Tony Gualda always knew once the summer hit, his racing career would open up. Two weeks after the last day of school, the 13-year-old made his biggest statement of his racing career.
Gualda took his first main event championship in unrestricted micro sprint racing at Lemoore Raceway on Saturday. Despite racing in only six of the circuit’s eight races, the victory bumped Gualda to 10th place in the standings.
With more free time during the summer, Gualda expects to slowly climb up those standings. In 2013, Gualda has taken a third place once and fifth place twice leading into Saturday’s victory.
His strong day started with a first place finish during the qualifying hot laps. Racing against 16 cars, Gualda took first place by passing two cars with only two laps left. Once he got in front, a caution flag allowed him to come away with the victory.
“I was really happy about that because I was in third place,” he said. “To go to second and then first was great.”
That success led to an even greater moment later that day. Using that confidence, Gualda came out fast in the main event, taking first only four laps in and running away with a victory. With most of the cars sticking to the middle of the track, Gualda used the high side to get and stay in front.
Gualda set his car up to handle the momentum on the top of the track, which gave him an extra boost around the turns, he said.
“I pushed it as hard as I could to get that checkered flag,” he said. “It was awesome that we won.”
After the victory, Gualda will continue to race at the Lemoore Raceway the rest of the year. With nine more races in Lemoore, Gualda will also look to race in Tulsa, Visalia and Delta to further earn his micro cart stripes.
“I just want to continue to find new races and get experience,” he said. “I just want to continue to do it and have fun.”
