The annual Rotax US Grand Nationals put on a great show this year at our home track Miller Motorsports Park. With over 200 drivers and many teams from across the country, they all gathered in Tooele, Utah to see who's the best.
The Nationals presented some challenges and triumphs throughout the week. Practice started on Tuesday and continued through Thursday. On Friday, the racing began with qualifying and Heat race one. After a decent, yet unsatisftying session, Walker was able to qualify 19th overall out of 47 drivers in the Rotax Jr. class. For the heat races, Rotax would be splitting the class into 4 goups, (A,B,C,&D), Based on your qualifying position you are assigned to one of the four groups and will be in the group for all three heat races. Walker was in group A and would race against group D in heat number one with a total of 24 drivers. Walker started ninth on the inside row and managed to make his way up to sixth place after 10 enduring laps.
On Saturday, Walker started in the ninth position again in heat number two and managed to finish in a solid sixth place again. Saturday afternoon, the final heat of the weekend was about to take shape. Walker started ninth again and after a clean start, came out of turn three in third place behind Luis Joe Forteza and Brandon Eves. Walker held on for to third place for eight laps and was passed by Trenton Estep with two laps to go finishing fourth. This would set Walker to start in eighth place during Sunday's Pre-Final.
Sunday had arrived with a slight overcast in the morning that would disipate for the Walker's Pre-Final. The field was set with a total of 34 drivers advancing to Sunday's race after a last chance qualifier only allowed six drivers to advance of 20. Walker grided up in eighth place and was taken out along with many other karts in a turn one incident causing much heart break. He refired his engine and chased down the pack in front of him from 32nd place moving his way up to 18th place and then was wrecked yet again, finsihing nearly dead last in the Pre-Final. Walker had his work cut out for him in the Main Event starting 32nd after a dissapointing run earlier in the morning.
The clouds rolled in and out over Miller Motorsports Park as the rain came and went in many of the Main Event races for the classes before Rotax Jr. Just before Walker's race, the rain started to fall and the race was declared wet. All drivers had the option of putting on rain tires or staying with slicks. The rain fled as fast as it came and everyone went onto the track with slick tires. Walker took the green flag from the 32nd position and slowly worked his way up during the 20 lap race to finish in 16th place, missing the hard charger award by only two spots. A challenging Sunday that didn't end the way Walker Hess Racing wanted it to but none the less an impressive weekend with some solid heat races and practice sessions.
Walker will look forward to the next few National races in hope to redeem his bad luck at the Rotax US Grand Nationals. A big thanks to Miller Motorsports Park and Rotax Max Challenge for a great weekend and lots of fun.