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| February 17, 2006 |
| Team News: Kartport FWT Moroso Report |
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US SWISS HUTLESS IMPORTER debut '06 chassis in dominating style
In TaG Heavy, brothers Tony and Rafael Navarro swapped fastest times in every session their karts took on the track. The week started on Tuesday as they built the brand new SH PARILLA packages, little sleep was the name of the game 2 hours on Tuesday, 3 on Wednesday, and 2 on Thursday.
Thursday practice turn out to be more of an engine braking getting acquainted to the new chassis so we were a bit behind on learning the track and since we were running practice late in the day it was a bit of an unknown how the karts would behave on race day, still by the end of Friday things were looking very good in what turn out to be a very technical track
Saturday practice went smooth and every change we made got the kart a bit faster, so for qualifying it was 1st and 4th, Rafael and Tony. Having raced at homestead and racing at Moroso just a few weeks later really insured that the driving was up to the demands of the new faster chassis, still Tony was brushing up on a few of the corners of this 1 mile fabulous race track.
Saturday’s heat race so Rafael and Tony finish 1,2 after a disastrous start, by the first corner Rafael was in 6th place after the second place driver jumped the start and the flagger threw the green despite having 5 karts in front of the pole sitter by the flag stand, nevertheless Tony had moved up to 2nd place and Rafael was able to gain 1 spot per lap and push Tony up to first place and then take over the lead
Saturday’s main so local favorite George Brewer challenge Tony for the lead of the race after Rafael had dropped out of a comfortable first place with a broken throttle cable, we were very happy at this point of taking a podium for the team and were looking forward to a double result on Sunday.
Sunday practice was a smooth ride; Tony would find the last few tents while Rafael lapped 2 tents faster than 5 times world champion Mike Wilson driving one of his own karts
By Sundays qualifying it had become a SH team mate dual with Rafael out qualifying Tony by .001 of a second.
Sunday’s heat race was almost a disaster as we found a bent sprocket on Tony’s kart that was almost preventing the axle from spinning so we change the gear and Rafael made it to the grid wearing running shoes. Rafael took the lead and both team mates pulled away but it was obvious that Tony would eventually get around as Rafael made the best out of driving with no feel on his feet, on lap 5 Rafael got a break as a huge accident had developed behind them, sending Mike Wilson and Local favorite George Brewer to the hospital, both with broken bones. The race had been red flagged and ended.
Sunday’s 14 lap main so the first real challenge by Tony on Rafael as they both opened a 10 second lead by the half way point, towards the last third of the raced it was clear who had better managed his tires as Rafael went on to set the fastest lap of the weekend on the last lap of the event to cross the line with a 1.5 second lead over Tony. Meanwhile Points Leader John Brown would cross the line in 5th collecting important points which makes him a difficult target for the championship.
Rafael added; I would like to thank Kartport/Swiss Hutless lead tuner Bill Pinzini for all his hard work learning everything about these great chassis.
MINI MAX
Alexander Karabourniotis had a very good end to his weekend crossing the line in third place on Sunday’s main after a hard pursuit on the race leaders.
We did not have the same dominance in speed as we had at homestead, we were a bit reluctant to go with our gut feeling and waited to long to make a big change to the chassis, we had previously tested Aleko at Moroso but never with the kind of grip that build up during this event. Still the team never gave up and Aleko showed a very matured temper staying calm and fighting all the way to the checkered flag for a great result for the team on a record breaking Mini Max attendance.
The 3rd and final round of the Florida Winter Tour will take place at the Ocala Grand Prix track, north east of Orlando.
For more info visit http://www.kartport.com
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