Niki Arsham full of confidence at Sonoma

Niki Arsham went into the weekend with confidence in not only the car, but herself. Since they were at Sonoma Raceway for Round 2, she knew the car was set up perfectly for this weekend. On Saturday, Niki qualified fourth in her class, which put her in a great grid position for the start. Niki’s plan going into the race was simple: drive fast, save gas, and finish the race. She chose to go with a one-stop strategy and to not perform a driver change. Going into the race, she was feeling good that she’d be able to complete the 2.5hr race by herself. Arsham got a great start and was able to pass 4 cars by using the outside of turn 2 to her advantage. Niki started off strong and was consistent with her lap times. As the halfway mark neared closer, she started to go into fuel saver mode and managed to make it to the 1hr 20-minute mark before coming in for gas. She could have stayed out longer but she wanted to take advantage of the full course yellow during her stop. Thanks to the GoGoGear.com Team, she was able to complete a perfect pitstop and was back out on the track in no time. When Arsham rejoined the race, it was still a full course yellow, which allowed her to keep her fourth-place position.

Niki ended up keeping her position for the rest of the race and finished fourth in the Sportsman class. When talking with Niki after the race, she mentioned that she was proud of herself for finishing the race alone. “The last 30 minutes were hard. The lack of sleep over the weekend combined with the mental and physical load racing an enduro brings were really getting to me. I got a second wind in the last 20 minutes, but man those last few laps, felt like the longest laps ever!” Niki said as she described her race. She was happy with the result of the race and noted that everything went to plan, which rarely happens in racing “There was nothing that my team or I could have done to have made the race go any better”.