Cody Johnson Racing

Kart Race Ocala Gran Prix LOcal Race 1/27/06

Cody's first race on his new CRG at his home track of Ocala Gran Prix was this past sat. 1/27/07. We had practiced the week end before at OGP and he was running faster lap time on the CRG than the Margay so we expected a good finish in the race at OGP on the 27th. Six Jr's in all entered the race with Cody taking the poll during qualifying by a pretty good margin. During the prefinal race he pulled out to a pretty good lead right from the start and never looked back winning the prefinal. The final pretty much saw a repeat of the perfinal with Cody getting a fairly sizable lead and taking the checker flag for his first win on CRG.

Cody had the second fastest lap time of the race in all the class's (there where about 40 karts there) with a 31.85 a Rotax DD2 had the fastest with a 31.82. Not bad considering he only has a Rotax JR motor and he put down faster lap times than the Rotax Seniors, Shifter karts, Tag karts, pretty cool.

These local races are a great way for Cody to build a network of young racers his age as you can see in two of the pictures above the kids get along great. In the bottom right hand picture is Cody power washing his kart the week before getting it race ready. He completely takes the kart apart during the week, cleans and inspects everything and puts it all back together. I have parents all the time come up to me during races, race events saying they wish they could get their young racer to work on their own kart. You see parents all the time working on the kart while the driver is off playing on his scooter, ect. I'm blessed with a young driver who loves working on his kart. I think in the long run it will make him a better driver as he understands how it all goes together, works plus he learns a deeper appreciation for his equipment.

We made no changes to the kart for the heat race other than making the carb. setting's just a little bit leaner to compensate for the raising temp's. Cody was on pole for the start and got beat to the first corner by one other kart but by lap 3 he was back in the lead. He won the main by about 6 kart lengths and things looked real good for a main victory.

Next up is a one day race in Moroso next weekend at the WKA Florida State Championship series race where Cody will be racing Rotax JR.