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!
After qualifying on the pole-position, Mauricio Andres Baiz (Birel) found himself backwards as he exited the first corner at the start of heat one, collecting Juan Maneul Correa (Praga) with him. This allowed Jack Weprin (FA Kart) to slot into the lead, with Ignacio Salvucci (AM Kart) and Gianfranco Mazzaferro (TonyKart) close behind. Mazzaferro would surrender the position two laps later as Gavin Reichelt (TonyKart) and Colin Warren (DR Kart) would get by. Up front Salvucci would make a move to the first position ahead of Weprin in the first corner on lap 5 and with the two battling, Warren would catch.On the final lap Warren would make a three-wide move for the lead but would lose it to Salvucci and Weprin as he went wide on the exit of one. Then Warren would make a move on the outside of Weprin in five for the second position. Contact between Salvucci and Warren would then send Salvucci spinning off track and Warren scoring the win. However, after the race Warren was penalized to seventh giving the win to Weprin, followed by Reichelt, Derek Sobel (Parolin), Mazzaferro, Salvucci, and Pedro Cardoso (CRG).
Cardoso who had an issue in qualifying started first in the inverted second heat and immediately he would build a gap to the drivers behind him. Antoni Ptak (Birel) followed in second ahead of Sara Metcalf (Tony Kart), Javier Gonzalez (Tony Kart), and Devlin DeFrancesco (CRG) early on. Weprin who started the race in the the rear field would drive up to third place by the half way point while Juan Manuel Correa made his way up to fifth place in the heat with three laps to go. Up front however Cardoso was in cruise control en route to the heat win, while Jack Weprin made a last lap pass for second over Ptak, with Correa, and Reichelt completing the top five.
With two great heat races, Weprin earned the pole position for the Final, with Reichelt lining up beside him. The two would slot into the top two spots, while Cardoso held onto third. Reichelt made his move to the lead on lap three, bringing Cardoso and Sobel with him as the action up front started to heat up. Weprin worked his way back to the lead before contact between Cardoso and Sobel would allow Weprin and Reichelt to break away. From there, Weprin would cruise to victory ahead of Reichelt, with Cardoso hanging on for third, posting the fastest lap in the process.
