Xander Clements December 21, 2014

 

       After an intense round of racing in the compact karting circuit at Sonoma Raceway, the Sim Karting World Championship IAME X30 Senior 2014 Championship headed to the Dallas Karting Complex, making its way eastward in the United States. DKC is no stranger to SKWC racing, as it played host to the season opener event for the 2014 Rotax Junior World Championship in June. Corrie Hiatt (Comp Kart) took the win there, at the time still aboard his Birel chassis for Birel Motorsport, his former team. Now with Birel Motorsport disbanded for the X30 World Series, Hiatt intends to take home the gold aboard a different colored chassis. 

 

       After the Qualifying split between Heats 1 and 2, the field was set for action. Heat 1 saw Brenden Baker (Comp Kart), Braden Eves (Comp Kart), and Phillippe Denes (Italkart) start off 1-2-3 and remain in those positions until the end. Baker extended his gap over his team owner by over two seconds, with another five seconds back to Denes. Xander Clements (FA Kart) was involved in a lap one incident, but was able to battle back to a fourth place finishing result. His teammate, Andre Castro (FA Kart) was also involved in an incident late in the race, but after a final release of the results, he was moved into the last transfer spot into the Final with Ian Bushey (Italkart) just missing the Top 5, being forced to start on pole in the Last-Chance-Qualifier.

 

      In Heat 2, it was an Italkart KartSport 1-2 for most of the race, with Ryan Harris (Italkart) and Cory Hayes (Italkart) trading the lead multiple times back and forth. It was not until late in the session that the race saw a problem between the two, which occurred on the front straightaway after a bump draft from Hayes to Harris sent the number twenty two chassis around for a spin. Cory obviously felt bad about the incident, and waited up to let his teammate back by. In doing so, Corrie Hiatt was able to maneuver his way by both of the drivers and take the Heat 2 win, with Ryan Harris in second and Cory Hayes in third. Rookie Marco Dakic (Flandria) pulled off an unexpected fourth place result only six seconds back from Hiatt at the end, with Gresham Wagner (FA Kart) rounding out the Top 5. 

 

      With a slightly smaller LCQ field than last week, Ian Bushey and Alex Frazer (Praga) led the field to the green. Some contact sidelined competitors early, but after the smoke rose it was still Bushey and Frazer out front, locking themselves in to the last spots for the Final. In the Final, some drivers instantly had their races hindered by being involved in incidents in turn one, with Xander Clements and Ian Bushey both going around in front of the field. As the race drew on, more competitors fell to calamity including the likes of World Champions Cory Hayes and Corrie Hiatt, with Hayes flipping his chassis on its lid and Hiatt having a game malfunction in the midst of his race. This left Braden Eves and Brenden Baker to battle for the win, with Baker coming out on top at his hometrack by a one second gap over his team owner at J3 Competition. Ryan Harris fought his way up to a third place finishing spot, with Marco Dakic coming home in fourth, and Alex Frazer rounded out the Top 5 by sneaking his way through the field and carnage to a fifth place result.

 

3rd Place Finisher: Ryan Harris (Italkart KartSport) "Great 2nd place in quali; hecctic races though. [There was a] Bit of a coaching/lag issue with a team mate in the heat which sent me to start on the second row for the final. I managed to have a nice start but fell back to 5th within acouple laps, half way through the race my teammate Cory flipped when trying to take 3rd pos off Corrie, and then Corrie had some sort of game issue which made his game drop so this ment I finished on the podium. Bit lucky, but Im happy that I could finish near my Qualifying results."

 

2nd Place Finisher: Braden Eves #141 (Comp Kart) "I got pole in qualifying -- I had a monster of a lap there. Then, in the first heat, I was running good, then I got passed, and then passed again, and the second place guy held me up a lot. So then, I had no way to recover from that after passing him. I had to start third in the final. In the final, again, a bad start -- I fell way, way back -- and then, I was hitting off real fast laps; I hit four or five [fifty point] threes in a row, and then I got all the way almost up to Brenden [Baker]. I hit the curb wrong, and it sent me off, and I lost like a second there. I wasn't able to finish strong I guess -- well I finished strong but I wasn't able to come off with a win."

 

1st Place Finisher: Brenden Baker #109 (Comp Kart) "Obviously, this would be my hometrack, and that may have happened to have a bit of an advantage, but without a doubt there was competition. In the Final, Braden [Eves] was starting to come onto me there -- he was running a bit faster lap times than I was -- but, he made a mistake, so that gave me the win. The way the weekend went down, it was alright. I qualified third, which wasn't bad, and then I was able to take over Braden [Eves] early in the heat and take the heat race win. [I] started on the pole in the Final, got a sizable gap, and just basically went on from there. Overall, it was a good weekend, I'd like to thank my sponsors, J3 Competition, my team manager Braden Eves for being a great team manager, and yeah, hopefully next week we can do the same again."

 

Official Results:

1st) Brenden Baker #109 (Comp Kart)

2nd) Braden Eves #141 (Comp Kart)

3rd) Ryan Harris #122 (Italkart)

4th) Marco Dakic #123 (Flandria)

5th) Alex Frazer #151 (Praga)

6th) Phillippe Denes #198 (Italkart)

7th) Xander Clements #136 (FA Kart)

8th) Ian Bushey #137 (Italkart)

9th) Corrie Hiatt #142 (Comp Kart)

10th) Cory Hayes #111 (Italkart)

11th) Andre Castro #104 (FA Kart)

12th) Gresham Wagner #105 (FA Kart)

13th) Mark Pickett #192 (Flandria)

14th) Marco Eakins #118 (Gillard)

15th) Carson Clements #124 (FA Kart)

16th) Elliott Budzinski #191 (Praga)

17th) Cullen Brown #146 (FA Kart)