The 2013 Florida Winter Tour is underway in Homestead, Florida, USA. This weekend see’s the Rotax Max Challenge divisions hitting the track at Homestead-Miami Speedway, all seeking valuable championship points and individual race glory. After a week’s worth of practice, Friday saw drivers have two separate qualifying sessions, setting the grids for both Saturday and Sunday’s pre finals and Last Chance races.
Belgian Xen De Ruwe (Formula K) took pole in Sunday’s Rotax DD2 qualifying session with a time of 46.184 seconds. Reigning Rotax Grand Finals DD2 Champion Ben Cooper (Birel) clocked in to second position less than a tenth behind De Ruwe with Collin Daley Jr. (CRG) qualified in the third position in his first race of the season. Behind the top three were Canadian driver Marco Di Leo (Praga) and Pearce Herder (LH Kart), as both drivers are looking to close the gap to the Cooper in the Championship lead.
De Ruwe would take his second pole of the weekend in Saturday’s Qualifying session, while Daley Jr. would find some additional speed as the Jamaican went to second on the time charts ahead of Cooper in third. Jesse Lazare (CRG) took fourth in the session coming back the Florida Winter Tour after a successful weekend in Sebring in his USF2000 car. Andretti Autosports’ INDYCAR driver James Hinchcliffe (Tony Kart) grabbed the fifth position in Saturday qualifying showing he is up for the challenge of taking on some of the Worlds best DD2 drivers.
One driver to keep a lookout for is Kevin Ludi (Birel) after struggling in both Qualifying sessions the Swiss driver should be back on pace for the Pre Finals and ready to challenge De Ruwe, Cooper and the remainder of the DD2 field for victory on Saturday and Sunday.
