Story shared by Jason Pettit. For more info on Jason, visit: http://jasonpettit46.com/
CONTINUING TO LEARN
As November starts approaching, so is the last race of the season. A few weeks back I traveled to Buttonwillow Raceway with my family right after I finished my Thursday classes. After about two months out of the car, I was extremely excited to hop back in the seat and get to drive a completely new track. I’d been to the kart track in Buttonwillow multiple times, but had never been to the large car track, and the race was even being run in the reverse direction. I have to say, watching an onboard video from youtube does not do a track justice and can be very deceiving. There is so much going on at this track with the dust flying everywhere, all the different cars, and a bit of elevation change. Being out of the car for so long, I didn’t really know how long it would take to feel comfortable again, but to my surprise it didn’t take long at all. Within a session I started to push harder and was able to apply some of the tips that were given from my engineer Jan. Fortunately for me, this race was held over a period of three days, giving me all Friday to practice and continue to progress with my driving.
Throughout Saturday, we had qualifying and one race. Qualifying was particularly tough with all of the cars on track at different speeds, so finding a good sized gap was extremely challenging. Everything went relatively smooth and I was able to have a decent starting spot in the race. Honestly, the race could’ve gone a bit better. I didn’t get a great start and was stuck behind a slower car with lots of horsepower for multiple laps. But looking at the positives, I had lots of close battles and learned how to deal with all of the lap traffic that we had. Funny enough, Sunday’s race almost felt exactly the same as Saturday. I had a great qualifying and ran some of my fastest laps all weekend, with only two clear laps. Unfortunately on the start I was once again passed by the same car with more horsepower and couldn’t find a way by him. But even with this happening, I was extremely happy with how the race went. Over the entire thirty minute race I was able to keep pressure on the car ahead and force him into a few mistakes.
All in all, it was an awesome weekend getting to see everyone from the team again, and meeting a few new faces. I had a blast and felt the best in the car than I have all year! It’s crazy how much a day of seat time and driving tips can do for you. I know I say this in all of these newsletters and updates over social media, but I am so grateful to be able to keep driving and progressing in racing. Being in these open wheel cars is a dream come true for me and sometimes I still can’t believe I get these opportunities. I need to give a huge thank you to all of my sponsors and supporters, my Mom and Dad, VMB Driver Development, Steve Brisentine, Andy Brown, Friction Games, World Speed Motorsports, everyone who has helped me get here, and all of you who continue read these updates on my racing! My last race of 2019 is at Thunderhill Raceway in less than two weeks, and I am already excited to get back at it.
If you are interested please email me at jtpkart46@gmail.com or call me at 925-588-3464.
You can learn more about Jason, and the VMB Scholarship here…