The second weekend of any of the country’s three-event winter karting series is the turning point when it comes to the chase for the class championships.  Success in the opening doubleheader can be quickly nullified by two bad days on the second weekend, so the pressure is on this weekend in Phoenix.  The chase for the Rotax Challenge of the Americas titles was amplified on Saturday, as five of the six point leaders scored race wins at the Phoenix Kart Racing Association facility in Glendale, Arizona.  Canadian Marco Kacic scored his first COTA win to break the point leader sweep, taking the checker in Mini Max, while Sabre Cook (DD2), Christian Brooks (Senior), Paul Bonilla (Master), Nick Brueckner (Junior) and Diego LaRoque (Micro) all defended their point leads.

Cambrian Go-Karts Masters Max

Paul Bonilla won his third Masters Max Final of the season (Photo: SeanBuur.com)

The top spot in the opening qualifying session was sought after by four drivers in Masters Max. Early on, championship leader Paul Bonilla (Tony Kart) was the provisional pole driver until the midway portion when 2014 US Rotax Grand National champ Ken Maxfield (Arrow) took over the spot. The top four came in for changes, including John Crow (Birel). He and his Full Throttle Karting crew made some front end changes, and got quicker. By his third circuit around after the pit stop, Crow took over the pole position with a 47.518-second lap. Maxfield’s time put him off the pole position by 16 thousandths, with Bonilla down to third and Scott Falcone (Kosmic) a close fourth. John Breidinger (FA Kart) made up the fast five.

It was a four driver break away from the start of the 17-lap Prefinal with the front two rows getting away. Bonilla was slow as the green flag waved, allowing Falcone to slip to third, but only briefly as the point leader reclaimed the spot. On lap seven, Bonilla tried for the second spot on Maxfield, and the two made slight contact, enough to slow their exit pace. That allowed Falcone to drive around the outside of both for the second spot, and gave Crow a big lead. The positions remained unchanged, with Crow scoring the win as Falcone held off Bonilla for second. Maxfield lost touch with the leaders in the closing laps, but finished fourth ahead of Canadian Christopher Patterson (Tony Kart).

Top four away again in the 25-lap Final, with Bonilla able to score his third straight main event victory. Crow was followed by Bonilla at the start of the race, with Falcone dropping back to third from outside the front row. The field was shuffled up behind them as opening lap contact put a few drivers into the dirt, with everyone able to rejoin the race. Maxfield joined the front three, but lost the draft as the race went on. Falcone kept the top two close, with Bonilla taking over the lead on lap six. From there, Crow could not match the championship leader’s pace, with Bonilla taking home a third straight checkered flag. Falcone rounded out the podium with Maxfield fourth and Breidinger in the fifth spot.

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PSL West Mini Max

Canadian Marco Kacic celebrated his 12th birthday with victory in Mini Max (Photo: SeanBuur.com)

Not surprisingly, the Mini Max qualifying session wasn’t decided until the end of the 15-minute run.  The importance of the draft cannot be understated, and eventual polesitter Payton Durrant (Tony Kart) was able to tuck behind Austin Torgerson down the backstraight late in the session to steal the pole away from Sebastian Alvarez (CRG) with a 49.133-second lap.  Alvarez held onto second as he and PSL West teammate Marco Kacic (CRG) had paired up after the mid-session pit spot to jump to the head of the class.  Tucson winner Griffin Dowler (Tony Kart) was fourth in the final order, ahead of Jak Crawford (Benik).

Durrant appeared to have the Prefinal handled after getting off to a great start, emerging from the opening corners with three-length lead.  However, Alvarez was diligent and stalked the Tony Kart driver for the entire 13-lap race, surprising him with a strong move to the inside in the penultimate corner – turn 11 – to steal the lead and the win.  Durrant looked back underneath to take the position back, but he was not able to get enough forward bite to outran Alvarez the right-hander that leads to the stripe.  Kacic lead the next trio, as he was able to hold off Dowler for the spot.

