Two Weeks, Two Tracks, Countless Lessons: CotA & Barber Kick Off the 2025 Season

The 2025 season came in fast and heavy—two major race weekends back-to-back, kicking off with the MotoGP support race at Circuit of the Americas (CotA), followed by Round 1 of MotoAmerica at Barber Motorsports Park.

Let’s just say we were thrown into the deep end… and we swam.

CotA: In the Shadow of MotoGP

You can look at Friday’s weather one of two ways.

On the plus side, rain gave us a chance to ease into the massive CotA circuit at lower speeds. On the downside, it meant a slick track with limited grip and no real chance to push the limits. Either way, it was surreal to be out there in front of the MotoGP, Moto2, and Moto3 teams. Big names. Big energy.

Practice & Qualifying

Friday morning practice was tense. New bikes, new gear, new championship, and a whole lot of unknowns. What would the gearing need to be? What suspension setup would work? Who was going to be fast?

Despite the nerves, I ended up 6th in Practice 1. The gaps were big between riders, so I knew I’d need to find another gear before Qualifying.

Qualifying 1 was dry, finally letting us push. I landed in 5th, less than a second off DiMario—the guy everyone’s been chasing. By the end of Qualifying 2 on Saturday, I was still holding 6th on the grid for Race 1. We didn’t make many changes—gearing was pretty close from the start, and our Cresson-tested soft suspension felt great.

That’s a BIG hill…

Race 1: Trouble in the Tank

We tried tweaking the gearing for more top-end speed, but something felt off. Every time I got on the gas, the bike bogged. No drive. Watching other riders blow past me on the back straight was frustrating. I ended up finishing 11th, and we knew something was seriously wrong.

Saturday night, my dad and Rueben tore into the bike. It wasn’t until Sunday morning that they found the culprit—clogged fuel pump and filter, full of black debris. The Kramer crew stopped by, took one look, and said, “Yeah… that’s not supposed to look like that.” They hooked us up with a new filter and pump, and confidence was back on the rise.

We didn’t have a warmup to test Race 2 setup, so we reverted to the qualifying gearing. It was a safe call, and I knew I could be fast on it.

My cousin came out to be my umbrella man

Race 2: Redemption and a Battle Royale

Race 2 was a whole different story. I got off the line strong and slotted into 3rd behind DiMario and Bodie. Game on.

Then came Turn 3. I ran wide, lost time, and rejoined in 5th. It was a quiet few laps—until Derek Sanchez showed up and we started duking it out. We were so focused on each other that it allowed Kody Kopp, Ella Dreher, and Rossi Garcia to catch us.

Final lap, I went full defense mode—held the inside, braked deep, but lost grip on exit. The rear slid, and Ella, Derek, and Kody all came by before the line. I finished 8th.

Frustrating? Sure. But it was a heck of a race and we learned a ton.

Barber: New Round, Fresh Start

No rest for the weary. One week later, we rolled into Barber Motorsports Park for MotoAmerica Round 1.

We had a strong start—good gearing out of the gate, and I finished Practice 1 in 4th. By Q1, I shaved nearly a full second off my time and finished 5th. In Q2, we tried a different gear setup and I dropped another 0.4s, finishing 3rd in the session. On combined times, I lined up 5th—middle of row two with a clean shot into Turn 1.

We were starting to lean heavily into data at Barber. Everything we learned at CotA helped us make smarter decisions here. They weren’t easier, but they had more logic behind them.

Race 1: Close Combat

Race 1 was likely going to be our only dry race of the weekend. We adjusted the gearing for more punch out of the corners—and it worked. I dropped another 0.4s during the race.

I ran in 4th for most of it, locked in battle with Ella Dreher and Julian Correa. I was faster into corners, they pulled out harder. Classic match-up. On the last corner, Ella snuck past me and I crossed the line in 5th—just 0.315s behind her.

It was a good fight, and I was fired up for Sunday.

Race 2: Slippery When Soaring

Rain rolled in just as expected. Everything was delayed and reshuffled—we didn’t even know if we’d race until around noon.

During our quick acclimation session, I felt great. Right up until Turn 6… when I highsided to the moon. Miraculously, I was okay—and so was the Kramer. Tough bike.

The windscreen was toast, though. No time to fix it, so I went out for Race 2 with it broken.

I got a clean launch and was battling with Sam, Derek, and Ella the whole time. But the missing windscreen hurt more than expected—every time I popped out of the draft, the wind would hit like a wall. I couldn’t make the passes stick.

Still, I brought it home in 7th. Salvage mode complete.

What’s Next: Road America

Two race weekends back-to-back. Rain, battles, breakdowns, comebacks—welcome to racing.

These first rounds tested all of us. We’ve still got a long way to go, but the growth from CotA to Barber was massive. I’m proud of the team, grateful to our sponsors, and more motivated than ever.

