KF Junior Race 4 Recap

KF Junior Round 4 at GFP Karting Recap

Xander Clements November 16, 2014

Heading into the final round of the SKWC KFJ World Championship, the series headed to Luxembourg, a small country located near Germany in Eastern Europe, at the GFP Karting Centre. GFP is the longest track on the season's schedule, with drivers barely breaking into the 58 second lap times when hot-lapping. The track itself is quite technical, with the majority of how much speed you can carry through the first sector being a large determinant in your overall lap time. As we looked at final times with the results from Official Practice, Braden Eves (Tony Kart) and Brenden Baker (Tony Kart) topped the charts with Eves having the edge leading into qualifying, making it a J3 Competition 1-2-5 with Phillippe Denes (Tony Kart) putting down a fifth place lap time, coming in behind Corrie Hiatt (BirelART) in fourth and Cory Hayes (ItalKart) in third. In qualifying, it was much of the same, although Baker was able to secure the top spot, with Hayes locking himself onto the front row with a runner-up qualifying time. Eves qualified third, with Hiatt fourth and Denes fifth.

After waving off the initial start to the PreFinal, Baker and Hayes led the field down to the green with a fairly clean start, and Baker getting out front early. Incidents in the first section between Michael Avansino (BirelART) and Xander Clements (FA Kart) sent Clements from his qualifying spot of sixth place back to nearly twelfth, and an incident between Ian Bushey (ItalKart) and Avansino coming out of the first hairpin sent Bushey into a spin that sent him to the tail end of the field. A series of casualties would follow in the event, with only 11 of the 15 competitors finishing, with all drivers DNFing due to isolated incidents. Baker would come away with the PreFinal win, with Hayes right in toe behind and Denes finishing under four seconds behind in third as well. Ryan Harris (ItalKart) finished fourth after a solid start from back in seventh position, and Andre Castro (FA Kart) rounded out the Top 5 with a drive all the way back from a twelfth place starting position.

In the Final, Hayes got the jump on Baker initially. With a large enough gap heading into turn 1, Hayes was able to secure the top spot, with Denes quickly following through as well in the opening laps. Early contact in the first hairpin not too long into the event, however, slowed both drivers down and allowed Baker to retake the lead. Ryan Harris tried to follow through as well with Clements behind, but netcode between the two slowed them both down and eventually Harris attained so much dirt on his tires that he spun heading through the next portion of the track, surrending fourth place at the time to Clements. Later that lap, Clements was also able to maneuver his way by Phillippe Denes for third place, moving into a potential first podium of the season for the SKWC veteran. As the laps wound down, Cory Hayes was bitten once again by the same game malfunction that hurt him in the PreFinal at Genk, causing his kart to drive off the track and relinquish his second place position and podium spot. This handed second place over to Clements who rode comfortably to the end of the event, with Ryan Harris battling back to third position after his spin early on. Corrie Hiatt drove back up through the field after an incident early in the going of the event, and managed to bring his BirelART up to a fourth place finishing spot, which happened to be just enough to clinch a runner up position in the Drivers' Championship. Adam Rylance (CRG) sneaked his way into fifth place after a lap one spin sent him to the tail of the field, keeping his own nose clean throughout the entire weekend and simply keeping all four tires on track.

3rd Place Finisher: Ryan Harris #22 (ItalKart) " I'm absolutely stoked! This was my 2nd SKWC event race ever and I came in with in with an open mind. It's all about the strength of the mind. Cory Hayes put together a great package which let me come in with a great chance. Thanks to Matt Mclean & Cory Hayes."

2nd Place Finisher: Xander Clements #36 (FA Kart) "This season has been one for me to forget, to be quite honest. A lot of driving errors on my end and mental mistakes shut me out of a podium in the first three rounds, and to finally get onto it here at GFP was great, although it wasn't the way I would have liked to. My teammate, Andre Castro, got taken out on the first lap, and through a lot of shoving from behind Adam Rylance went around in front of me as well. It was more of a survival to get here than anything, but I'm still quite thrilled with the result that secured me a tie with third in the points, eventually leading to fourth after the tie-breaker. I'm looking forward to what will hopefully be a better season in Season V, and seeing what the future holds for me in SKWC. "

1st Place Finisher: Brenden Baker #16 (Tony Kart) "I had a pretty good run. [I] started out with qualifying pole, that led to a Pre Final win, and on the start of the Final, Cory [Hayes] got the jump on me, and he was leading out the first few laps, and then Phillippe got by me as well. Those two were going at it for a few laps until I believe they both made a mistake, and I was able to take advantage of that to pass both of them. Then, from there on, it was coasting to the win, so it was a pretty easy race overall."

Official Results:

1st) Brenden Baker #16 (Tony Kart)

2nd) Xander Clements #36 (FA Kart)

3rd) Ryan Harris #22 (ItalKart)

4th) Corrie Hiatt #42 (Birel)

5th) Adam Rylance #40 (CRG)

6th) Florian Godard #2 (CRG)

7th) Andre Castro #4 (FA Kart)

8th) Cory Hayes #11 (ItalKart)

9th) Michael Avansino #44 (Birel)

10th) Alex Frazer #51 (ART GP)

11th) Connor Tebbe #14 (Kosmic)