In the Final, Alvarez would lead the way, but it would all come down to the final corners of the race when Kacic tracked down his teammate.  The Canadian made a strong inside move in the left-hand hairpin turn 11, coming out with the lead and his first career COTA win.  Crawford followed Kacic through to take second ahead of Alvarez.  Durrant and Torgerson rounded out the top-five.

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Nash Motorsportz Senior Max

Christian Brooks scored his first Senior Max victory (Photo: SeanBuur.com)

Chess was the game played during the 15-minute qualifying session for the Senior Max division. Drivers hit the track when the green flag waved, slowing to a crawl as they all jockeyed for position behind Friday fast driver Mason Marotta (Tony Kart). A few near misses occurred with others going full speed to try and lay down the fast lap on the opening circuits. Early on, Luke Selliken (Kosmic) was the provisional driver on the pole position, and was challenged by Round Two winner Brenden Baker (Tony Kart). Selliken fourth circuit put him back on top, and despite a number of attempts by the rest of the field, his 46.064-lap stood, earning him five crucial points in the championship. Baker ended up back by 66 thousandths, with Marotta in third. Louie Pagano (Tony Kart) and Canadian Bryce Choquer (Kosmic) completed the fast five.

Marotta was able to escape the 17-lap Prefinal with the win after a hard fought battle. Selliken led the field to the green, but was passed by Choquer at the end of the circuit. The inside line got the jump, and Baker suffered, dropping to seventh after the first few laps. Up to fourth by the completion of lap one, it appeared he was the quickest driver on the track. Selliken and Marotta teamed up to get past Choquer for the lead on lap three, as he continued to fall down the order as the race went on. Marotta took over the top spot and led the remainder of the race as the fight was for second. Both Baker and Brooks took a turn, before Selliken regained the spot back. On the final lap, Baker and Brooks drafted past the Rolison Performance Group driver, dropping Selliken back to fourth at the checkered. Pagano and Jake Craig (Formula K) worked past Stepanova Nekeel (Tony Kart) in the final corner for fifth and sixth.

What appeared to be a lock for Baker, rookie Brooks slid in during the late stages of the race to secure his first victory as a Senior driver, and became the third different winner in the first three rounds. Baker and Brooks pushed away out front early, as a heavy fight for third included Marotta and a number of drivers. Early on, racing contact shuffled up the order with Selliken moving into the spot. Baker seemed to have an advantage on Brooks, however, the young driver never gave up. With six laps remaining, Baker’s engine lost speed briefly, allowing Brooks to close right back up onto his bumper and slipped past at the end of the straight. From there, Brooks pulled a couple kart lengths with Selliken now pressuring for second. At the line, Christian secured the victory and Baker held on to second, giving Nash Motorsportz another 1-2 finish. It was a second podium on the season for Selliken in the third spot as Marotta finished fourth and Jim McKinney (Tony Kart) fought his way to fifth.

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Motorsports Development Group Micro Max

Diego LaRoque extended his win streak to three after Saturday’s Micro Max Final (Photo: SeanBuur.com)

Even the draft pairing of Josh Pierson (Tony Kart) and Leland Honeyman (Exprit) couldn’t hold back the pace of Diego LaRoque (Benik) in Micro Max qualifying.  As the field finally dipped below the 52-second mark, Pierson and Honeyman posted low 51.9s, putting them on the top of the timechart. However, in the final laps, LaRoque got a great draft tow from another driver coming down the backstraight and slashed three tenths off his best time to record a 51.566 to secure the pole position for the Prefinal.  Tyler Ruth (KGB) and Ashton Torgerson (Tony Kart) completed the fast-five behind Pierson and Honeyman.

After falling back to third in the early laps of the 10-lap Prefinal, Laroque turned up the wick and clawed his way back to the front to pace the field.  Honeyman and Pierson were not going to let him get away, and stuck on his rear bumper.  They appeared primed to make several moves to retake the point, but nothing every fully developed.  Anthony Willis (Benik) was the driver to watch coming from the back of the grid, starting 16^th after trouble in qualifying.  Willis attacked quickly, gaining four spots on the opening lap, and they put his head down to close on the next group of drivers.  He would eventually catch them as they battled for position in the late going, and he was able to steal eighth on the final lap.

