Race Report: Florida Winter Tour --
Round 3 -- Group B
March 19, 2007
The Formula Kart Productions TonyKart Florida Winter Tour closed
out its Group B schedule Sunday with a handful of championships
coming down to the wire. The Ocala Gran Prix was the venue and once
again mother nature offered full cooperation as Champions were
crowned across Cadet, ICA, TaG, and three shifter classes - none
bigger than FirstKart.com Pro Shifter where Michael Vincec, Jon
Branam and David Jurca were set to settle matters Sunday afternoon.
After firing a warning shot with the quickest
time in morning warmup, Vincec put his Cameron/CRG on pole with a
35.295 second lap on his fourth tour. Leading the points by fifteen
heading into the final race, Vincec was looking to go out on top,
not just managing the ledger. Tony Kart Florida’s Danilo Dirani
joined Vincec on the front row with a 35.455, and Italian Motors’
David Jurca lined up third, the position he held in points as well
with one race left to run. Canadian Pier-Luc Ouellette completed the
first two rows, followed by Jurca’s new teammate Ben Petter and
Cameron/CRG’s latest signing Curtis Fox. Defending Pro-Shifter
Champion Jonathan Branam was facing a long day’s work after
qualifying as he completed just two laps before pulling in with
mechanical problems. He would line up 22nd - and last in looking to
repeat.
Taking the flag in the prefinal Vincec got the
holeshot and was managing things from the front when disaster struck
working lap ten of fifteen. A spun gear was the culprit, the three
pins shearing off, and Vincec’s title hopes would begin from the
back row in the main event. Meanwhile, Jurca was poised in the
prefinal and after slotting into second at the start he inherited
the lead in gaining pole for the finale. While the karting star from
Federal Way, Washington, was at the head of the line, Vincec was at
the back. If the eKartingNews.com Rising Star needed inspiration, he
need look no further than the third title protagonist Branam, who
sliced through the field in the prefinal and in just eleven laps
reached sixth, ultimately crossing fifth and earning a spot on the
inside of row three. Dirani and Ouellette were second and third in
the precursor as they settled in at the start and also stepped up
one spot when Vincec retired. Fourth went to PSL’s Jan Velez
Walter who also charged forward in the prefinal after starting
tenth.
The main event was flag-to-flag DJ. Taking the
holeshot, Jurca was doing all he could to score maximum points with
the knowledge that Branam could not repeat as champion without
passing his Italkart, and Vincec would have to reach fourth in the
order to become champion. For his part, Branam held station at the
start before taking Velez for fourth in the early stages and
Ouellette for third as the race neared half distance. He then
slipped past Dirani working lap 18 of 25, but his title bid came up
seven-tenths short of Jurca’s bumper at the line. Vincec, though,
could still have his say. Already sixteenth after the first flyer,
the 2006 Stars of Karting Rookie-of-the-Year steadily picked his way
forward and was seventh by lap ten - leaving fifteen laps to reach
fourth and claim the title. It seemed imminent the way he had barged
into the top ten early, but Vincec was still seventh with seven laps
to go when he finally dispatched Hayden Duerson and bore down on
Velez. One lap later he was by and in fifth, but the gap to
Ouellette would prove too big to cover and Jurca claimed the
Championship by just five points from the other pair. Make no
mistake, Jurca was full value for the 2007 Tour where he went
back-to-back at the final round. Heading in, he’d scored a second,
third, fourth, and was dropping a fifth-place finish as his worst.
Vincec definitely came as advertised as well, as did Branam in his
effort to repeat. The trio stole the show Sunday.
Over in CMW Engines ICA, Victor Cabrera and
Jake Rosenzweig were set to settle things after each dropped the
ball Saturday and accomplished nothing. Cabrera entered with J3
Competition/Kosmic in the point lead while Rosenzweig was thirty
points back and looking to wrest the title for PSL/CRG. The pair
promptly posted 1-2 in qualifying, and held station in the prefinal
with Rosenzweig keeping pole. Nico Silva crossed third for SSC/CRG,
while Xavier Coupal maintained his strong form after qualifying
third and was fourth in the heat race for SH Karting/Tony Kart.
Repeating with double-duty Sunday, Brandon Jones was fifth for Arrow
USA, just ahead of Indie Race Development/Birel teammates Dominic
Scheer and Federico Montoya. The talent was deep in ICA, as National
#1 Joel Miller was next, followed by Kevin Glover (Genesis/CRG) and
Cody Jolly, (Cameron/CRG) all ten crossing within ten seconds in the
prefinal. In the end though, it was all about Rosenzweig.
