It was a weekend of learning for Macie Hitter at round one of the HKRC championship as she made another step in her career switching over to the Praga Racing Team as she continues to build towards her transition to Ginetta Juniors at the end of the year.
The announcement of the team switch to Praga was a welcome sight in the Hitter camp and with 2021 looking to be a year filled with new challenges. A new chassis, a new team and a totally new environment is a handful for any driver and following some positive testing at PFI and Whilton mill, Macie was ready to take to Kimbolton and attack the first round of the championship.
Testing in the morning went well and was a clear reflection of the pace seen in pre-season, with Macie looking right at home in her new blue machine. With qualifying approaching it was clear the potential for a great weekend and season ahead was there.
Qualifying didn’t quite go to plan for the YRDA supported driver as mechanical gremlins limited the pace of Macie’s kart meaning a result of P29 was the best to be made of a difficult situation. As the heats came and went it was clear something was still not right and the mechanical issues persisted landing Macie in the repechage.
With minutes to go until the race the issue which had been haunting progress was uncovered and with no time to resolve the chance of starting the race was gone and Macie would sadly end her weekend early.
A undeserving result after some fantastic pace shown in practice and testing, however, with full focus on the car testing to come Macie will be looking to draw every inch of knowledge from every experience in 2021 as she aims to make her mark even bigger on the motorsport world.
Now all eyes turn to Whilton Mill and continuing to train hard for the Ginetta testing ahead. Following a similar path to that of fellow YRDA member Frederick Lubin who now races British F3, this shows the huge potential for Macie and despite the setback at the weekend she leaves with her head held high and all eyes on the next challenge.
