It was another beautiful day in Ocala, Florida as the 2014 Florida Winter Tour hosted round four at Ocala Gran Prix. As the championship continues past its midway point and looks towards the final round next month, Sunday’s race day in Ocala helped give us a look at the championship contenders in each class.
The Rotax Juniors provided another excitement-filled day of racing in Ocala as both the Prefinal and Final were full of action and accidents.
Poleman and Saturday winner Pedro Cardoso (PSL/CRG) led the way to green, but he immediately had his hands full Jose Enrique Brito (TonyKart) along with a full train of competitors, while Patricio O’Ward (SH Racing/FA Kart) found himself in the turn two barriers among many others after starting from outside row one.
After seven laps Brito took a shot at the lead shuffling Cardoso back to fourth, and Austin Garrison (OGP/TonyKart) up from fifth to second.
But once he was out front, Brito went unchallenged to the finish while the remainder battled hard for second. Cardoso was able to regain the spot but he again got shuffled, this time with five to go. Ultimately it was Austin Versteeg (RPG/Kosmic) who put down some perfect closing laps to take second, while Garrison ended up third and Cardoso finished seventh.
It was a very tough day for our Canadians, as Gianfranco Mazzaferro (Ferrolati Corse/TonyKart) and Nataël Cantin (KMS/Birel) found trouble all weekend long and resulted in DNF’s. Samuel and Cedrik Lupien (SH Racing/FA Kart), Clay Van Eerd (CVE/TonyKart) and Roman DeAngelis (KoeneUSA/TonyKart) were 18th, 21st, 22nd and 24th respectively.
It will be a close shootout in the final round next month in Orlando.
