Four years ago, almost to the date, I was a young 16-year-old kid racing in the Gateway Kartplex‘s iDrive Shootout, the season finale for their rental kart league. I was going in as one of the favorites to win, and if I did, I would have a fully paid Ignite Scholarship to finally break into the big leagues and chase my dream of professional racing. I went into the last race of the shootout tied for first in points in a winner-takes-all situation. After some of the most intense 10 laps of my life, I lost the shootout by half a kart length, lost the scholarship, and went home with nothing.
Later that month, my parents made the decision to buy me a kart themselves and help fund my first season of racing in Ignite, simply because they didn’t want to see me stop there and wanted to give me a chance at pursuing my dream. Ever since then, from my first race in 2022 until now, I have been chasing a victory at the Kartplex to make up for that one that I lost. Today, my last race day ever in the Ignite series, would be my last chance to do that.
The 2025 Ignite Challenge Season presented by Skip Barber Racing School would host its finale at the Gateway Kartplex, the home track of Margay Racing and the Ignite Series, and the birthplace of my career in karting. It would be a traditional two-practice, qualifying, and two-race format to finish off the year, giving me two chances to be a winner at Gateway. It was also showing rain on the forecast as a possible curveball, which encouraged me further with my good performance at a wet 61 Kartway in 2024. Little did we all know, rain would only be the tip of the weather iceberg.
The day started off sunny and bright like any race day at Gateway, with rain not being forecasted until about noon. I started unloading at the track around 7:30, and not even 10 minutes after stepping out of my car, it started raining. No big deal though, as the Ignite Challenge runs rain or shine. Drivers meeting happened at the normal time, and the track was declared wet as practice began.
At this point it had stopped raining, and since we were the last run group, the track was completely dry. But since the officials hadn’t declared a dry track yet, I had to go out on wets. After only 3 laps of running full wets on a dry track I pulled into the pits to save the tires for qualifying, anticipating more rain was on the way. Unfortunately that rain was accompanied by lightning, and only halfway through the qualifying groups we were put on a 30-minute lightning hold.
This 30-minute lightning hold turned into a near 5-hour hold, and the Ignite Challenge had now become the Survive-a-Monsoon Challenge. Eventually storm number 1 blew over by about 3:00, but another even worse storm was scheduled to roll in in just a couple hours. So what happened? The officials decided let’s continue with qualifying. At around 4 the track went live for the next class to qualify, and after that single qualifying session, we ended up on another lightning hold.
At this point I had accepted defeat, and I wanted to get back to where I was staying before I get trapped in another category 5 hurricane. So I packed up my stuff and handed off the kart for transport as the rain poured down again, and I left the track thinking that a cancellation was inevitable. And just like that, my 4-year career in the Ignite Series had ended with a thunderstorm calling off the race.
The next day I discovered that they actually waited out that second storm and got in the rest of qualifying, but nothing more than that. So with points going off of that qualifying session that I wasn’t present for, that’s two goose eggs to end the season for me. Even had I known that, I still don’t think I would have stayed through all of that insanity just for a 6-minute time-trial to decide the championship.
So that’s it… at least for now. The kart and all of my tools and spare parts are being sold, and I will not be returning to Ignite in 2026. Can’t think of a more disappointing end to all of this, seeing that I didn’t even get to really drive the kart properly one last time, but things like that you just can’t control. Huge thanks to Bobby Krug Racing Services and CKT Racing Engines for everything they’ve done to make me competitive this year, and thanks as well to Margay Racing and Skip Barber Racing School for putting on this series.
Going back to my thing in the beginning, I had no expectation of racing in Ignite after losing the iDrive Shootout in 2021, and that got me to where I am today. So it’s entirely possible that something that isn’t even on my radar yet could come up before next season, and it could end up sending me on another journey just like this in the coming years. And speaking of this journey, I wouldn’t trade anything for the time I’ve spent racing in this series over the last 4 years, and all of the doors that it has opened up for me. And to all of you who have helped me and supported me along the way, thank you for everything.
In the words of Bobby Krug – “There’s always another race…”