It was another beautiful day at Homestead-Miami Speedway as the final day of the first round of the Florida Winter Tour hit the track. Given the long week of events, the on track action was turned up a notch and provided some intense racing action.
In Rotax Junior it was another eventful day and it started off with a wild prefinal. Saturday winner Gianfranco Mazzaferro (Ferrolati Corse/TonyKart) found himself on the sidelines after the first corner after starting from third. The prefinal was won by Brazilian Pedro Cardoso (PSL/CRG) with Austin Garrison (OGP/TonyKart) second and the two would share the front row for the Final.
Cardoso and Garrison both had great starts and with plenty of action behind them for third on back, the lead duo broke away almost immediately. When the dust settled Austin Versteeg (RPG/Kosmic) had worked into third, but the leaders were well out of reach.
Garrison pushed Cardoso lap after lap until the while flag was displayed. Waiting patiently, Garrison made his move in corner eight as Cardoso didn’t do enough to block, leaving the inside lane open. Trying all he could for the second day in a row to regain the lead in the final section of the track, Cardoso was forced to settle for second, again, as Garrison threw his hands up in the air to celebrate his victory. Versteeg cruised to finish third ahead of Ryan Norberg (AM Kart) and Luis Forteza (Kosmic).
Canadians Roman DeAngelis (KoeneUSA/TonyKart) and Samuel Lupien (SH Racing/FA Kart) finished tenth and eleventh while Clay Van Eerd (TonyKart) ended up eighteenth after a flat tire took him out of the top-ten. Unfortunately for Mazzaferro and Cedrik Lupien (SH Racing/FA Kart) they were unable to finish the race after incidents.
Heading to Ocala, Cardoso will carry the points race into round two.
