It was a couple weeks ago, but I wanted to take a moment to celebrate my daughter's first win! Technically, she just had one other entry she was racing against, but the other kid was fast (and fully supported with mechanics and even had a TV crew), and I was just proud of how hard my daughter pushed while having fun at the same time. She got to run a track she had never done before, and it was raining all weekend. We didn't have rain tires until it was it clear the rain wouldn't ease up, and I literally grabbed the four least awful ones I could find in the dumpster. I will say though, slicks in the rain are a great educational tool, haha.
There was just something really special about seeing a 5yo play with steering and throttle inputs throughout a turn to change the attitude of the kart. She has zero fear, but she's also typically pretty conservative. Kid Karting is also tricky to get fast in because the tires are hard, and the karts are light. Getting any kind of heat in the tires is tricky to the point that rain tires are a known shortcut to dry speed because they warm up faster and are softer. Bringing the limit to her was really what she needed at this point because she was able to really learn a lot about catching a slide. The GoPro video was really fun to watch, and here is a good shot of her catching a slide while chasing the other kid. This was before we got the dumpster tires on, and she was doing her damnedest to keep up anyways.
For the pre-lunch race, we finally got the dumpster tires on and made no setup changes. The tires would be so foreign to her, I didn't want to tweak anything else. Plus, it is Kid Kart. The kart is far second to the driver in terms of influencing the outcome. She did a phenomenal job of sticking to the plan (fast but do not push to the point of spinning, keep pressure on the other kid, and capitalize on their mistakes). The other kid spun twice, and Zoey was able to get her first win! The other kid was a bit faster in the rain, but keeping close enough to take advantage of the spins was still something to be proud of.
For the afternoon race, the track was drying quickly, so we ran the dry tires for the feature. The other dad and I talked, and I was fine with him continuing to run the rain tires. Technically, that was his right since it had rained in the morning, but I greatly appreciated him letting me know in the name of fairness. The layout was also the traditional one my daughter was used to, so she picked up a lot of relative pace. Both kids have been pretty close in practice, but it has been a while since they ran together, so the final was nerve-racking. Zoey built an early lead that slowly deteriorated throughout the race. On the third-to-last turn, she was catching a kid in the faster class and started pushing too hard to get around him. This led to a spin, and she lost the lead. Still, she gave it the absolute beans, and caught the other kid right at the line.
We thought the other kid had actually won and congratulated her and her team, but then we looked at the unofficial results and saw Zoey was 0.010 seconds ahead at the sensor! Tech cleared both karts, and the official results were posted an hour later with her as the winner! She had been so bummed when we told her that we had thought the other kid won because she thought pulling into the pits was the finish line, but she was ecstatic to learn she was getting two trophies.
Bottom line is that, while we are thrilled she is going into karting 2-0 against a fast kid, there is something very special about watching your kid push so hard with something that most kids never get to experience while still showing just enough restraint to not doing anything silly. Now, we just need to make sure we balance the line between helping her do her best versus ruining the fun of racing with racing...
