Xander Clements November 2, 2014

 

      After a great turnout at Suzuka Kart Circuit, the Sim Karting World Championship headed to another part of the globe to meet at Genk, a circuit re-nowned for amazing international racing. 15 Drivers entered into the event, although a withdrawal was in order for Corrie Hiatt (BirelART) and Matthew Duncovich (Tony Kart), ending both of their days before they began due to outside conflicts. This race also saw a large influx in rookie drivers, totaling initially four with Duncovich, and three without. However, the spotlight remained on SKWC veterans Cory Hayes (ItalKart) and Braden Eves (Tony Kart), as they proved to be the class of the field each and every session on track.

 

      In the PreFinal, it seemed to be all but locked up for Hayes to punch his first place starting spot in the feature event, but a computer error for his game cost him two positions by the time that results were made official. This handed the pole position over to Braden Eves, who was within a tenth of Hayes's best lap time throughout the entire weekend. Xander Clements (FA Kart) started second, with Myles Rowe (TopKart) starting fourth and Andre Castro (FA Kart) rounding out the Top 5. On the first lap of the Final, an overzealous Clements overestimated his grip heading into the esses at the end of the backstraight, going wide and dropping from second to fourth. This allowed Cory Hayes to pull up to Braden Eves and challenge him throughout the event.

 

      As the race went on, bad luck again struck Clements. He was knocked off of Rowe's bumper in two separate incidents, and even caught up in a wreck with his KartSport North America teamnate, Andre Castro, in his second attempt to come back up through the field. With a bent chassis and steering, he nursed his KartSport FA Chassis home to a solid sixth place finish, keeping him within points contention of the championship hunt. That championship would become quite difficult, though, as Cory Hayes was able to make the most of a mistake out of Braden Eves, and pull away to the win. The mistake would ultimately cost Eves two positions, relinquishing second place to his J3 Competition teammate, Brenden Baker (Tony Kart). Adam Rylance (CRG) negotiated his way through incidents to come out scott-free on the event finishing fourth, with Ian Bushey (ItalKart) coming home in fifth, allowing ItalKart KartSport to take an advantage in the Constructor's championship over KartSport North America.

 

       After the conclusion of the day's events, Hayes had this to say when asked if he thought he would be able to contend for the win in the feature, after his heartbreaking result in the PreFinal. "Yeah, no, um, I knew Braden had pace, so I knew I was going to have to work pretty hard to get back into the lead, after what happened in the PreFinal. After Xander went off, I got into his slipstream, and he towed me along for a bit, and I got into a pretty good battle with him." Brenden Baker was a bit more chipper in his post-race review, posting his best SKWC result to date. "Well, overall, the race was pretty good. I was actually surprised by the pace that I had, considering I haven't played Kart Racing Pro that much." "I think maybe if I wouldn't have started in the back it would have been a good race and I might have had a chance to win, but I'm gonna say [that] I'm happy with the result." Braden Eves still felt quite alright after his result, saying, "It was a pretty good race overall, although I think I would have finished first or second had I not made that mistake early on."

 

Official Results:

1st) Cory Hayes #11 (ItalKart)

2nd) Brenden Baker #16 (Tony Kart)

3rd) Braden Eves #41 (Tony Kart)

4th) Adam Rylance #40 (CRG)

5th) Ian Bushey #37 (ItalKart)

6th) Xander Clements #36 (FA Kart)

7th) Ryan Harris #22 (ItalKart)

8th) Cullen Brown #46 (FA Kart)

9th) Myles Rowe #6 (TopKart)

10th) Brendan Cronin #8 (CRG)

11th) Max Tadd #99 (Tony Kart)

12th) Andre Castro #4 (FA Kart)

13th) Gresham Wagner #5 (FA Kart)