Rick
11-18-2006, 01:33 AM
As the final day of qualifying action at this year’s Rotax Grand Finals, Friday’s schedule would be the most pressure-filled here at Kartodromo Viana, a racing facility located just north of Porto, Portugal. The third round of heat races were held in the morning and would qualify the top 28 drivers from each class directly into the Prefinal and Final on Saturday, while the ‘Second Chance Qualifiers’ in the afternoon would determine which competitors would live to race another day and which ones could pack things up and begin cheering for their team members. For Team USA, only three competitors were able to race straight into the mains while a further four needed big performances in the LCQs to secure their positions on the Saturday grids.
The order of the day was rain, as it came throughout and varied in its intensity. This challenging weather threw everything out the window and much of the strategy was forced onto survival, instead of hard-core racing.
http://www.ekartingnews.com/images/content/6753.JPG
Curtis Cooksey will lead the DD2 Team Gearbox contingency in tomorrow's final day
Junior
With rain hitting the facility hard as the first of two Junior heat races took to the circuit, Team USA’s Timmy Megenbier showed the way in the Group A-D battle, settling into eighth after starting 11th in a race won by Belgium’s Jorrit Pex. Coupled with the two consistent heat results that he posted yesterday, the Grand Finals sophomore qualified straight into Saturday’s events and he will start 17th in the Prefinal. After laying down some extremely fast laps in the wet morning warm-up, Megenbier and tuner Tim Lobaugh made a change to the chassis to address the increasing rain, but it was not the correct adjustment and Megenbier suffered slightly. However, they are confident that they have a good set-up for Saturday, wet or dry. Connor DiMond was equally quick and delivered a spectacular performance, driving up from his 27th starting position to 14th in the heat race, which helped him immensely in securing a good grid slot for the LCQ. On the other side of the equation, Michael Self did not have any luck, getting hit and spun on two separate occasions to push him back to 28th in the final tally. Canadian Tyler Wheeler finished 12th in the first heat, while Braydon Ouellet spun and ended up 31st.
In the second heat – B vs. C – the Americans ran together throughout the race with Austin Isaac and Jarvis Gennari posting results of 17th and 18th, respectively. The duo shared row 13 at the green and this pair of 7+ position improvements advanced them further up the LCQ grid, putting Gennari on the pole, just three points shy of a direct birth into the main.
The LCQ was a wild ride as the rain picked up, flooding the track with several large puddles. At the green flag of the 15-lapper, Gennari dropped back to fifth from his pole position and then proceeded to work his way forward as others fell by the wayside, eventually taking over the second position. At this point, the race’s complexion turned as many drivers began struggling with their engines, the rain and wet track bogging the carburetors, leaving many to crawl around the track at a drastically reduced speed with their hands on their chokes. Only seven drivers made it all the way to the checkered flag under full power, as Russia’s Pavel Aleshin took the win. Gennari was running second at the white flag but would spin in a huge puddle between turns two and three, keeping the kart running to finish up fourth. Canada’s Max Riddle was struck with the engine bog that crippled a majority of the field and he limped around to 16th, three laps down, while Ouellet fought the same problem and finished 21st. DiMond’s day ended after he had moved up to fourth, prepped for an invitation to the big dance, when a stuck throttle caused him to spin off the track in turn two. Self and Isaac struggled as well and finished up 14th and 17th, respectively.
Heading into the Saturday finals, Megenbier will start the Prefinal from 17th while Gennari will be on the outside of Row #16 in 34th position.
The order of the day was rain, as it came throughout and varied in its intensity. This challenging weather threw everything out the window and much of the strategy was forced onto survival, instead of hard-core racing.
http://www.ekartingnews.com/images/content/6753.JPG
Curtis Cooksey will lead the DD2 Team Gearbox contingency in tomorrow's final day
Junior
With rain hitting the facility hard as the first of two Junior heat races took to the circuit, Team USA’s Timmy Megenbier showed the way in the Group A-D battle, settling into eighth after starting 11th in a race won by Belgium’s Jorrit Pex. Coupled with the two consistent heat results that he posted yesterday, the Grand Finals sophomore qualified straight into Saturday’s events and he will start 17th in the Prefinal. After laying down some extremely fast laps in the wet morning warm-up, Megenbier and tuner Tim Lobaugh made a change to the chassis to address the increasing rain, but it was not the correct adjustment and Megenbier suffered slightly. However, they are confident that they have a good set-up for Saturday, wet or dry. Connor DiMond was equally quick and delivered a spectacular performance, driving up from his 27th starting position to 14th in the heat race, which helped him immensely in securing a good grid slot for the LCQ. On the other side of the equation, Michael Self did not have any luck, getting hit and spun on two separate occasions to push him back to 28th in the final tally. Canadian Tyler Wheeler finished 12th in the first heat, while Braydon Ouellet spun and ended up 31st.
In the second heat – B vs. C – the Americans ran together throughout the race with Austin Isaac and Jarvis Gennari posting results of 17th and 18th, respectively. The duo shared row 13 at the green and this pair of 7+ position improvements advanced them further up the LCQ grid, putting Gennari on the pole, just three points shy of a direct birth into the main.
The LCQ was a wild ride as the rain picked up, flooding the track with several large puddles. At the green flag of the 15-lapper, Gennari dropped back to fifth from his pole position and then proceeded to work his way forward as others fell by the wayside, eventually taking over the second position. At this point, the race’s complexion turned as many drivers began struggling with their engines, the rain and wet track bogging the carburetors, leaving many to crawl around the track at a drastically reduced speed with their hands on their chokes. Only seven drivers made it all the way to the checkered flag under full power, as Russia’s Pavel Aleshin took the win. Gennari was running second at the white flag but would spin in a huge puddle between turns two and three, keeping the kart running to finish up fourth. Canada’s Max Riddle was struck with the engine bog that crippled a majority of the field and he limped around to 16th, three laps down, while Ouellet fought the same problem and finished 21st. DiMond’s day ended after he had moved up to fourth, prepped for an invitation to the big dance, when a stuck throttle caused him to spin off the track in turn two. Self and Isaac struggled as well and finished up 14th and 17th, respectively.
Heading into the Saturday finals, Megenbier will start the Prefinal from 17th while Gennari will be on the outside of Row #16 in 34th position.