Sarah Bradley continues top 10 streak at Route 66 Round 1

Sarah Bradley Racing, now an Indianapolis native with home track being New Castle Motorsports Park, the team was excited to attend their first regional event at the famed facility just east of  downtown Indianapolis. With the Indiana weather so far this year being extremely unpredictable, driver Sarah Bradley has only had 1 single day opportunity to drive the 1-mile long 17 turn course during a local event a few weeks ago. Having a successful first day against some really tough competition the young driver was confident she could duplicate the podium performance during the Route 66 event as many of the drivers would be attending.

As the first day of racing started off on Saturday it was a cool and clear morning about twenty degrees lower temperatures from the day before during practice. As they took to the track for qualifying, Sarah crossed the finish line for the 3 lap session in P11. Not the result that she was looking for but would put her on the inside row to start the pre final race. Taking the green flag for the start of the pre final the field was quite undecided on whether they were going to throw the yellow flag being that the drivers were not all in their lanes. Nonetheless as they did throw the green flag Sarah took a two position loss for the first lap until she made a pass putting her back to P12. Working to chase the field back down after the messy start, she brought her kart across the finish line in twelfth for the pre final. Just shortly after the pre final round of racing mother nature decided the cold weather wasn't going to be enough and the rest of the day was rain racing. With the pre final behind the team, they were looking to really gain some positions in the final race of the day. Starting on the outside row turned out to be a blessing as the first turn spins were in effect due to the heavy rain on the race line. Sarah Bradley was able to pick up five positions by the time she recorded her first lap of the ten lap final race. Driving a smooth race all the way through she had some good battles throughout trading positions and was able to take her spot back and take the checkers in seventh place for the day.

Sunday morning at the track wasn't looking to be a pleasant start to the day with the gloomy cold weather. As the team gets suited up for qualifying the track was still an intermediate condition. Light rain through morning practice caused many to skip out on practice as the weather was forecasted to be clearing up with the temperatures rising through the day. As Sarah took the track for qualifying on the out lap working to get heat built into the tires, she hit a rubber patch that was still wet and caused her to take a spin off track. She needed some assistance getting back onto the course by the corner worker and by doing so this caused her qualifying times to be disqualified resulting in a starting position of P18 for the pre final. Nowhere to go but forward for the determined driver, Sarah wanted to prove that she deserves to be racing up in front of the field. As they take the green flag by lap one she had picked up four positions in the nine lapper. Through the next few laps she was working her way through traffic and one by one drover her way to the P10 spot. Having to battle with the drivers to make up positions once she made it to tenth there was no more time to run down the pack that was checked out ahead. The final race was possibly the best weather the track had seen all weekend as the sun was beginning to poke out from the clouds and temperatures warmed up slightly. With the field lined up to take the green flag for the final race of the weekend, some mid-pack collisions resulted in a two position loss on lap one for Sarah. Catching back up to the other drivers within a few laps she had made a pass for P11. Working in a draft with the driver they were able to catch another driver that was by himself as the three were battling Sarah was able to get ahead of the two competitors and hold them off to the end resulting in her tenth place finish.

Driver Sarah Bradley states, “I am excited to come back for more races at this track as I only have now just 2 races here I know that after I get some more testing here I can prove my results.”

Next up for the nine year old micro driver will be the Round 3 of World Karting Association event hosted at the CTECH Motorplex inside of Road America in Elkhart Lake Wisconsin on May 17-19th.