Team News: Makos Motorsports -- Florida Winter Tour --
Round #1
January 23, 2007
Makos Motorsports returned
from a solid start to its 2007 season a week ago as both Julius and
Matteus Makos gained valuable experience competing internationally
for the first time. Flying south to the opening round of the Formula
Kart Productions TonyKart Florida Winter Tour, both boys raced in
Group B Shockwave Karting Cadet as members of Cameron Motorsports/CRG
National Race Team.
Both team drivers gained precious seat time over
the course of the weekend, and both gained time on the watch as
well. Ten-year-old Julius began the weekend with a 57.4 second lap
in Friday timed practice and matched it Saturday morning as his
first race day got underway. Shaving a tenth in official qualifying,
Julius lined up 16th for the prefinal and had a very good run.
Holding position through the first flying lap, he passed forward to
13th on lap two and reached 12th in the middle stages before
crossing 13th at the checker. The final proved just as good as the
Richmond Hill, Ontario karter cut his fast lap down to a 57.0 and
knocked on the door of the top ten. Taking two spots from the first
two laps to reach 11th, Julius ran 12th through the middle of the
race before eyeing the top ten in the closing stages. He took one
spot back with five to go, but couldn’t run down the top ten in
his very first race.
Returning to the track Sunday for race two,
Julius showed growing confidence in his abilities and his Cameron/CRG
Fleming Comer as he qualified 11th with a 56.469 second lap - nearly
a full second quicker than just a day earlier! Some rough handling
in the prefinal saw him drop to dead last before charging back to
16th, and in the final he recovered two more spots to finish 14th.
The pair of finishes see Julius sitting 13th in the Florida Winter
Tour Championship with 85 points through round one, and just eleven
points from a top ten rank.
While finishing position is important for Matteus
Makos as well, seat time and gaining time on the stop watch is far
more important as the kid-karter is just seven years old and one of
the youngest karters racing in the winter tour. After getting close
in Friday practice, Matteus broke the one-minute mark for the first
time in Saturday warm up before smashing through the 59-second
bracket in official qualifying with a 58.642 second lap! He then ran
a solid prefinal in holding his starting position of 18th, and moved
forward in his first main event by gaining three spots and finishing
15th. Back at the track for Race #2 on Sunday, Matteus put down a
nearly identical qualifying time at 58.657 seconds, and had an
action-packed prefinal. Starting 18th, he lost two spots, gained
them back, lost them a second time and once again recovered to start
18th in the final once again. In the final, Matteus settled into
18th and ran a majority of the race there.
Makos Motorsports will return to Homestead-Miami
Speedway for Round 2 of the Winter Tour on February 15th. The
Florida Winter Tour is a three round, six race series, with drivers
counting their best five finishes toward championship standing.
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