Taking the lead from the drop of the green,
Rosenzweig never trailed in adding his first Tour win to a pair of
seconds, a third, and a fifth from earlier action. In order to take
the title, Cabrera would need to remain in the top five. That plan
was quickly shot as rough treatment at the start had the J3 pilot
shuffled outside at turn one and sliding on marbles. Tenth after the
first flyer things looked bleak, and all doubt was erased three laps
later when a stuck motor lead to a full retirement. Silva slotted
into second at the start before crossing six seconds back of
Rosenzweig at the checker, and Jolly wrapped a great run for
Cameron/CRG in taking third and rounding the final podium. Arrow USA
ironman Brandon Jones was fourth, and James Kennedy fifth for Sodi
Kart.
BTK/Arrow Racing Karts JICA was wide open
heading into the final race as Tony Kart USA’s Jarvis Gennari
entered with 325 points, followed closely by: Saturday winner and
Tony Kart hotshoe Chemill Mercado at 317, both FirstKart.com’s
Spencer Pigot and pslkarting.com’s Mikael Grenier at 305, and
teammate Gustavo Menezes fifth at 301 points and by no means out of
touch. Add in National powers Brendan Langlois (FirstKart.com),
David Ostella (Cameron/CRG) and Thomas Silva (SSC East/CRG) and this
one was a crap shoot - as many JICA races are. Mercado maintained
his weekend momentum in taking pole from Langlois, Grenier, Silva
and Pigot, and kept the spot following lunch in winning the prefinal.
Silva and Langlois chased him across the wire, each crossing within
a tenth of the leader. Ostella climbed from tenth to fourth in the
heat race, followed home by Championship hopefuls Pigot and Gennari.
Grenier and Menezes took big hits in the prefinal as Grenier retired
from fourth on lap seven and Menezes bounced around before crossing
seventeenth.
Sorting the order at the start of the main,
Langlois, Silva and Mercado were in line by lap five and stayed that
way into the closing stages. Gennari was fourth, and could have won
the championship by staying there, yet on lap nineteen moved two
spots forward into second and chased after Langlois. Mercado
remained on his bumper, and the lead trio would stay that way:
Langlois taking his first win of the season, Gennari taking the
championship, and Mercado completing the podium and taking second in
the six race Tour. Silva and Pigot were fourth and fifth. In the
final count, FirstKart.com teammates Langlois and Pigot tied for
third behind the Tony Kart duo and Silva advanced to fifth when all
was said and done.
Tristan DeGrand was living large in Shockwave
Karting Cadet in Ocala as he swept the Saturday proceedings for J3
Competition/Kosmic and took a stranglehold on the championship in
the process. All he would need in order to be king on Sunday was to
mind his nose and bumper. He did so in qualifying, starting on the
front row beside polesitter Carlos Abreu (Nevoso), and he was right
back on top after the prefinal when he edged Abreu by just 0.062
seconds at the checker to take pole for the main event. The pair
scrapped throughout the prefinal before DeGrand took the win on the
final lap, and in the main history repeated itself as race four
winner Abreu led under the white flag only to have DeGrand take the
win and the Championship the final time around Ocala Gran Prix. Nick
Neri (Tony Kart) completed the podium and took second in overall
points,
just ahead of Cameron/CRG teammates Julius Makos,
who was having a breakout weekend in following his third-place from Saturday, and Garret
Grist who impressed in his first weekend of racing this season.
Elsewhere on Sunday a trio of race winners were
Championship winners in the process. Kelly Baker took both titles in
MRP Masters Shifter, Tom Mounce did the double in International
Racing Spec Moto, and Garrett Olsen owned the hardware in RDD
Motorsports TaG Heavy. The exception to the rule was J3 Competition/Kosmic
Racing Karts TaG Senior where Canadian Kyle Herder
(Karts&Parts/Arrow) took the race win from FirstKart.com’s
Zach Beard and Tony Kart Florida’s Andre Martins. Brandon Jones
retired from the race, but took the Championship nonetheless.
The 2007 Florida Winter Tour presented by Tony
Kart Florida now has one event remaining as the Rotax masses from
Group A invade Ocala beginning this Friday with practice. Race
previews will post later this week on both eKartingNews.com and
eKartingNews.ca
|
|
GO TO PREVIOUS STORY
