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| September 25, 2012 News |
| Four Drivers Earn Tickets to Rotax Grand Finals with Success at Rotax Pan American Challenge Championship Event |
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The Track at Centennial in Colorado was the site of the 2012 Rotax Pan American Challenge Championship event, held this past weekend. The Denver-area facility was the site of the 2007 United States Rotax Max Challenge Grand Nationals, and welcomed its first major international karting event with drivers from the US, Canada, and surrounding countries. One the line for the weekend in four of the seven categories were direct ticket to this year’s Rotax Grand Finals, set for November 28-December 1 at the Kartodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimao, Portugal. The United States added three more drivers to Team USA with victories by Junior Max driver Ashley Rogero and DD2 Masters pilot Mike Jones, along with Louie Pagano earning his ticket in Senior Max. Jamaica will be represented by Collin Dalley, the victor in the DD2 category.
Pagano began the event as the top qualifier in the Senior Max category, aboard his Birel machine, posting a 54.258-second lap. Phil DeLaO, testing on the similar Sodikart chassis they will utilize at the Grand Finals, was second in the order, just 64-thousandths off Pagano’s time. Jesus Rios Jr. (Birel) and Colorado driver Will Owen (Arrow) were just a tenth off while Canadian Pearce Herder (LH) completed the top-five. Pagano went on to win the opening two heat races, with DeLeO securing the third qualifying heat, both remaining on the front row for the Prefinal with Pagano now holding the inside advantage. IndyCar driver Jay Howard (Praga) worked his way up from ninth to end up third overall after the heat races with Herder and Owen rounding out the top-five. After a red flag to begin the Prefinal (see wreck here), the race resumed with DeLaO able to break away to score a demanding four-second victory. Pagano fell back to fourth as both Howard and Herder worked by for position with defending Pan Am winner Marco DiLeo (Intrepid) up to fifth.
At the start of the feature, Howard got the jump on DeLaO as the green flag waved. From there, Howard led the entire 20-lap feature to earn the checkered flag. The fight for second was hotly contested with DeLaO, Pagano and Herder. DeLaO secured the position in the final two laps to cross second over Pagano with Herder fourth. Officials however laid down a 10-second penalty on Howard for a start infraction, crossing the acceleration line well ahead of DeLaO who was on the pole position. This cost Howard the victory as he fell to 12th in the final classification. This moved DeLaO to the top of the podium and moved Pagano to second. With DeLaO securing his ticket to the Grand Finals from his championship at the Challenge of the Americas series this winter, Pagano was awarded the spot and returns to Team USA, his first as a Senior driver. Herder was moved up to the third position on the podium with Stepanova Nekeel to fourth and Owen a respectable fifth. The field was also missing podium finisher from a year ago, Canadian Luke Chudleigh (Maranello). Suffering from pain during Friday’s action, he went to the hospital that night to discover he had a partially-ruptured appendix and had it removed during surgery. He’s doing much better now and EKN wishes him a speedy recovery.
The Junior Max class provided its own bit of drama on the weekend as well. Luke Selliken (Kosmic) began as the driver to beat, securing the pole position with a 54.360-second lap, edging out Jack Weprin (FA Kart) by just 39-thousandths. Gavin Reichelt (Tony Kart), who held a provisional podium position at the Grand Nationals until a technical disqualification removed him from the results, was third. Selliken had contact in the opening heat race, and recorded a DNF. That allowed Jake Craig, running a Kosmic kart for the first time, to take the win. Selliken bounced back to win the final two races, but was classified sixth on the Prefinal grid. Weprin earned the pole position with his consistent finishes with Reichelt off-pole. Craig and Kyle Kirkwood (Arrow) filled out row two with Ashley Rogero (Tony Kart) in fifth. Weprin led early before Craig took his turn at the point, eventually relinquishing the lead to Rogero. She scored the win by half a second over Craig with Kirkwood in third. Kirkwood got the better opening lap on the front two and fought his way to lead the early laps of the 20-lap main event. Rogero came back on lap four to secure the position and from there, drove on to take the victory by three-seconds to earn her second time as part of Team USA for the Rotax Grand Finals. Juan Manel Correa (Praga) drove a great race to second, edging out Selliken for the spot. Kirkwood ended up fourth with Craig running fifth.
The two DD2 categories ran together with a combined 17 drivers (nine in DD2, eight in DD2 Masters). Jamaican driver Collin Daley (CRG) led the way in qualifying ahead of Team USA member Fritz Leesmann (CRG) and Luis Schiavo (Praga). Leesmann was able to score the win in heat one, but Daley responded with victories in the final two qualifiers to secure the pole position into the Prefinal. Daley went wire-to-wire in the Prefinal as Leesmann fell down the order. Brendon Bain (Maranello) drove to second with Schiavo in third. Prior to the main event, officials made the decision to provide a new set of Mojo tires to each competitor before the race after a number of complaints about different constructed tires were distributed. With all the drivers on the same batch of tires, the 20-lap final got underway. After losing the lead early to Bain, Daley moved back to the point on lap three and held off a charging Schiavo for the victory to carry the Jamaican flag to the Rotax Grand Finals. Tyler McEwan (CRG) drove from eighth to finish third.
Juan Font (Praga) was the top qualifier in DD2 Masters with Ariel Castro (AM Kart) and Jim Carey (Zanardi) completing the top-three. Castro proved to be the driver to beat through the heat races as he won all three. Scott Falcone (Arrow) ran top-three in each to end to start the Prefinal second alongside Castro with Mike Jones (Sodikart) improving from fifth in qualifying to start third. Castro was quick early in the Prefinal but Jones prevailed with the race win. Falcone and Font were able to work by Castro for position as well before the checkered flag. From the pole position, Jones led wire-to-wire to secure the class victory and his first trip to the Rotax Grand Finals. Falcone had to settle for second, just 1.4-seconds back as Font completed the podium as Castro retired on lap nine.
Wright Hugus III was the top driver in the Masters Max category, outrunning Scotty Berryman and Russ Johnson. Brothers Santiago and Sergio Terife, both on Tony Kart entries, went 1-2 in the Mini Max category. David Rafailov (CRG) was the top dog throughout the event until contact took him out of contention on lap six of the main event. Santiago took over the lead and went on to score the win by three seconds over his brother Sergio. Michael Benyahia (Tecno) drove to the third spot. In Micro Max, current EKN United States Rotax Max Challenge Driver Rankings no. 1 driver Dylan Tavella (Tony Kart) came from fifth after the opening lap to score the victory. A number of drivers lead in the first half until Tavella secured the lead on lap 11. He led the final three circuits to score the victory by just under two tenths over Alessandro Famularo (Tony Kart) and Anthony Famularo (Tony Kart) in third.
Team USA will now be it’s largest in the 13 year history of the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals, with 20 drivers representing the red, white and blue as Team Canada will have 14 drivers on their 2012 roster, both teams containing very talented drivers in the four different categories. EKN will have full coverage of the Rotax Grand Finals from Portugal, beginning with a full team profile of Team USA on eKartingNews.com and Team Canada on eKartingNews.ca. |
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