Lynsey Tilton

www.lynseytilton.com

September 21, 2003: Saturday night, I made my debut in the Stars of Tomorrow Regional Series, held at the Willow Springs Kart Track. In the past, the 9-turn, seven tenths of a mile track, has shown me to be consistently fast and Saturday night would once again prove this.

Morning practice started at 8am and lasted till 2pm. I got out on the track at about 9 am, breaking in my motor. The next two sessions, I had brake problems with my fronts locking up and then had none in the rear. After we got this fixed, I used the rest of the time to get my lines down and I became faster each time, posting my fastest time of a 43.20

At 4pm practice started again, this time just as a warm up for the race. Now we only got two five-minute sessions. First session would show me to be a little slower because we had put new tires on and they hadn’t come in yet. The second session would show me to be the fastest one out there, posting a time of 43.12. Qualifying was next and so we put new tires on, hoping to pick up a tenth or two. During the qualifying session, I hadn’t felt strong like I had during practice. This showed in my time, when I ran a half a second slower, qualifying in the 5th spot.

At this point I was disappointed with my effort, and knew it was going to be hard to get into the top three or go for a win because we were so close. But I knew we had 25 laps, and that I could out last the other drivers. Before we pushed off I told my Dad I was going to win this race. At the start of the race, I got a good jump and was second in the first corner, but because the way I was going into the corner, two drivers passed me, putting me in 4th. The top three slowly started to pull away from me, leaving me around 4 seconds back. After five laps, I started to get faster and within 4 laps, I was on 3rd place.

After I had followed 3rd place for 2 laps I found where I was faster, made my move down the front straight, and did an out breaking move that put me in 3rd. Next was 2nd place, and I did the same thing I did with 3rd place. I followed him for a couple of laps and made my move going down the front straight. Now with five laps to go, I started to close on 1st. On lap 21 I pulled up on first place and gave him a bump to let him know I was there, and this made him nervous, and he started to make mistakes. With two laps to go, I made my move down the front straight and passed him going into corner four. On the last lap I slowly started to pull out a lead and went on to win my first race in the Stars of Tomorrow Regional Race.

This was one of the best races I have ever driven; according to my Dad and I. Coming from four seconds back to win was such an accomplishment. My next race will be the next regional race at Willow Springs, and also the Stars Finale at California Speedway. I would like to thank my parents, Fast Girls Racing, Bonita Vista Chevron, Gray Thunder Racing, RDS Unlimited, La Mesa Glass and Sanner Racing, for all the support they have given me.