Posted by Sudbury Northern Life Reporter Sabrina Byrnes
Sudbury's Derek Demers put pedal to the medal against the world's best at the 2009 Florida Winter Tour kart racing series recently, and achieved the knowledge he was looking to gain for the upcoming season.
The series ran Jan. 10-11 in Homestead, Miami.
"I was pretty nervous at the beginning. It was actually one of the toughest things I've ever done, mentally and physically," the 20-year-old racer said.
Demers, who races out of the Sudbury Kart Club, and currently holds two records in the senior heavy and senior rotax class, was chosen by Sudbury's Durkac Karting to represent them and S.R.A. Karting International at the Florida Winter Tour.
He spent three full days practicing once he arrived in Miami and said it was really hard to stay focused for that long. He hadn't raced for a few months prior to that, while most of the other drivers had been racing all season long.
"Whole different level of driving...it was pretty intense," said Demers' father Pete.
"It's the best in the world and they sure showed it."
Since there was so many drivers in Demers' class, they split up the races into the A main and the B main. Demers' raced in the B main and finished fourth on Saturday and second on Sunday.
He lead the race all the way through on Sunday until the last lap, where he was passed. Demers said he was having engine problems throughout the whole race, and made a couple of mistakes that resulted in him getting passed.
He said overall it was a great experience and he had a lot of fun.
The goal heading into the competition was to take away
knowledge and experience he could use in his upcoming season
here in Sudbury and Demers said he did just that.
Demers has an Alfano computer system, which enables him to log
his racing data.
The system measures his acceleration, G-forces, maps out the
track, etc. He's able to compare his lap data with the
other drivers.
"I learned a lot about my driving," he said.
Demers said it was really tough racing against the world's best and was impressed with what he saw. He recalled watching the winner of the A main race on Sunday.
"He was so smooth. He looked like he wasn't even driving out there. He looked like he could have had a coffee break," he said, chuckling.
Demers wished to thank S.R.A. Karting, Steve Durkac form Durkac Karting, Northfast Limited and the rest of his sponsors, as well as the people of Sudbury, who watched him race on the Florida Winter Tour's website live feed.
