Good afternoon, everyone!
THURSDAY:
This weekend, we are at our home track Summit Point Raceway and Morgan will be driving Dan Freeman's black and orange #1 Improved Touring A Miata sponsored by Envirotex. His multi-class group runs 6th out of 8 groups. The 15-lap heat race on Saturday afternoon and the 20-lap feature race on Sunday will both be broadcast on YouTube with the now-familiar announcers. Dan is hopeful that Morgan will shine in this event. Being a home event, I and John will be working as Starters for the weekend.
In addition to driving, Morgan is also doing some coaching for a handful of other drivers too. He really enjoys helping all competitors improve their performance on the track. It improves the quality of experience for the drivers and for the spectators.
Wish us good luck and good weather!
SATURDAY NOTES:
Qualifying Update: At around 3:00 this afternoon, Morgan Burkhard will take out Daniel Freeman’s ITA #1 out for the 15-lap race. He has put the car on the pole for the race!! Not only the overall pole, but also a mere 0.001 seconds off the ITA track record! We are rooting hard for him to have a great one!
Saturday Race Result: Daniel Freeman’s ITA car did a very unusual thing today. In Morgan’s hands, it won today’s race outright, even against cars in typically faster classes in the group. Conditions were pretty good today. The sun shone, the wind blew, and the car flew! Unfortunately, the super nice weather for people was just a bit too warm for really good grip. Morgan didn't get the record this afternoon. Even with a short full course yellow mid way through the race, Morgan had pulled out to a substantial lead when the checker dropped.
He is truly enjoying this car this weekend. It is fast and easy to drive. Morgan makes it look really easy. We are grateful for Dan’s generosity and very pleased with the results today. There was much cheering from his fans both at the track and watching on YouTube. And we are hopeful for a similar performance tomorrow!
SUNDAY NOTES:
During the closed wheel hardship session first thing, two of us went to help out a couple guys with some problems. That’s not all that common for us to do at Start. It got our attention focused and the blood flowing first thing in the morning.
Morgan will go out sometime after 2:00 this afternoon for his 20-lap race. Again, in Daniel Freeman’s ITA Miata #1 Morgan will start on the pole. With good fortune and Morgan’s skill, we are hoping for another day of good results.
Sunday Race Result: Ten years ago, Morgan was karting at Allsports Grand Prix. It was a wonderful indoor kart place and he learned so much from the owner, Francois Duret. One weekend, we got a bunch of racers, autocrossers, and karters together and held the “Are You Faster Than an 8-Year Old Smack-down” event there. We had a qualifying session and a 50-lap race. While a John and I managed to stay on the lead lap, we were the only ones and then only just barely. Turned out that nobody was faster than the 8-year old Morgan.
Fast forward 10 years and scale up the karts to cars. It’s no surprise to find that this is still the case with Morgan. There was nobody faster than him in his group all weekend. Morgan took Dan’s car to another win today! Watch him run away from the field.
This was such a fun weekend and we thank Dan for giving Morgan his car. We are so very proud of this kid!
WHAT’S NEXT?
Next weekend, you will find us at PittRace, in Wampum, Pennsylvania. This time, Morgan's back in the Apple Motorsports SRF3 supported by Mike Amy and Dog Gone Racing. It's a fun and challenging track where he will run for points toward the Northeast Division Majors Championship.