Next stop: Road America at the end of May. Let’s keep climbing.

Want to keep up with the journey?

Make sure to follow us on Instagram and check out Pressure to Rise on YouTube for behind-the-scenes coverage of the Talent Cup. Huge thanks to our sponsors—you’re the reason we’re able to chase this dream. See you in Wisconsin!

Back on Track: Carson’s First Test of 2025 with the Kramer APX-350 MA

Back on Track: Carson’s First Test of 2025 with the Kramer APX-350 MA

The past two days marked a major milestone: Carson King is officially back on a roadracing bike for 2025. It’s been a wild ride getting here, with plenty of twists and turns along the way.

Our original plan was to race in MotoAmerica’s Twins Cup this year. But as things developed over the offseason, we made the call to jump into the newly-formed Talent Cup aboard the all-new Kramer APX-350 MA. Big change? Absolutely. Right move? We think so.

A Tight Timeline and a Big Fix

The Kramer arrived at our shop about a week before we had to leave for the MotoAmerica pre-season test at Motorsports Ranch in Cresson, TX. Not much time to prep, but we were excited… until we learned we couldn’t even start the bike.

Some of the other teams who’d already gotten on track ran into engine issues, and Kramer worked fast to figure out a solution. Part of that fix? We needed to head down to Texas a day early so the Kramer team could update our bike before the test started. Not ideal—but we rolled with it.

Sunday was all about the Kramer guys wrenching and getting bikes sorted while teams trickled into the paddock. And then… well, something we didn’t expect happened.

King Kenny Roberts and his son Kenny Jr. showed up. Yeah. Just hanging out, talking shop with us like it was no big deal. Chatting about the new bikes, the series, and what Carson’s got going this season. That wasn’t exactly on our bingo card for the weekend.

First Ride, Steep Learning Curve

By Monday morning, it was time to hit the track for the first time on the new bike. And let’s be honest—we knew right away we had our work cut out for us.

The Kramer APX-350 MA handles completely differently from anything Carson’s ever ridden. It’s also the most advanced bike we’ve worked on, packed with adjustments and data logging that’ll keep us busy all season. The learning curve? Pretty vertical.

But Carson did what Carson does—he got to work. He kept chipping away, improving every session as he learned the bike and the track. Meanwhile, I was elbows-deep trying to figure out the data. That part didn’t go entirely to plan.

Our homemade mount for the AiM Solo2 DL broke halfway through the day. That left us flying blind on lap times and without any data for a few sessions. We pulled together a quick fix to get through the day, but we’ve got a new mount design coming before our next test.

Cameras Rolling and Pressure Rising

Another curveball? MotoAmerica’s Pressure to Rise YouTube series was there filming. They’re following the Talent Cup riders this season, and they dropped by our pit for an interview. Look for us in the series—we were deep in conversation about gearing changes when the cameras started rolling. Guess we better keep an eye on the episodes from here on out!

Carson being interviewed by the MotoAmerica Pressure to Rise team

Day 2: Progress and Pushing Limits

Tuesday started off windy—like really windy. But Carson went out and immediately dropped some solid times on the same setup we finished with the day before, running a shorter rear sprocket.

After a few sessions, we realized that gearing wasn’t doing us any favors, so we made the call to go the other direction. Carson found more speed with a taller gear—more drive out of corners and more stability in the fast stuff.

Travis installing new gearing to try out

With Carson getting more comfortable, we started experimenting with the suspension. Softer springs front and rear gave him instant confidence—no more unexpected wheelies or rear-wheel lift under braking. We tried going softer again on the front, but by then, the tires were shot and Carson was spent. After two long days and probably 50-75 laps each day, he was still within a tenth of his best time. That’s grit.

What’s Next: CotA with MotoGP!

This test was a huge step for the whole team. Carson’s learning the bike, understanding how setup changes feel, and giving us better feedback every session. I’m learning how to read the data (and what data matters), and Travis and Jalynn are figuring out how to keep this machine dialed in.

It’s going to be a year of learning for all of us—but we’re here for it.

Next up: Circuit of the Americas at the end of March. Carson will race in the Talent Cup as a support class for MotoGP. He’ll be riding in front of the biggest crowd of his career in one of the most legendary paddocks on the planet. We can’t wait.

Stay tuned!

Barber (epilogue)

To say things didn’t go to plan on Sunday would be an understatement of epic proportions.

The morning warm-up was the only thing executed according to plan. Carson tried an update to the set-up in this session, but it didn’t deliver, so it was backed out for the race.

the calm before the storm, getting ready for the morning warm-up

At about the 10-minute warning, Travis went to warm up the bike, but it didn’t kick over after a few seconds on the starter. Concerned, Travis started looking for a pulse in the fuel pump but didn’t hear it kick on when they turned on the bike. We started furiously pulling panels off, checking wiring connections but nothing was causing it to work. It had just decided that it wasn’t feeling it today. Continuing to check connections was just getting us deeper into the bike and time was quickly ticking down. With about zero seconds remaining, Travis found something that worked, touched the starter and the bike was running!

