“Racer X Motorsports’ Sponsored Athlete Katie Vernola Race Report From Terracross Charlotte, NC”
El Cajon, CA October 2, 2015– Racer X Motorsports sponsored athlete Katie Vernola is back from the “Rough, Tough & Muddy” Terracross Championship race in Charlotte, NC.
“This past weekend was the Terracross Championship right outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway. I’m a huge fan of NASCAR and I’ve never been to North Carolina, so I was absolutely thrilled. I hopped on a plane Thursday morning to North Carolina and the pilot announced that we will be experiencing some turbulence along the way, so please keep your seat belt on at all times. I about jumped out of my skin, I will ride a bull or flip a car but I hate flying.
North Carolina rained the whole time we were there; but it was awesome to see since California hasn’t had much rain in the past year or so. Terracross held a drivers meeting on Friday and was told practice was cancelled due to the weather conditions. Instead, we all went to The Pit Indoor Kart Racing, which was a blast hanging out with all the rad people in Terracross. After a few hours racing, we went out for dinner and listened to some hilarious karaoke.
Saturday was race day and the rain never let up since we arrived. We were given an hour practice, one heat race, and one main. For this race, I competed in the pro men’s class because there was only one other female racing. The track was so crazy; I now understand why Terracross is considered, “Rough, Tough and Muddy”. It was a mud fest! It was a blast to drive in but really hard to see with the tires kicking up chucks of mud. I had an exciting heat race, slip n’ sliding into a 3rd place finish.
For the main event, they stacked all 12 of us in four rows. I had a great start coming out of turn one in 7th. By turn four I was in 5th just after the first lap. I quickly ran out of tear offs and after each lap, the track continued to get more and more difficult. With one and a half laps to go, I fell back to 6th and even worse; I broke the drive belt coming out of the tire section, which ended my day! Racing has a lot of ups and downs but I was overall extremely happy knowing I could run up front with the pro men of Terracross.
Last weekend was an absolute blast! I met some great people, had a lot of fun racing in the mud and made good friends with some racers and the staff. I want to thank all the staff at Terracross for all your hard work and time, making this such a fun, memorable experience.
Terracross will be putting on two more rounds of racing; dates will be announced soon! I can’t thank Racer X, SuperAtv.com and K&N Filters enough for making it possible to race this series!!” ~ Katie Vernola
Photo by Joe Wiegele.
