sunday has another warm-up, followed by another three-group qualifying, which will determine our starting position for a two-group battle race. The further away you are from first place, the more points you score for Saturday and Sunday's races. The organizers then take the total points from our races and rank us from 1 to 49, with the top 36 going on to the final.

Saturday was very complicated, starting with qualifying. We were running on different tires than the ones I'm used to, we had trouble getting them up to temperature quickly enough, and qualifying was very short, which led to us finishing last in the group. Then came the first race, with the track getting hotter and hotter. We had trouble setting up the chassis when it was hot, and we were only able to move up one place. In the second race, we modified the chassis, but in the first laps, part of my chassis cracked, which didn't allow me to move up more than three places. In the last race of the day, everything was repaired, and the chassis was perfect. In six laps, I was able to move up 13 places by showing my pace, but in the middle of a corner, one of my wheels came off, which didn't allow me to finish the race. Far too many points scored on Saturday.

Sunday started very well with the warm-up where we had a good pace, then the qualifying which allowed me to finish 13th. The race went very well and I managed to move up to 11th place. Unfortunately, despite my very good results on Sunday, I did not qualify for the final because of my bad Saturday.

Excellent weekend where I learned a lot and had a lot of fun riding at such a high level.