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| March 03, 2010 |
| Driver News: Devlin DeFrancesco - February Report |
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 | February proved much more productive for DeFrancesco
(Photo: On Track Promotions - otp.ca) |
Maintaining his torrid pace through the 2010 American karting schedule, Devlin DeFrancesco had another pair of starts in closing the month of February last weekend. Two Florida Winter Tour Rotax Max Challenge races led to round two of the Championship Karting International Florida Cup at Homestead, and through two months of the calendar DeFracesco has now run twelve races covering three championships.
The latest was in Mini-Max at Homestead where DeFrancesco qualified ninth for race three and moved forward to sixth in the prefinal. Already seventh through the first lap as he continued to impress at the wave of the green, the ten-year-old took another spot at half distance to line up on the outside of row three for the main event. This time he slotted eighth through one, and after a brief stint back in sixth he settled into seventh and ran to the checker. Sunday began much stronger with race four, as DeFrancesco qualified in sixth. After being battered back to eighth over the first lap and falling to ninth through two, he was back to sixth by the end of four and ran to the wire, then upgraded from his qualifying spot to fifth afterward. In the main event Sunday the rookie Mini-Max driver was on the move early as he went seventh, sixth, fifth, through the first three laps. From there he held station in taking another top five, showing his determination as he set his best race lap of the weekend on twelve fighting for more.
One week prior DeFrancesco Racing was at Palm Beach International Raceway where things got off to a troubled start. After posting P6 in a FWT Mini-Max field of 45 to close Friday practice, DeFrancesco was P12 after Saturday qualifying and correcting a shifted axle. The prefinal brought worse news in turn one, as DeFrancesco was at the tail of the field and facing a stiff test after heavy contact. He took back nine spots over the next nine laps, then continued the charge in the main. After the first flyer he sat P17, and he was impressively P11 through three! He cracked the top ten working the next lap, only to have heavy contact send him packing. DeFrancesco righted the ship in sixteenth, but the damage had been done. A bent chassis meant he never got back to the pace of the prefinal, and he nursed his way home holding station before being granted two more spots after post-race rulings.
Sunday began P18 after a night on the chassis table, and DeFrancesco once again jumped forward in the prefinal. After taking four spots on lap one, he took three more over the race distance to sit on the inside of row five for the final run of the weekend. A good first start was lost to a red flag, but DeFrancesco repeated the feat on start number two as he clung to an inside line and was eighth after the first lap. From there it was a battle in the second group where DeFrancesco bettered his personal best lap time seven times over fourteen laps. By the end it was P11 and his best FWT Mini-Max finish of the season.
The points gained from the two runs helped erase some of the damage from a dismal opening weekend as DeFrancesco jumped from P32 to P19 in the championship. Obviously, the young charge is far from happy with that, and has eyes on a further move mid-March at Ocala. The pair of CKI top-ten runs at Homestead had a similar effect, as Devlin improved from P17 to eighth in the Florida Cup chase. After a weekend off just days away, another triple-header looms as DeFrancesco Racing will be at the Florida Cup finale before FWT Rotax Max and Formula Kart weekends at Ocala this month. |
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