We here at Saratoga TODAY are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Connor LaFrance last Friday. We have come to enjoy reading his stories about all of his accomplishments and sharing them with our readers. Our thoughts and prayers are with Connor's family and friends.

- Saratoga TODAY staff

In practice, I was running pretty good with the experts I was keeping up with last year’s Dagostino Cup winner Gary Conklin.

In my first heat race, 450 Expert, I qualified 3rd out of 14. In Sportsman, I qualified on Pole (first) out of 14 or 15. For the Dagostino Cup, I had to place in the top three to tranfer to the main event.

Jared Mees, a current national GNCC PRO rider who is currently No. 2 in the country was in my heat race, so I really wanted to win. I ended up getting the hole shot with him right on me but it was red flagged because someone jumped at the start.

We lined up again and I barely got the hole shot, it was me and Jared side by side into turn 1 but I came out of turn 2 in first! I knew Jared was going to be right on me, so I was making sure I didn’t make any mistakes.

I could hear him right behind me but we pulled a half straight away from everyone else and he didn’t get by me!! I beat the No. 2 pro rider in the country!!

I was hoping for Pole for the main event for the Dagostino Cup, but since my heat race was red flagged, our total lap race time was longer than the other heats.

I ended up gridding third with Pro Sport National Half Mile winner Mike Radley on Pole. In my first main event, 450 Expert, I had a real bad start but ended up sneaking into 4th and was right on third trying to pass him when my bike stopped running!

I couldn’t finish that race, so I went back to the pits to try to get the bike ready for the next race. After a quick fix from my dad, I went out for my second race, Sportsman, and won by over a half a straight away!

The Dagostino Cup was a 20-lap race and my back tire was pretty worn from all the days racing. I didn’t have a new one so off I went to race. I wasn’t hooking up as well as earlier in the day so I couldn’t push it as hard into corners.

I was in third for 17 laps when Mike Radley got on the inside of me and I got pushed off the groove and ended up in fifth. It turned out to be an awesome day and I did pretty good.

I’d like to thank all my sponsors and Jim from Pro Cycles for taking me there in the morning while my dad worked.

The other exciting news is that I was selected to test for the KTM Red Bull Rookies Cup in two weeks! This is a new road racing series that will run with the AMA national series and only twenty kids will qualify to race in the series. I head down to Alabama in two weeks to test at Barber Motorsports Park. 600 kids applied and 80 kids are testing so wish me luck!!