Three races down, three race to go. The 2015 Rotax Challenge of the Americas hit the championship halfway point with the completion of Saturdays main events, helping set the tone for the points battles as drivers chase championship glory and for some, tickets to the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals.
A solid field of 19 Rotax Mini-Max racers put on a great show on Saturday just as they did in Tucson.
The top-three in Qualifying featured all three North American countries as American Payton Durrant (Koene USA/TonyKart) topped the time sheets in Qualifying followed by Mexican Sebastien Alvarez (PSL West/PSL Mini) and Canadian Marco Kacic (PSL West/PSL Mini).
Durrant led every lap except the final two corners of the PreFinal as Alvarez made a late move stick to win the heat while Kacic held his third position.
However, after leading every lap of the Final, the same thing would happen to Alvarez in the Final.
Kacic tracked down Alvarez in the closing laps and as he approached his teammate on the final lap down the back straight he didn’t hesitate to make the move, potentially catching Alvarez off guard as Kacic went on to win and became the third different race winner in as many races. Jak Crawford (Nash Motorsports/TonyKart) was also able to overtake Alvarez on the final lap to take the second step of the podium while Durrant and Ashton Torgerson (Overdrive/TonyKart) completed the top-five.
After starting from the rear and getting caught up in an opening lap incident, Tucson winner Griffin Dowler (RPM/Kosmic) was only able to manage a ninth place effort.
