FWT: David Malukas Sweeps Mini-max qualifying; Canadians Matthew Latifi and Xavier Harris split Micro Max Poles

The final rounds of the 2013 Florida Winter Tour are underway at the Ocala Gran Prix facility in the northern portion of the sunny state. This weekend seven Rotax Max class champions will be crowned, with many Rotax Grand Finals tickets also up for grabs. The short and flowing OGP track provides plenty of great racing, and with most championships wide-open it will surely be one to watch. Friday saw official qualifying for both Saturday and Sunday, setting the grids for the all important Pre Finals and Last Chance races.

Mini Max

David Malukas (Photo by: Cody Schindel/CKN)

David Malukas (Birel) Qualified in Pole Position For Sunday’s Mini Max Prefinal as he would out qualify fellow MRP driver Nicholas Brueckner (Birel) who sits in second in the standings heading into the final two rounds. Venezuela’s Santiago Terife (TonyKart) took the third position with a lap of 39.152 seconds in his AM Engines power machine, while Canadian Antonio Serravalle (Tony Kart) took the fourth position and OGP driver Mathais Ramirez (Tony Kart) completed the top five.

Saturday’s session would show parody to the earlier session from the day as once again Malukas and Brueckner swept the front row in the class. Serravalle would advance up one spot to take third position in qualifying as he once again posted his fast lap in the First Group on track. Behind Serravalle was Santiago Terife and Michael d’Orlando (Kosmic) who is coming off a great Formula Kart weekend in Ocala.

Drivers to look for further down the grid are points leader Anthony Gangi Jr (TonyKart), Neil Verhagen (Arrow), and Michael Benyahia (Tecno), who should all have great races as they look towards the top of the leader board.

Micro Max

Xavier Harris (Photo by: Cody Schindel/CKN)

Matthew Latifi (TonyKart) claimed his first ever pole position at the Florida Winter Tour with a time of 41.108 seconds! Behind the young Canadian was Dylan Tavella (Tony Kart) who is currently third in the Micro Max Points standing. Brazilian Driver Guilherme Romano Peixoto (Tony Kart) continued his successful campaign in the Florida Winter Tour by taking the third position in qualifying ahead of Giovanni Bromante (Tony Kart). Completing the top-five in Sunday qualifying was KMS North America pilot Toranosuke Hamada (Birel).

For the Saturday Qualifying session Xavier Harris (OK1) took pole with a lap time of 40.881 seconds as the Canadian just edged out Peixoto by eight-thousandths of a second. Latifi would back up his earlier pole position with a third in the session, while points leader Bromante took fourth ahead of  David Morales (Birel) who rounded out the top five in the session.

Drivers to keep an eye on will be Austrialia’s Jack Doohan (Tony Kart), and Harry Coulton (Birel) as both drivers have had great pace throughout the Winter Tour.

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