Negri Races Hard to the Finish in SuperFinal for Kayla Graham Racing

21 November, 2010--Running in his first-ever SKUSA SuperNationals event for Kayla Graham Racing, Ozz Negri raced his way into the SuperFinal in the ultra-competitive TaG Senior class, taking 14th on the grid in the 80-kart class after overcoming a setback in qualifying. The much-anticipated SuperFinal got off to a flying start, with Negri quickly moving to 12th in the running order. But blood was in the water as he was soon shuffled back to 25th after a handful of laps. Not one to give up, Negri kept improving his lap times all the way to the checkered flag, moving up to come home 23rd in his first-ever SuperNationals appearance.

"I have to tell you, I learned so much this weekend," said Negri of his SuperNationals debut. "In the final, I got a good start and moved up a little bit. I was feeling good, because if we could have moved into the top ten I think that would have felt like a win with the competition here being so high and it being my first time here. Then as we got going, I was coming in to turn five, and the guys were taking the inside line. I was thinking, 'perfect!' I'll run the normal line and have some good momentum out of the corner and pass them on the next straight. Well, unfortunately--there was a reason all those guys were running that inside line! The moment I broke to the outside, three guys were right there and kind of moved me out of the way."

"I thought maybe it was just those guys being that agreessive, and I did it again a few corners later, trying to get a good time in to make up ground. But the same exact thing happened--another train of guys pushing their way by. Incredible--you can not give up a half an inch! So then I realized, you just have to run to protect the spot and not move up. But by that point in the race, I was so far back I couldn't really make up the ground I wanted to even though we were getting faster and faster."

The weekend was a true baptism of fire for Negri, who was backed up by the hard work from his crew as they worked to continually optimize the Kart Mini through a weekend that featured sun, rain, wind, and nearly everything in between through the multiple warm-ups, heat sessions, qualifying, and SuperFinal sessions during the five-day event staged outside the Rio Casino.

For Negri, the weekend brought a huge challenge, but was one the hard driving and hard-working Brazilian relished.

"I really was hoping to bring John Graham a stronger finish for the weekend, but we overcame a lot, and I loved the event," said Negri. "My mechanics worked so hard and we kept fighting so it was a very good experience. I'm so motivated by how competitive this was, and now I just can't wait to get back into a Daytona Prototype for Michael Shank Racing for the 24."

-source: kayla graham racing