Two rounds left in the KCA Challenge, and I was leading the Margay Ignite Senior championship by 57 points. On paper that's a comfortable cushion. In karting, it's one bad weekend.
This is the story of the bad weekend, the good one that followed, and what I'm building toward for 2027.
Round 5: The Rain Round
Round 5 was wet, and it was the worst result of my season when it mattered most. I finished 6th and 7th, while my closest title rival had a strong day. That 57-point lead was down to 25 points.
I'm not going to pretend the conditions were the whole story, but they were a big part of it. I was on two-year-old wet tires against the fresh sticker wets the rest of the field had, and I hadn't been able to afford wet-weather practice beforehand. When the track has no grip, old rubber and zero seat time in the rain is a gap you can't drive around. On top of that, a mechanical failure on my front end left my front-end alignment completely wrong for the feature race.
It stung. But I left that weekend knowing exactly what had gone wrong, and none of it was about pace in the dry.
The Bounce Back: 20 Hours at the Track
After Round 5, I had one round left to fix it, and I wasn't going to leave anything to chance. Before the finale I put in two full test days, about 20 hours at the track, all for one race day.
Those two days had three jobs:
- Dial in the setup. Round 5 showed me what happens when the kart isn't right. I used the test days to work through the chassis setup and build a baseline I trusted before race day.
- Learn the final-round layout. I wanted laps on the exact layout we'd race on, so braking points, lines, and passing spots were automatic before it counted.
- Get the gearing right. Gearing decides whether you have the drive off the corners and the top speed down the straights. I tested until it matched the layout.
This is how I respond to a bad weekend. I don't just move on. I figure out exactly what went wrong and put in the hours to fix it. When I showed up on October 3, I knew the track, I knew the kart, and I'd done everything I could to give myself the best shot at the race and the title — and that is exactly what happened.
Round 6: Winning It Outright
On October 3 I won the final round and the 2026 KCA Challenge championship. I didn't want to back into the title. I wanted to win the race.
Preparation. On top of the test days, I had an engine built by Jim (CKT Engines), an 81-year-old engine builder with more than 60 years in karting. It was faster than my own. The team wanted to win this as much as I did, so they threw everything at me, which I'm very appreciative of.
The field. 13 drivers showed up, which is big for a club race. Another track had wrapped its season, and its fast drivers came over. That included Patrick Bernatowicz, the Illinois K1 state champion, K1 national runner-up, and a Formula 4 driver, plus multiple-time Ignite Challenge winner James Recendez.
Qualifying: P3. Early in the day the front of the kart was hopping through the corners. I reduced front grip, and Jim found the real cause: a loose alignment bolt. Once that was fixed, the kart came alive.
Heat race: P3 to P1. This is where I knew I had a shot. I made the pass on Patrick on the inside with 2 laps to go and took the heat win.
Final: P1. I led every lap, with no draft to help me. I ran a 41.4 almost every lap, with about half a tenth of spread, outside of two laps lost to traffic. Patrick was closing late, but I won by about 2 seconds and finished roughly 12 seconds ahead of my championship rival.
I didn't set the fastest lap of the race (mine was third-fastest). What won it was consistency: the same lap, over and over, under pressure.
What's Next: 2027
This season proved the pace was always there. Next year is about refining the things that kept getting in the way, and chasing the bigger championships.
I won't be defending my KCA Challenge title. The goal for 2027 is to go after bigger, more important races, and win them. Here's what I'm chasing:
- Ignite Challenge, Ignite Senior championship. Margay's Ignite Regional Series: the winner earns a two-day test with Skip Barber Racing School, in both a Formula 4 car and a sports car.
- Quincy Grand Prix and Elkhart Grand Prix. I'll be back at both.
To compete at that level, a few things have to change:
- Reliability first. Too many races this year were decided by mechanical failures, not driving. Jim of CKT Engines will be rebuilding my own engine over the off-season.
- Closing the wet-weather gap. Round 5 showed me exactly where I'm weakest. Rain practice and fresher wet tires are in the 2027 budget.
- Building the program. I'm starting next season's sponsor search now, with a championship to show for this one.
- Staying on track in the off-season. More streaming, more content, and sim racing with PNW's (Purdue Northwest) iRacing team.
Thanks for following along this year. The goal for 2027 is simple: win bigger races, and do it with nothing breaking.