After three successful days of practice for the 2013 Florida Winter Tour, the Rotax Max Challenge groups finally hit the track on to set their grid positions for both Saturday and Sunday’s race days. Completing the day with two rounds of intense qualifying, the FWT has once again attracted some of the worlds best Rotax competition, with many drivers who competed recently at the 2012 Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals in Portugal, competing in West Palm Beach, Florida, host of round #1 of the FWT.
Jack Weprin (FA Kart) has quickly placed himself as a junior driver to keep an eye on in 2012. The New York State driver scored both pole positions for this weekend’s opening Florida Winter Tour Rotax Max Challenge in West Palm Beach, Florida.
In Sunday’s Qualifying session Weprin was two-tenths quicker than J3 Competition’s Thomas Issa (Kosmic) to grab the pole-position. The front two were followed by the OGP powered trio of Kyle Kirkwood, making the move from Arrow to Tony Kart, Oliver Bellanger (Tony Kart), and Austin Garrison (Tony Kart). 2012 RMCGF Team USA member Juan Manuel Correa (Praga) was sixth in the session with Brazil’s Gustavo Bandeira Lopes (CRG) in seventh, Sebastian Coulson (Praga) eighth, Darren Keane (Tony Kart) ninth, and last weekends FWT TaG Junior winner Christian Munoz (Tony Kart) completing the top ten.
In the afternoon session to set the grid for Saturday’s pre final, Weprin clocked in at 54.098 seconds around the Palm Beach International Raceway, which was thirteen-thousandths quicker than Kyle Kirkwood in second. Garrison put his Tony Kart in third position ahead of Correa in 4th and Keane who completed the top five. Issa was sixth ahead of OGP pilot Brian Lockwood (Tonykart), with California’s Christian Brooks (Energy), DFR Pilot Devlin DeFrancesco (CRG), and Oliver Bellanger rounding out the top-ten.
Saturday morning will see the last chance race for drivers who qualified from 29th to 56th, with the top-six advancing to main event, with a pre final and final for race day on schedule.
Info: CanadianKartingNews.com / Photo: INTL-KartingMedia.com
