There’s nothing like the home crowd. Estenson Racing’s Kolby Carlile, who hails from nearby Canandaigua, loved battling it out in front of friends and family at the inaugural New York Short Track at Weedsport Speedway. Although he was set on the win, at the end of the day, the reigning American Flat Track AFT Singles Champion recouped some valuable points in the title chase.
Carlile struggled a bit in qualifying with a seventh-place finish, but the New Yorker went into the race with a lot of confidence. He took a third-place finish in his Heat and then went on to win his Semi, landing him pole position in the Main Event. Unfortunately, he didn’t get a great start and the track got drier, not working with his set up. A fourth-place finish wasn’t what Carlile wanted, but regaining some points after last weekend’s Lima Half-Mile mechanical was a boost in the right direction.
Kolby Carlile – AFT Singles #1:
“The crowd was going nuts when they announced my name. I was hyping them up. That fed into me. Obviously, I wanted to win the race and I set pole for the Main Event, but the track changed quite a bit between the Semi and the Main. It got a lot drier. We were pretty busy working on the bike. We didn’t really have a lot of time to make some suspension changes. I think if we would have made some there, we could have had the win.
“In the end, the start was so crucial, and I came off the line in second or third. I got shuffled around a lot. There was a little bit of bumping and banging, but we ended up fourth and got some points back on second and third [in the championship]. I’m just going to enjoy this time off and build my body and build everything I can to get ready for Rapid City.”
Catch the New York Short Track on NBCSN, July 15 at 1:00 p.m. ET.
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