At this time, the grid had already gone out for their sighting lap and was about to leave for the warm-up. We were hoping we could get him down there to participate in the warm-up, but we would be happy if they’d let him start from the pit lane. Carson motored down there and was able to wait at the end of the pit lane but wasn’t allowed to take his place on the grid. An excellent performance so far this weekend was about to go unrewarded.

Because of the mad dash to get him on the track, we could not see the start, but we knew he went into turn 1 in dead last. Carson was fired up, though. By the end of lap 1, he had gone from 22nd to 17th, lap 2 had him up to 12th, and by lap 3, he was in sight of the top ten, a few seconds behind Ryan Barbour but catching him rapidly. Isaac Woodworth crashed out of the lead in turn 5 on lap 3, promoting Carson to 11th. Trenton Keesee did us a solid and slid out unharmed on lap 4, promoting Carson to 10th.

Bikes on track at the penultimate turn

At this stage of the race, Ryan was about 6 seconds behind Ella Dreher and the front group of 9 riders and losing time, so for Carson to move up beyond 10th was going to require a miracle. Carson was still charging hard, smashing in consistently low 1:39 lap times as he reeled in Ryan Barbour. On lap 6 of 11, Carson blitzed past Ryan and headed off into the sunset to try to catch Jayden Fernandez, who was 6 seconds up the road running a lonely 8th after Ella Dreher had passed him and left him for dead.

On lap 7, something clicked for Ryan, and he started getting racy with Carson, dropping over a second per lap to try and stick with him. Ryan went up the inside of Carson a few times going into turn 5, but each time Carson would just watch him come by and then drive out of the corner in front, retaining the position. Outside of those few challenges in turn 5, Ryan didn’t mount a serious challenge to the position, averaging 1-2 tenths of a second slower each lap.

Carson took a challenging situation from race 2 and turned it into about the best outcome we could have hoped for, but it was truly a bummer, given his pace all weekend. We still believe he would have stuck with the lead pack for the whole race without those gremlins.

This is the second time we’ve encountered this fuel pump issue in two events, and we need to contact TNT because, apparently, we also know drama.

Here’s a link to the highlights from the event

more sculptures from around the track

Barber (part 1)

It’s Saturday night and we’ve just gotten back to our hotel room from a very busy day at the track. With Qualifying 2 at 7:45, we had to get to Barber early so we could help Travis and Carson prep for the session. We didn’t make it in time, but were able to catch the last little bit of the action from the paddock.

The race rig all stickered up and ready to go

Carson was running in the top 8 when he came in to the pits so he could connect with a faster group and learn some fresh lines. Unfortunately, the guy from MotoAmerica decided to hold Carson because the battery on his rain light had died. By the time he was allowed to rejoin, there was only time for 1 lap, and he didn’t have a fast group to draft with. P12 it is then.

Travis safety-wiring the front caliper after installing the new pads

Prepping for the race today was great, Travis and Kenny were taping the Dzus fasteners down on the bodywork, installing new brake pads, checking pressures, and getting those sweet, sweet, tire warmers on.

There was a lot of anticipation building up for the race, as the forecast called for rain to start at exactly the same time as the race. In a win for all of us, the weather held off and we were treated to an amazing dry race.

my view of the grid from the top of the timing and scoring building (that’s Carson)

Carson's start

Carson got a great launch and was quickly past the 11th placed Ella Dreher and the 10th placed Trenton Keesee that had jumped the start. Carson was in 10th going into turn one. He crested the hill of turn 4 in 11th and got back by Ella on the brakes headed into 5, driving out and away from her, securing the position. Over the next 4-5 laps, Carson would be battling all over the track with Yandel Medina and Ryan Wolfe, making it as far forward as 7th on lap 5 when he went down the inside of Yandel into turn 1. These guys were swapping positions seemingly turn by turn and Carson was in the lead group, about 1.5s behind Logan Cunnison in 1st, running similar times. He was embedded in the lead pack. It all went wrong on lap 7 (of 11) when Carson tossed it away in turn 15 while passing Isaac Woodworth on the outside.

Carson had a little swelling on his knee but escaped mostly unscathed to fight again tomorrow. Travis did most of the repairs to the bike while we were waiting for MotoAmerica to release it back to us, so it was a cleanup job and they’re ready to go for tomorrow. Warm-up starts at 8:35, so we get to sleep in!

Here’s a link to the Race 1 highlights, you can see Carson quite a bit in that lead pack