Nick d'Orlando with Payton Durrant

Despite bad weather for most of the weekend, Nicholas d’Orlando would not let mother nature spoil his race weekend, finishing third in the inaugural Rotax US Open series at the Dallas Karting Complex (DKC) in Caddo Mills, Texas.

The weekend for Nicholas kicked off with a disappointing qualifying effort for seventh, but recovered slightly by finishing third in the first heat race of the weekend. The rains would continue into Saturday as Nicholas headed into heat races two, three, and four poised for better results.  He would start off with an impressive win in heat race two. After crossing the line in the 3^rd slot, and given a five position penalty for a technical infraction in heat race three, Nicholas lined up for the final heat race in the 8^th slot and worked his way back up quickly to finish second of the day.

With the impressive results on Saturday, Nicholas would bring that momentum with him into Sunday’s final.  With the weather the night before delaying the day’s events, the final warm-ups & races would be combined into one session.  As the weather cleared up and the track dried out, it would make for the best race conditions all weekend when the MiniMax class hit the track. Nicholas would take advantage of the dry race track as he lined up for the final inside row two.  He would remain in the lead train all race long as the top-three switched spots on many occasions.  With lapped traffic playing a part late in the race, Nicholas would bring home his No. 115 Tony Kart to a third place podium finish and currently sits third in the Rotax US Open MiniMax Championship point’s standings.

“I had a good weekend” said Nicholas. “The weather made it a little tough. I was able to take a heat race win and run up front all weekend long. We overcame a penalty on Saturday and didn’t look back. Sunday’s final we had to deal with some lap traffic which made it tough to battle for the win at the end. To have finished third and on the podium, felt like a win and a good start to the Rotax US Open MiniMax campaign.”

Next race for Nicholas will be the second round of the United States Pro Kart Series June 19 – 21 @ US Air Motorsports Shawano, WI.  Nicholas heads into the Shawano, WI leading the championship points.

DRC would like to give special thanks to their supporters and sponsors at Iona Preparatory School, Kool Nerd Clothing, and adidas Motorsport.  A special thanks to Mike Maurini & Martijn Koene from their race team KoeneUSA, as well as DRC’s Adam Johnson, for their continued hard work and support.

d’Orlando Racing.

For more information on Nicholas d’Orlando, please visit www.dorlandoracing.com. Be sure to follow him on Facebook (Nicholas d’Orlando Racing), Twitter (@dorlandoracing) and Instagram (@dorlandoracing) to stay up to date on news, information, photos and results.

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