EasyKart Italy National Finals - Ala Karting Circuit By Dominic Scheer (Team Montoya Racing) ALA-AVIO, ITALY - On Friday, October 17th my stepdad Salomon and I arrived at about 9' o clock in the morning in Munich, Germany. When we left the airport we picked up a car and started driving to Ala-Avio, Italy (near the border between Italy and Austria, in Trento). When we got to the Ala karting circuit, we unloaded all of my racing gear and went to meet the Birel team, of which I was going to be racing with. We also met the director of EasyKart Italy, Marco Angeletti. While we were there, we met my mechanics, Diego and Alexandro. So, although my stepdad Salomon and I were very tired from the 10-hour plane trip from Miami to Munich, we went to Verona to eat dinner and see a little bit of the town. We ate at a little cafe in the main square of the city. After we finished our dinner we walked around for about an hour, then we drove to the hotel, which was about 45 minutes away from Verona. When we got to the hotel Leon De Oro we checked in and went to sleep. When we woke up in the morning we got dressed and had some breakfast at the hotel and then drove to the track arriving about 2 hours before the first practices started. The first practice of the day for me was a very big waste of time. In the first practice, my motor was very rich and would hardly go, also to add to that, my tires were very old and the car would not turn at all. But in the second practice the kart was perfect and I did great, I was the fastest! I was also fastest in the second session, but in the final fourth session, only one person was faster than I was. So, after practice and everything was finished, we went out to dinner with a kid named Eduardo De Nitts. When we were done with dinner we went back to the hotel to sleep. In the morning we woke up and had breakfast in the lobby then drove to the track. At the track I was finding out how everything works. In these races, they do the racing just like in Formula One, They have real and provisional qualifying, and there is only one race. No, they don't have single-car qualifying but almost everything else is the same. In the provisional qualifying I placed second, but the first place was by only .069 of a second. In the real qualifying round I placed fifth, but I think this was because almost every other lap I would get in traffic and I couldn't get a fast time. Then it was time for the race. After the second qualifying I had noticed that the engine had started losing power coming out of the turns and that the back was just a little too loose and it kept sliding in the back too much on the high-speed turns. So we made the 2nd bearing on the axle loose and took out the screws that connected it to the axle so that the axle would be a little more flexible. In the race I started fifth and was sort of confused at the start because instead of using a green flag to start the race, they used an Italian flag. But I still managed to keep my position in fifth place. During the race, the person in front of me was totally blocking me and just would not let me by him, and in the meantime, the person behind me was catching up. On about the 13th lap, the kid behind me tried to pass but I guess he decided that he couldn't make it so, he braked and opened up for the turn again and hit my back tire which threw me onto the grass and then into the tire barrier which bent my axle very badly. I hit those tires at almost full speed and I think it also bent the chassis. So I did not finish the race. Although I didn't finish, I learned how different it was to race in Italy than to race in America. In Italy, the racing is much more professional than here in America. Everything is perfectly clean. All the teams come totally prepared for the race, with tires already mounted and everything. So for me this race was great experience and I learned how Italians drive and also for this being my first international race, I didn't know what to expect from these drivers. At the end of the day they had a trophy presentation for all of the top 6 drivers in all three EasyKart classes (60,100,125). I learned a lot from this race, and next time I go back, I know I will do well and get in the top 2 or 3. I would like to thank very much Marco Angletti for providing me with a kart and all of the supplies that I needed to race. I would like to thank Diego and Alexandro for being such good mechanics and for making my car perfect to race. I would like to thank my stepfather Salomon because without him I would never have been able to do any of this racing. And finally I would like to thank Birel Motorsport for inventing the EasyKart classes and for making this race possible for me. Please visit www.scheerspeed.com for my website or www.easykart.com for information on EasyKart and how you can find a dealer near you.