In the final, an early train developed as expected, but once LeRoque settled into the lead, the rest of the field felt apart and decided to race each other.  This allowed the Arizona pilot to pull away to a 2.7-second triumph.  Honeyman got to the front of the chase pack to take second, while Cole Keith Cotham (Tony Kart) paired up with Willis to get onto the podium in third.

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CRG-USA DD2

Sabre Cook added to her point lead with her second DD2 win (Photo: SeanBuur.com)

The four driver making up the DD2 field this weekend are all right there, with a chance at the win. Qualifying proved that as the four were within 0.162 seconds after the 15-minute session. The two winners from Tucson – Sabré Cook (CRG) and Michael Ilavia (CompKart) were the provisional drivers at the top. Matt Jaskol (CRG) made changes to his PSL West machine, and was finding pace as the checkered flag dawned, but was unable to eclipse the time set by Cook, a 45.342-second lap. Jaskol finished the session in second, back by 23 thousandths. Ilavia was third with Ben Schermerhorn fourth in his first weekend aboard the Kosmic.

Ilavia, looking to gain as many points as possible to cut the small advantage Cook held coming into the weekend, the J3 Competition driver secured the win in the 17-lap race. Cook led the quartet for the early portion of the race until Ilavia picked up the pressure. The CompKart driver tried on lap 11 for the lead but Cook fought him off through the kink portion of the long back straight. Ilavia locked up the position the following circuit in the same turn eight. Cook retook the position on lap 15, and on the final lap, Ilavia regain the lead and scored the win. Cook settled for second with Jaskol running third, waiting for an opportunity to move forward. Schermerhorn ran fourth, posting his quickest laps at the end of the race to remain within reach of the leaders.

Cook extended her championship lead by just a few points, scoring the victory in the 25-lap main event. You could throw a blanket over the top three throughout race, as Cook and Ilavia fought for the lead early on. Eventually, Cook established herself as the top driver in the end, pulling away to a 1.3-second advantage at the checkered flag. Ilavia held off the late challenge from Jaskol to land second, only losing 15 points to Cook in the championship chase as the CRG-USA driver posted the fast lap of the race. Schermerhorn was able to post laps within two tenths of the leaders once again, running fourth.

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Rolison Performance Group Junior Max

Junior Max point leader Nick Brueckner swept the action on Saturday (Photo: SeanBuur.com)

The Junior class on Saturday was all about Nick Brueckner, as the Orsolon Racing Tony Kart pilot set the pace in qualifying. The Texan was the only driver to dip into the 46-second bracket, posting a 46.943-second. NorCal driver Toni Breidinger (Kosmic) recorded her best qualifying performance of her Junior career, ending the session in the second position. Matthew Taskinen (Tony Kart) was third in the order with Michael Michoff (Kosmic) and David Ilavia (CompKart) making up the fast five. Absent from the top of the order was Sting Ray Robb. A chassis change prior to qualifying forced him to start last for the Prefinal no matter what his lap time was. He presented and was set to start 19th.

Brueckner went wire-to-wire in the 17-lap event, but the real story was Robb coming from the back to the front. Lap after lap, the Round One winner climbed up the order and was able to reach the third position, riding the bumper of rookie Trey Brown (Tony Kart) – who started sixth himself. They finished three seconds back of Brueckner, with Breidinger down to fourth and Taskinen to fifth.

The 25-lap Final was a carbon copy of the Tucson opening race, this time with Brueckner at the point. Robb was into the second position early and on Brueckner’s bumper. They ran nose to tail the entire time with Robb trying to find a spot to take over the lead. The opportunity never came, and Brueckner scored his second straight victory of the series. Robb settled for second, as Brown landed another podium again. Taskinen finished a close fourth as Breidinger beat out Zoey Edenholm (Kosmic) for fifth.

COTA-PHX-2015-Junior_Saturday Final

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