Somehow we’ve already reached the end of the 2025 racing season at Norway Motorsports Park, as crazy as that as that is to believe. Feels like the season just got started yesterday. It’s been a roller coaster of a season so far, from having a grand-slam season opener, to having extremely close battles at the front, and in some cases, making a charge all the way from the back. Going in I sat third in points, with one chance left to secure that top 3 position in the championship.
To this point in the season, I had only participated in 7 of the 10 races (the club race on the day of the Autobahn Challenge wasn’t counted due to lack of kart count), which meant that despite my strong results all season long, anything above third in points was out of reach, and I was dangerously close to falling back to 4th. The two ahead of me, Jeremy Colley and James Recendez had only missed one race apiece, and the 4th place driver, Colin Cox, had been to every single race this season. Only one point separated myself from Cox, which meant I had to finish ahead of him to keep third in points.
On Saturday morning I had a couple of things to fix following the Thor’s Throwdown catastrophe the week prior, but nothing that would take up my whole morning or make me miss a session. Sure enough, I got it all fixed with time to spare. As I was positioning the motor to set the tension on the chain, I noticed that the same exhaust bolt from a couple weeks ago was loose again. Once I removed it, I discovered that the threads inside the head of the motor that the bolt screws into, were stripped. Since that prevented me from putting the exhaust back on, my motor was now unusable.
Now I am in a mad scramble to find a loaner motor for the day, as the sessions are already starting. Jim Perry was thankfully able to come through on super short notice with a loaner CKT motor for me to use for the day, only problem now was that I had to go get it. As practice 1 got going, I got in my car and drove 45 minutes back toward the CKT shop to pick up the engine, and then drive 45 minutes back with a quick drive-thru stop for lunch on the way.
I make it back to the track at around 11:30, which is normally when practice is ending, and the lunch break starts. Key word: normally. This would give me plenty of time to get the engine on and get the rest of the kart ready to hit the track for qualifying. However, as I am unloading the engine from my car, I notice qualifying is already starting. While I was gone, they had made the decision to shorten the breaks and start qualifying almost immediately with the chance of afternoon rain incoming. Only a few minutes later, and it was time for Ignite Senior to qualify, and my kart was still nowhere near ready.
Fast forward another half-hour or so, and another missed qualifying, and the kart was finally ready to go with a shiny blue loaner motor freshly installed. The 8-lap heat race was next, where I would be starting last in the field of 9 Ignite Seniors. Going back to my point earlier about the standings, I still had to finish ahead of Colin Cox to be safe, who was starting in 5th.
The race starts, and I immediately go into full attack mode. I pass two karts on the first lap, and then two more on the second lap. Now I sit in 5th with Cox 1.4 seconds up the road in 4th, and I have to chase him down on my own. Each lap I close in a little bit more, and by lap 6 I am right behind him. Heading into the last lap I make the move on Colin to put him behind me, and I hang on until the checkered flag to finish 4th. I had beaten the person I needed to beat to stay safe in points, and I had set myself up well to stick with the frontrunners in the final.
As the finals got going, we started to get little drops of rain. Watching the sessions before ours, it seemed like the track was still dry enough to race on, so I put on a hybrid dry/wet setup that I thought would work well, and headed to the grid for the final race of the year. Just as I am about to drop the kart on the ground, the rain picks up, slowly shifting from a drizzle to a complete shower. The sportsman, currently on track, were struggling to just finish their race, and at the end of it the officials made the decision to call a rainout and end the day there.
Since all of the heat races and some of the finals had already finished, they scored the sessions that had been completed, and that was the final points tally. With my 4th place finish in the heat race, the only laps I had driven all day, I had secured third in points. The difference was 2,284 to 2,280 with drops. If that doesn’t tell you that every point matters, I don’t know what will.
So in the end, kind of an anticlimactic end to the season, given that we never really got to show our hand in the final, but we still accomplished the main goal of securing third in points. Obviously the hero of the day is going to Jim Perry and CKT Racing Engines, getting me a loaner motor on short notice without hesitation, and keeping me in the game to get third in points. And of course, a huge thanks to Norway Motorsports Park and all of my competitors for a great season of racing. Now, only the Gateway Kartplex Ignite Challenge and the Norway Dash for Cash remain in Nathan’s 4-year Ignite journey.