The trip down was a very interesting one, on top of the 12hr drive to Pineville, Kentucky. It was necessary to make a stop in Winston Salem over at Rocket Carbon to pick up our new carbon fiber splitter for the weekend race event. We made our way down south and got to Rocket Carbon in about 9hrs. It took some time to adjust the carbon splitter rods from professional awesome, but with some time and much needed patience, we were able to get it done. After that we stayed the night in Charlotte, woke up early in the morning, and made our way to Pineville, Kentucky.
After about a 5hr drive, we arrived in the paddock of the pine mountain Hillclimb. Running a bit behind, we proceeded to unload the car and get the trailer parked to make our way down to the pineville festival for the Hillclimb event that was in town. Little did we know that is when the troubles of the weekend would start. As I drove the car, I got a funny smell coming out of the engine upon which smoke started coming out of the engine bay. I acted as quickly as I could. I grabbed my extinguisher, pulled over, popped the hood, and got ready to spray. Luckily, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. The drive belt snapped on the evo. Luckily, we brought an extra one and with the help from a good friend, we were able to get her back up and running. We made it to the town festival, late, but better late than never.
Day 1 was quite exciting. I mean aside from being a bit nervous because going back to the track you crashed, just one year prior, you will for sure have those jitters once you get on that start line. On my first run, we ended up with a conservative 2:23 time to run up the mountain. My goal for Saturday, as well as the weekend, was just to relearn the hill one run at a time and one turn at a time. We wanted to make sure we made it home in one peace and a good time would be a bonus. 
With day 1 over, we went up to the resort, had dinner with the drivers, cover workers, and organizers. There they made an amazing announcement about a new Hillclimb in Norton, Virginia. This will be the second race in the Appalachian Hillclimb series with all the excitement buzzing, I decided to pack it in for the day to get that much needed rest. I was truly exhausted.
Day 2 began with some setbacks. It seems we ran over a screw on day 1, so we found the car had a flat. Luckily, once again, I brought a tire plug kit with me. It was a huge question mark weather it would work as the screw was so close to the sidewalk of the tire, but we had to give it a shot! And so we did it and it held pressure so we could get day 2 started. Our first run up the hill, we hit a 2:06 time, which was as a huge improvement from our 2:23 on day one. So, we just started chipping away at the mental blocks and ended the day with a 2:03. This was acceptable for me as this was just a bonus to our main goal of completing the weekend. As we loaded up the car to leave, our friends told us that we were presented with a trophy. Unbenounced to me, I had no idea what I did warranted a trophy, as I was just working on my lines, car throttle, and turn inputs. With that coming to light, we made our way down and picked up our trophy. It was very refreshing to see that we actually made an impact this weekend. Although it was 5th place, we now know that there is SO much we can improve on with the platform. This development has really made me excited for what’s to come. I want to thank all of my sponsors/partners who are apart of the program. This was made possible by you guys.
