The second round of the 2013 Florida Winter Tour hit the track today for race #3 of the 6 race winter campaign. While this weekend see’s the Formula Kart classes hit the track, many are using the opportunity to prepare for next weekends FWT Rotax rounds.
After a mixture of weather that included, sun, rain, heat and cold this week for official practice, Saturday kicked off under wet conditions, but by the time qualifying came around the track was dry and the action hot!
Anthony Gangi Jr. (Tony Kart) took the early lead in Tag Cadet as he is followed by his GT7 teammate Giovanni Bromante (Tony Kart), Santiago Terifie (Tony Kart), David Malukas, (Birel) and Dylan Tavella (Tony Kart). On lap two Tavella lost the fifth position to Guilherme Romano Pexieto (CRG) as the two drivers continued to battle for position. Gangi would continuously gap the field as the laps ticked off, while a second place battle between Bromate and Terife erupted. On lap six Romano would make his move to fourth place on Malukas however the next time by Malukas would retake the position and he would be followed by Michael d’Orlando (Kosmic) and Tavella moving Romano down to seventh. At this point a red flag would bring the race to a halt just past the halfway point putting scoring back a lap. Once the race resumed, Gangi Jr. would take the heat win ahead of Bromante, Terife, Peixoto, and Malukas completing the top-5.
With the TaG Cadet category not utilizing the grid inversion, Gangi once again led the way as the green lights lit. Once again, Gangi was in another timezone and he quickly checked out from the field. Behind, the action on track continued to cause havoc, as a another red flag was brought out at the halfway point. As the Cadets returned to the track Gangi was once again out front, ahead of Malukas. The battle for second saw many drivers hold the spot, but at the line Neil Verhangen (Arrow) scored the spot, ahead of Tavella, d’Orlando and Mathias Solar.
Once again Gangi Jr. took the early lead in the Tag Cadet final as Tavella tucked into second. Canadian Antonio Serravalle (TonyKart) made his way up to third place but would soon fall to fifth as d’Orlando and Peixoto moved pass the Pserra Racing pilot. The race would then come to a halt as the third red flag of the day would be displayed. At the restart Gangi would resume the lead as Tavella, and d’Orlando followed closely behind. d’Orlando would fade back from the GT7 Motorsports drivers as Gangi and Tavella started to drive away from the field. Verhagen was able to come back from a poor start to drive up to the fourth position behind d’Orlando and he was followed by Peixoto, and Bromante who was recovering nicely from a flip in heat two. With four to go, Verhagen and Bromante made contact while battling for fourth, sending them out of the race promoting Solar into the fifth postition. At the Line it was Gangi taking his third straight victory of the year in the class finishing ahead of Dylan Tavella, while Michael d’Orlando picked up his first FWT TaG Cadet podium.
