LUCA CONTINUES TO PROGRESS

October 2, 2016
Posted in LVKC
October 2, 2016 admin

LUCA CONTINUES TO PROGRESS

 

It seems like the races are coming thick and fast now although Luca has a race weekend only once a month. This is his 3rd race weekend for points since he sat for the first time in his kart back in June. He’s made enormous progress, growing in confidence and getting faster. Speed is all that counts in this sport, it gets you noticed and you have to make it your  friend. Luca makes friends easily.

He continues to impress, especially as the competition is getting fierce with young racers from California, Utah and Colorado making the trip to the Las Vegas Speedway. There would be a full grid this weekend. Luca would need to drive hard during practice day on Saturday to give him the best chance of qualifying near the front of the grid to avoid the challenges of racing in the middle of the pack.

He managed to put a good 80 laps into his practice sessions Saturday, progressively improving his lap times but something was missing. I could see that he was holding back. He wasn’t using the entire track and as a result, his lap times were not as good as they should have been. I tried talking to him but he resisted my observations saying that he was pushing as hard as he could. He wasn’t as fluid in the turns as he usually is. Yes, the track was slippery in places due to the excessive dust, any error is unforgiving, but that was simply an excuse not a reason. Luca is tenacious in his pursuit of racing excellence but he can also be stubborn when he can’t see beyond the scope of his experience.

It’s natural of course as the learning curve is so steep for him. He has literally been thrown into the deep end since his debut in June and it’s easy to forget as he continues to perform beyond my expectations. It also give me enormous pride when I see him take a huge step forward in his racing knowledge and the dexterity with which he expresses it on track.

On the way home after practice, we were speaking about his day’s performance. He wasn’t happy because deep down he knew he could go faster. I was trying to find ways for him to see what I saw on track, for him to understand the finesses that I was trying to share with him. Controlling a kart at high speed while pushing beyond one’s comfort zone takes a mixture of courage, awareness and the ability to translate that into refined speed, buying time when others waste it. The difference is measured in milliseconds. For Luca and racers his age, it’s instinctive, founded in great part on their raw talent.

The art is knowing how to open their minds to the opportunities for insights that they can then use to help them become aware of those finesses. I needed him to hear me.

And then it dawned on me. Jason Reichert is a 16 year old racer on the fast track into the pro circuit, specifically Formula 1,600. He’s a very talented young driver, who also happens to be the son of the Track Director Tim Reichert, and whom Luca looks up to. I suggested that Luca should ask him to walk the track on Sunday before the Drivers meeting. He smiled, it made sense. We tucked into a Thai Beef Jerky and rice for dinner and an early night. He had heard and it promised to be an exciting day of racing tomorrow.

We got to the track around 8:00 and I began the pre-race rituals with Doug and Paul, Luca’s pit crew at Italcorse. The kart had been prepped overnight and they were completing the final preparations for the practice sessions before qualifying. They were working on 4 other karts so I decided to leave them at it.  I have a tendency to get in their way, two left feet sort of thing.

Where’s Luca? I see him at the first turn after the long straight with Jason, who’s showing him the racing line. Good for him. I just let them do their magic and sneak myself away for a few minutes enjoying the early sun and the rising tension in the paddocks. I love race day!

The Drivers Meeting out of the way, Luca gets back into the kart for the first practice session. He’s searching for the racing line, pushing, teasing the kart to go faster, re-calibrating his line.  He comes in 6th fastest and second in his class, lapping at 31.629 seconds, almost 1.7 seconds behind AJ Zarconi, the fastest on track. Luca’s actually quite happy with his performance as he tells me that he is much more comfortable with the line he is taking. I agree as I see that he is using all the track.

The second practice session sees him lap at a very fast 30.993, 0.75 seconds slower than AJ. He’s back and he’s fast. Luca just found a second. He qualifies 4th on the grid and 1st in his class.

Race 1: On the rolling start, Luca enters the 1st turn in 4th and exits in 3rd. Despite the faster karts behind him, he keeps his racing line making it impossible for the others to overtake him. It’s a hard fought 3rd place, a deserved 3rd place and 1st overall in his class. He was flying around the turns when others lifted. He pushed beyond his comfort zone; he understood.

2nd Race: Although being 3rd on the grid, Luca was unable to keep his place into the first turn, exiting in 4th, a position that he maintained the entire race to finish 1st in his class. He lapped everybody in his class except Bria who came in 2nd, 6 seconds behind him. He got the 3rd fastest lap between the 2 classes at a very fast 30.339 seconds, taking a full 0.50 seconds off his lap record under racing conditions and 0.50 seconds behind AJ. He showed tremendous maturity with his overtaking maneuvers and drew gasps from Jason and myself on more than one occasion with his audacity and timing. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.

Special thanks to Douglas Creesy and Paul at Italcorse for the excellent work they do on Luca’s Kart, making his results possible. They are also amazing mentors, encouraging not only Luca to push beyond his comfort zone but the other kids under their tent. And with all the tension of race day, being pulled in different directions and making last minute repairs, both minor and major, they still take the opportunity to help the other teams who come to seek their advice. Both Luca and I feel very fortunate to be a part of this adventure.

3 races, 3 wins. Next race weekend on 8th & 9th October.

GO LUCA!