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.
This weekend has been one of the strongest Rotax Senior fields ever to line up at the Florida Winter Tour and Sunday it didn’t disappoint, with the Final race putting on a show for those in attendance. It was a great way to cap off a stellar weekend of racing in south Florida.
Oliver Askew (OGP/TonyKart) continued his strong pace to win the prefinal ahead of Brits Ed Brand (Goodwood/Intrepid) and Jordan Lennox (PSL/CRG). However Lennox was forced to start the final from the rear after an issue in the tech shed.
When the lights went out to start the Final, it was pure mayhem. Although everyone made it through the first lap, there were some incredible late braking passes and karts bouncing left, right and centre. Brand grabbed the lead, with AJ Myers (TonyKart) moving into second. A huge start for Zachary Claman DeMelo (Goodwood/Intrepid) saw him all the way up to third, and Steven Szigeti (SH Racing/FA Kart) fourth, while Askew fell back to fifth.
Askew recovered on lap two to move back to third as the shuffling continued, but by lap three he was back to sixth with DeMelo now into second.
From the rear of the field, Lennox was doing everything he could to manage the chaos, as was Ben Cooper (KMS/Birel) who also started at the back.
With all this action, Brand was able to drive off into the distance and score a huge victory. Askew ultimately recovered to second when things settled down with his teammate Kyle Kirkwood (OGP/TonyKart) finishing third. Szigeti enjoyed a great drive to finish fourth while Cooper made it back to fifth at the finish. Completing the top-ten were DeMelo, Roger Ralston (FA Kart), Myers, Jack Weprin (PSL/CRG) and Luke Varley (KMS/Birel) with Lennox eleventh.
Christophe Paquet (PSL/CRG) was fourteenth, Marco Di Leo (Goodwood/Intrepid) eighteenth, Zacharie Scalzo (KGK/TonyKart) 24th, and Johnny Flute (Mosport/Kosmic) was a DNF.
Heading to his home track of Ocala Gran Prix, Oliver Askew has the points lead.
