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| February 01, 2012 |
| Team News: Top-10 Finishes Highlight CRG-USA Results in Tucson |
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CRG-USA opened up their 2012 season in Tucson, Arizona this past weekend, taking part in the first two rounds of the Gatorz Challenge of the Americas series. Musselman Honda Circuit was the backdrop for the international Rotax Max Challenge program with the Grand Junction, Colorado-based squad fielding a team of nine drivers in four categories. Junior Max driver Jake Craig scored a pair of top-10 finishes with Cody Dempster in the hunt piloting a CRG-USA Micro Max entry.
While podium finishes did not welcome the CRG-USA drivers in Tucson, Craig was the one driver in position to earn the squads first honor of the season. Runner-up in last year’s title chase, Craig was among the favorites entering the weekend. Round one began with Craig qualifying third and working himself up to the second spot in the Prefinal. Holding the position through the main event, Craig was provisionally on the podium until a 10-second penalty for a start infraction dropped him out of the top-five, into seventh. Looking to bounce back in round two, Craig qualified second, finished second in the Prefinal, and was closing in on a slowing leader during the main event with a chance at victory in his sights. On lap 18, Craig attempted to pass his weekend rival when contact was made entering turn four. The result put both of them off the track and outside the top-10. Driving up to eighth by the checkered flag, Craig was penalized one position for the mid-race contact to put him ninth in the final tally.
 | | Jake Craig had two possible podium finishes slip from his hands in Junior Max (Photo: Sean Buur - Go Racing Magazine) |
Filling out the large contingent of CRG-USA in the Junior Max category was Brendan Baker, Mianna Wick, Annie Breidinger and Toni Breidinger. Baker continued to improve each time out, driving from 17th to 10th on Saturday. Qualifying ninth for Sunday’s event, Baker advanced to fifth in the Prefinal to set up a podium run. In a battle for the third position, the fight moved to the chase for the victory when Craig’s incident took place. The following lap, Baker was fighting for position when he accidently hit the kill switch, stalling his motor. Once re-fired, Brendan went on to finish 17th. Wick worked with veteran karter Alan Rudolph over the weekend and made great strides in her Gatorz debut. The results were up and down as she continued to improve her pace each time on track. Involved in an opening lap wreck on Saturday, she recovered to finish 24th. After reaching the top-15 at one point during Sunday’s action, Wick came three laps short of finishing the main event after getting bumped off-track at turn one. The Breidinger sisters showed well in their Junior debut against a strong 36-kart field in Tucson. Annie finished 21st and 16th on the weekend with Toni placing 29th and 25th, both showing great potential for 2012 as the season begins.
Defending Gatorz Micro Max champion Cody Dempster had a tough start to his title defense. Round one was an uphill battle as he did not arrive to the track until Saturday morning, missing out on the official practice day. After qualifying sixth, he raced his way up to fourth in the Prefinal. Cody held the spot through the main event, missing out one the podium by one position. Finding some changes overnight, Dempster was in the hunt on Sunday. Qualifying third, Dempster finished second in the heat race to start the feature outside row one. Trouble struck quick for most of the field as an opening corner melee sent a number of drivers spinning around, including Cody. Dropped back to seventh after the opening lap, Dempster knifed his way forward to third until lap 12 when he spun once again. He would finish the race in seventh despite recording the fast lap of the race.
 | Cody Dempster laid down the fastest lap of weekend aboard his CRG-USA Micro Max machine
(Photo: Sean Buur - Go Racing Magazine) |
Senior Max driver Sabré Cook experienced a tough start to the 2012 season. Saturday was a rough day as her Rotax engine was not at peak performance throughout the day, finishing 21st for the opening feature. Making some major carburetion changes for day two, Cook qualified 14th overall despite running in the slower group. Contact, however, in the opening lap wiped away any hope of improving on that as another driver drove over top of her, dropping Sabré back to 30th. Knifing her way forward, Cook ended up 19th after 17 laps. Putting in her best performance of the weekend, Cook was on the charge in the 25-lap main event. Up to 11th by the halfway point, she looked to move forward even more when another driver pushed her off track, causing her to spin. Losing four positions, Cook laid down lap times similar to the leaders to drive back to 12th.
Evan Roshak and Riley Cook completed the CRG-USA roster for the event, contesting the Mini Max division. The duo posted near identical results as Roshak finished 13th and 11th while Riley drove to 11th and 12th on the weekend, both taking in a lot of knowledge and a fun experience under the tent.
“Our trip to Tucson was interesting, that’s for sure. While the results were not exactly what we had hoped for some of our drivers, they all made great progress during the weekend,” stated CRG-USA principal Stacey Cook. “Starting out the season in January is tough being located in Colorado, as we did not have much testing time leading up to this weekend. Once the bugs and one-month rust was shaken off, our drivers and crew stepped up and showed speed on track. With the first weekend behind us, we now have a baseline heading into the next round in four weeks and our drivers will be up to the challenge of standing on the podium for the first time in 2012.”
 | Evan Roshak continued to improve each session out in his Mini Max entry for CRG-USA
(Photo: Sean Buur - Go Racing Magazine) |
Throughout 2012, CRG-USA will be focused on a full assault across the country for the race team while working with new and existing CRG dealers. CRG-USA is scheduled to support the Challenge of the Americas, Superkarts! USA Pro Tour, SKUSA ProKart Challenge, United States Rotax Max Challenge, Pan American Challenge event, and the SKUSA Mountain Region series. Any interested drivers looking to compete with CRG-USA for 2012 are asked to contact Stacey Cook at info@CRG-USA.com or phone 855-TEAMCRG. The CRG-USA is currently in development and will be available at http://www.crg-usa.com
About CRG-USA:
Located at the Grand Junction Motors Speedway in Colorado, CRG-USA is the newest importer for the CRG chassis brand and Maxter-Sonik Sport engine program. Operated by Stacey Cook, the company will focus their distribution and marketing on the western and central portion of the United States. In addition, the operation is fielding a national race team program through the 2012 season at all the major karting events on the year. If you want to race with the best product in karting, jump on board with CRG-USA today. Visit http://www.crg-usa.com or phone 855-TEAMCRG (832-6274). |
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