Daly enjoyed getting back in a kart with DFR at New Castle

	DeFrancesco Racing - April Report
	DeFrancesco Racing ran a pair of National events in April as the WSK North American Series by Championship Karting International began at New Castle Motorsports Park and the Pan American Rotax Max Challenge contested its opener at MSR Houston. The team once again had an impressive tally, as from 20 team starts it registered 14 top-five finishes! Beginning the month at New Castle, the DFR Rotax Mini-Max trio of Cole Glasson, Devlin DeFrancesco and Patricio O’Ward were joined by Leopard Junior driver Dore Chaponick and Star Mazda Championship driver Conor Daly. Fresh from a dominating weekend in St. Petersburg where he ran to victory from pole position, the Noblesville, Indiana, native was getting back to basics in contesting TaG Senior. “I had a great time with the DFR/Supertune USA guys all weekend!” Daly said in recalling the event. “They were extremely professional and fantastic to work with. Everyone under the tent works really hard because they’re driven to win! We had a lot of bad luck during the first part of the weekend but everyone kept their heads up, kept working at it, and eventually things started going our way. On Sunday I ran second the whole race and it came down to a last-lap battle which I unfortunately got the bad end of. Still, I came home 4th, which was fine with me because it was really a lot of fun. The guys offered nothing but the best support and I was proud to drive for them.” Daly’s fourth-place finish on Sunday was one on a day where the entire DFR/Supertune USA team placed in the top five. In Mini-Max, O’Ward was second, DeFrancesco fourth and Glasson fifth; and in Leopard Junior Chaponick matched Daly’s finish with a P4 himself. It was a much better day for the latter pair, as on Saturday Daly retired with clutch issues and Chaponick lost a fourth-place finish due to a cracked pipe. The Mini-Max drivers were in the thick of the fight at the front on day one, often among themselves as O’Ward was second, Glasson third after starting the day on pole and DeFrancesco fourth. When weekend points created the podium for event one, O’Ward had the second best total and DeFrancesco was third in joining him on the podium. The team once again had five drivers in action at the Pan American Rotax Max Challenge when Lachlan DeFrancesco made his Micro-Max debut in joining the four team regulars. Lachlan proved an excellent pupil as he bettered his best time in six consecutive sessions over the course of the weekend. A 1:01.842 second lap from qualifying was trimmed to a 1:00.757 best lap and a sixth-place finish when the checker waved on the Saturday final. He then bettered that time in Sunday qualifying, and by the final race of the weekend was down to 1:00.281 and finishing fifth! In Mini-Max the DFR trio was once again front and centre as DeFrancesco, Glasson and O’Ward went 2-3-4 on Saturday and 3-4-6 on Sunday with O’Ward and Glasson swapping spots in the order. Chaponick started on the front row both days in Rotax Junior, but was dealt tough blows on Saturday and Sunday. In the first final he fought for a podium spot before being knocked back to ninth, and on Sunday he suffered at the start and spent the run recovering from P15 to eighth. The month of May has one National start on the schedule for the team as the WSK North American Series by CKI has the Grand Prix of Phoenix in the middle of the month. For more information on DFR/Supertune USA and its drivers, please visit the team on Facebook.
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