The 2014 Florida Winter Tour is on track in Ocala, Florida, USA for the second round of the three-stop championship. After success a month ago in Homestead, the series shifted north to a much cooler Ocala Gran Prix. Beautiful sunny skies helped warm up a very chilly morning for Fridays qualifying sessions, setting the tone for the remainder of the weekend.
In Rotax DD2, there is once again a solid group of individuals on hand, although Homestead winner Arnaud Kozlinski is absent.
American Nick Neri (OGP/TonyKart) blistered off a time of 35.929 seconds to earn the pole-position for Sunday’s race day in the first qualifying session, beating Costa Rican Danny Formal (PSL/CRG) by a mere 0.002 seconds! All within the next tenth, Jonathan Kotyk (OGP/TonyKart), Paulo de Conto (KMS/Birel) and Alessandro Bressan (J3 Competition/TonyKart) rounded the top-five making it three Americans and two Italians up front.
Fred Woodley (Maranello) and Jeff Kingsley (PSL/CRG) were eighth and ninth as the lone Canadians in the category this weekend.
The afternoon session set the grid for Saturday and it was the same five in the top-five, but this time it was de Conto who set the pace, bettering Neri’s time from earlier by two-tenths. Bressan improved himself up to second giving Italy the front row, while Kotyk was again in third. Neri’s time was almost identical, but only good enough for fourth with Formal fifth. Kingsley was eighth and Woodley tenth.
