| I am a 15 year old 9th grader from the sunny Caribbean island of the Dominican Republic. I was born on Christmas Eve of 1993. At the present, I attend The Carol Morgan School of Santo Domingo, first American School on the island that was founded in 1933. In my early elementary years I began Taekwondo lessons at the age of 4, receiving black-belt (2nd DAN) on December of 2004. I have always loved outdoor sports. Soccer is one of my favorites. As well, baseball, barefoot water-skiing and basketball I greatly enjoy with friends. Each quarter in school I take advantage of the sport choices that are held in the after school programs. In 2007, I was awarded the President’s Award for Educational Excellence by George W. Bush in his President’s Education Awards Program for Outstanding Academic Excellence. It was a very emotional moment for my family and me that made us all very proud. I was entering 7th grade with flying colors. Math is by far my favorite subject. I am definitely a number and formula aficionado. In addition, I enjoy reading a great deal, too. Karting in the past year has been a discovery full of excitement and enthusiasm.
In my years of Karting, I learned a lot and discovered that this is my real passion. After participating in the Rotax Grand National in 2005 in Indiana and qualifying in 4th place with only six month of experience I decided that my goal was to train as hard as possible to win the 2006 Rotax Challenge.
With this in mind, I finished last year winning my last two races at Moroso and started very strong this year.I qualified or finished in the top four in all the seven races of the year, including fastest laps, pole positions and a victory in one of the races of the Florida Winter Tour and finished fourth overall in this Tour.
Living in a foreign country and racing in Florida have been very challenging with my commitment to get good grades. But, with the help from my family and extra hours at school I have managed to maintain the Grade Point Average that was expected from my parents to keep racing at an international level. The learning has not stopped, and the challenges are always rewarding.
2007 was one of my best years. First, I was elected in the National Junior Honor Society, because of my academic and extracurricular records. Second, I became part of the PSL Karting racing team from Canada and had good results in the Florida Winter Tour Championship. And third, Redbull (yes, the energy drink) elected me as one of their 380 athletes and pushed me to race in Europe. And, thanks to them and my parents, I will be the first Dominican to race in the CRG racing team in an championship in Europe. I will be racing in the WSK International Championship between the months of March and July. 2008 really made the difference. After qualifying or finishing top three in all the races that I participated with my racing team, I was selected by BMW as one of their Formula BMW Junior Drivers. This will keep me away from my initial passion of karting and will bring me into the new world of real car racing. I hope I can bring as many success stories as I did in karting. |
