Dealing with Adversity in Motorsports
Oct 11, 2020
Things don't always go your way in Motorsports. It's a high risk - high reward sport we put ourselves into. There are extremely high highs that can be followed almost immediately by the lowest of lows! The thing is, you've got to go through the lows, take the lessons you can from them and take that into the highs.
In 2009 I went to Egypt for my first international competition. This was at the time when I was just in between shifting from good to great in my driving skill level. I had made it to the Rotax World Finals, which had been a dream of mine for a number of years. The racing was unlike anything I had really experienced before. There were 70+ of the best drivers from all around the world and everyone drove like it. For me, it was crazy as I was still understanding who I was as a driver and honestly didn't have quite the confidence I was supposed to be there... However in that moment all you can do is proceed forward
The races were tough, in this event you had a collection of heat races in which you gained points towards going into the Final Main event. The main event only consisted of 32 drivers, the best of the best. To get to the Main event was a success in itself! In the 2nd heat race I was ran over at the start and finished way down in the field, the outlook seemed grim for making it to be in the top half of the world. In the next 2 events I was able to get within the top 10 and secure a spot to the final event! A success!
While riding on this high into the final event I was ecstatic. I had realized my dream of racing in the World Finals. After avoiding a wreck on the first lap, I went on to get into around 15th or so. The thing is, there's a section of this track that has two hairpins back to back. If you manage to screw up, you could go through the grass and onto the track on the other side. Well, someone managed to screw up and ran right into the front right side of my kart. The hit was enough to take the tire off of the bead of the wheel, releasing all the air, making it impossible to finish the last 5 laps of the race.
I was crushed. It had been an up and down weekend. The end result came out of a mistake I had not made! While that was it for the World Finals, I had learned several lessons. I was capable of racing at an international level, consistent results allowed me to get into the final event, and there were people out there who were a lot better than I was. This event instilled in me the desire to continue improving, practicing more and becoming better than I was.
