Competing in the final round of the 2014 Florida Winter Tour in Orlando, SH Racing of St-Hilaire, Quebec returned to the top of the podium with a victory in the Rotax Junior category by Mexican driver Patricio O’Ward along with a podium appearance for Micro-Max racer Thomas Nepveu.
O’Ward joined the team for the Ocala rounds in February and impressed many with his outright speed, but some bad luck kept him from scoring the results he deserved. This was not the case in Orlando as O’Ward qualified on the front row for both days of competition on his SH Racing prepared FA Kart.
Victory looked in sight on Saturday as O’Ward drove away with the prefinal win, but a start violation penalty forced him to start deep in the field and the podium was out of reach. Returning on Sunday O’Ward and SH Racing were on a mission and only had one goal on their minds: victory.
The goal was accomplished as O’Ward was no match for his competition, sweeping the days action and scoring a convincing victory. On Sunday, O’Wards SH Racing teammate Samuel Lupien qualified fifth, but some bad luck saw him finish on the sidelines in both Finals on the weekend after displaying great pace in a very tough Rotax Junior division.
SH Racing was also successful in the Micro-Max category as Thomas Nepveu was able to place his SH Racing FA Kart on the Sunday podium with a third place result. It was a challenging weekend for the youngster who also join SH in Ocala, but with a little luck Nepveu overcame some adversity and now looks forward to the Canadian karting season on a positive note.
It is worth noting that Rotax Senior pilot Steven Szigeti was absent from the team after competing in the opening two rounds with mixed results. Szigeti will lead the team in Rotax Senior when the Canadian season begins in May.
SH Racing was supported in Orlando by Christian Gagnon, mechanic of O’Ward, along with Alex Vincent, who worked with all team drivers.
Sacha Gagnon, SH Racing Team Manager:
“We are very happy with the results of the new SH Racing Team and our FA Karts from the Florida Winter Tour. Pato did a great job as did Thomas to put SH Racing on the Florida Winter Tour podium or Orlando, while the Lupien brothers and Steven Szigeti showed that we can be competitive in any class, right away. We are really looking forward to getting back to Canada now and getting our Canadian season underway, which starts in May with the Coupe du Quebec at our home track.
For more information about the SH Racing Team, contact sgagnon@shracing.ca.
