Race ROUNDUP: KARTING CHALLENGE RD 5

lo206 junior

LO206 Junior saw a record-high turnout of 16 drivers on the grid for Round 5 of the 2019 season. All of the heavy-hitters were in town. Alejandro Ramirez held the top spot from qualifying through to the end of the Pre Final, but the main event was an all-out brawl between himself and Granger Perra. The pair was the class of the field on Sunday, pulling a near 7.5-second gap back to the rest of the pack. In the end, Perra was able to just barely out-do Ramirez, snagging the win with a spectacular final lap maneuver. With Ramirez locked into second, Gregory Pelea came home in third after fending off late-race charges from Vance Devine and Rocco Pasquarella.

iame ka100 junior

Jakub Kolar came into his debut Junior weekend with relatively low expectations, but after a rocketship-level run to P2 in IAME X30 Junior, those expectations rose. He and Jimmie Lockhart went stride-for-stride in the Pre Final, with Kolar edging out the Karting Experience driver by just 0.033. 

Unfortunately, contact at the second lap of the main event sent Lockhart to the rear. From there, it was clear sailing for Kolar. He commanded a 5+ second victory over fellow Junior rookies Beckham Jacir and EJ Tamayo.

lo206 heavy

The LO206 Heavy class undoubtedly stole the show on the weekend. A near 6-kart lead train headlined the Pre Final, with Marc Julien fending off charges from Manny Sola, Pablo Materi, Ryan Gordon, Rohan Ramsaroop, and Dario Echeverry. 

Unfortunately, the start to the main event saw an opening lap incident sent Sola and Echeverry to the wayside. From there, Marc Julien led the now 4-driver group until chaos struck once again, reshuffling the lineup. Pablo Materi got the worst of the incident and fell three seconds back into fourth, while Ryan Gordon emerged from the smoke as the new leader. Ramsaroop and Julien tried to reel Gordon back in, but time ran out on the pair and Gordon scored a long-awaited return to the top step. Julien would hold on for second, and Ramsaroop would finish on the box in his return to the seat.

iame mini swift

Max Garcia kept the IAME Mini Swift division wrapped around his thumb all weekend. Beckham Jacir, Caleb Duenas, and Asher Ochstein all made valiant efforts to dig into the gap set by the driver from Coconut Grove. Jacir came the close in raw speed, but mechanical woes sent the JC Karting driver to the pit lane early. That conceded the battle for second to Duenas, who maintained a sizable advantage back to third place driver Asher Ochstein.

LO206 SENIOR

After scoring the pole award in qualifying and dominating the Pre Final, it looked as though Frankie Barroso was poised for another clean sweep of the day in LO206 Senior. However, TB Kart driver Bobby Ross had other plans. The sophomore Senior driver put on one of his best drives to date, taking Barroso to the very limit. He did get to the lead for a brief moment, but after Barroso reclaimed the top spot with two laps to go, there was nothing that Ross could do. Frankie added another tick in the W column on his 2019 championship bid, with Ross holding on for P2 and Franco Cipullo getting onto the podium in third.

A quick story of the moment should also give a big shoutout to Miguel Rivera and Michel Garrido, who, after failing to finish the Pre Final, put on tremendous drives to go from dead last to 4th and 5th respectively.

other notables

Alan Isambard added to his championship lead with a win in the Shifter class, while Mateo Pena held off rookie Franco Pastor for the win in LO206 Cadet.