The Rotax Pan American Championship Finals are under way here in beautiful Centennial, Colorado, USA. The Track at Centennial has been a great host thus far, and the action on track is hot. Utilizing the reverse direction compared to when the US Rotax Grand Nationals were held here in 2007, drivers and teams have had to adapt to a very fast, yet tricky circuit.
As the largest class of the weekend, Rotax Senior is jam-packed with talent, and the results in qualifying show that as the top seventeen drivers are within a half-second on the timesheet. Pacing the session was USA’s Louie Pagano (Birel) posting a 54.258 second lap. Phil DeLaO Jr. (Sodi/USA) was second, only 0.064 seconds back, while Jesus Rios (Birel/USA) was third a mere 0.043 seconds behind DeLaO. Will Owen (Arrow/USA) was fourth while Luke Chudleigh (Maranello/Canada) completed the top-five. The remaining Canadians saw Pearce Herder (LH Kart) qualifying sixth, Marco Di Leo (Intrepid) was fourteenth, Kevin King (CRG) was twentieth, and Max Preston (Intrepid) was twenty-second.
Unfortunately for Chudleigh, he was removed from the results for a clutch issue and will have to start each heat race in 32nd and moved everyone below him up a position.
Tomorrow will see each class have three rounds of qualifying heats, with their starting positions decided by today’s qualifying session.
