It was a very long day two of competition at the inaugural US Open Karting Championship as all ten classes were slated to run three rounds of heat races at the Dallas Karting Complex.
Although the forecast had predicted a heavy amount of rain, the system moved west overnight and for the first day in many, Saturday featured clear skies and no rain and treated racers to a much more pleasant race day.
Following the race day of action, the MaxSpeed Group hosted their usual dinner party for everyone in attendance, followed by the first annual Karting Community United rental kart races, which raised no less than $8000.00 for the charity that supports our own.
The Dallas Karting Complex helped close out the long day of action with a spectacular fireworks display along with a bikini contest for those who stuck around to see some of the local talent.
A handful of drivers stood out on Saturday as the track really began to rebuild up the grip levels and act like the Texas track many expected to compete on.
Jordon Lennox (PSL Karting/BirelART) was feeling much better and it showed in his control of the Shifter Elite category, winning all three heat races and earning the outright pole-position for Sunday’s Final.
Rotax Senior featured a handful of different drivers in the mix, with each heat having a different winner. After the dust settled, Jake Craig (RaceLab/Formula K) holds the top spot, nixing Christian Brooks (Precision Works/TonyKart), Oliver Askew (PSL Karting/BirelART), Connor Ford (Team Crosslink/Sodi) and Rinus Van Kalmthout (KoeneUSA/TonyKart), who all finished within four points of the top position. Both Askew and Van Kalthout received penalties following the third heat race for an exhaust infraction, otherwise it appeared the two were on their way start on the front row. Canadian Gianfranco Mazzaferro (Ferrolati Corse/TonyKart) will start seventh after just hanging with the leaders on Saturday.
The largest class on hand is Rotax Junior with 31 karts. Sting Ray Robb (BBR/TonyKart) kicked off the day the way he finished Friday, with a heat win, but Darren Keane (Keane Racing/TonyKart) and Trenton Estep (KoeneUSA/TonyKart) upset Robb in the final two heats to close the gap. There are a handful of drivers all capable of standing on the podium on Sunday including Michael Michoff, Guilherme Peixoto, Braden Eves, David Ilavia and Nicholas Brueckner to name a few.
Jake French (DKC/Sodi) swept the day in the Rotax DD2 heats, but courtesy of his pole-position on Friday, Hungarian Ferenc Kancsar (PSL/BirelART) broke the points-tie with French to earn the pole-position for Sunday. Michael Ilavia (J3/CompKart) and Canadian Alessandro Bizzotto (PSL/BirelART) make up row two while Luis Zervigon (PSL/BirelART) is the leader among DD2 Masters.
Other pole-sitters for Sundays Finals include: Luke Shanahan (MSquared/TonyKart) in Shifter Senior, Ugo Ugochukwu (KoeneUSA/TonyKart) in Micro-Max, Luis Schiavo (Intrepid) in Max Masters, Jak Crawford (Precision Works/TonyKart) in Mini0Max, Andrew Engberson (Champion/Intrepid) in Shifter Junior and Ryan Kinnear (Champion/Intrepid) in Shifter Masters/Veteran.
Sunday is another jam-packed day of action at the Dallas Karting Complex as all classes close out their weekend with just a weekend finale race. Who knows what Mother Nature will deliver for weather, but it doesn’t matter as everyone in Texas is prepared for battle in the inaugural US Open Karting Championship.
