Sunday August 14th was the day of Round 5 of the Redline Oil Karting Championship. I had not been to the track after the disappointing Us Grand National experience but as I know all the different track combinations  at Infineon Raceway I was comfortable I would do reasonably well without taking anything for granted.

I worked through different setups during Saturday's official practice and settled with a setup that I thought was competitive. The engines were top tuned after the Nationals so it was an uneventful procedure.

Prior to this weekend I had won two races and another driver (who won the US Grand Nationals) had won the two other races so the championship was pretty even at this point. As he decided not to race the main competiton was out of the equation for now.

In qualifying I did not really get the optimal out of my new tires but qualified at pole anyway with a comfortable half a second of margin. The first heat race was uneventful as I lead from flag to flag and won with a 10 second margin, which was more than a second per lap. Second heat race turned out to be a bit more eventful than I had hoped!

During the year I have struggled a bit with my ceramic/carbon brake system and in the first heat race they did not feel good so I bled the brakes before the second heat race. Unfortunately contrary to my expectation there was not enough brake fluid in the reservoir to bleed the brakes without a refill. As a consequence I had absolutely no brakes when I hit the track for the second heat race.

I tried to pull it off anyway but it was too difficult (and too dangerous) to put down competitive lap times and after going off track once, I pulled in already at the second lap and the heat race was over.

In the main finale I then had to start off pole. The pole row bumped a lot in the start, I took advantage and was first going in to Corner 1, never looked back and won the main finale with an 18 second margin to number 2.

Good weekend and good to get a win after the US Grand Nationals disappointment. Too bad I lost 10 points in the Championship because of a stupid brake system error...

Next challenge up will be at the Indy Grand Prix weekend at Infineon Raceway in the Formula Car Challenge, where we are a featured race in between the Indy Car races.

As usual I would like to thank my sponsors for making this season possible.