Xander Clements January 18, 2015

 

       Looking to finish the season in dominant fashion, J3 Competition led both championships heading into the final round of the 2015 IAME X30 Campaign at GoPro Motorplex. Nestled in NASCAR Country, this .7-mile track makes its debut in the sim and on the SKWC schedule in first-class standards, with over 15 drivers showing up to compete for the inaugural victory at the circuit. It was still a group of fluo yellow and blue chassis on top of the charts at the end of practice, but not a total lockout. Gresham Wagner (FA Kart) and Ryan Harris (Italkart) both were able to crack the Top 5, locking themselves into the fast group for qualifying.

 

       In Qualifying, Corrie Hiatt (Comp Kart) stole the show with a last lap, one 1/1000th difference in lap times over his teammate Brenden Baker (Comp Kart) for the overall pole. Out of practically nowhere, SKWC rookie Michael Geringer (Tony Kart) of Koene USA shocked the world with a third place qualifying run, marring Wagner to fourth and Ryan Harris to fifth. In Heat 1, Geringer made a couple of mistakes that caused him to fall back outside of a transfer spot, allowing Xander Clements (FA Kart) to move by and claim second place. After an early spin, a good recovery from Ryan Harris got him back up to third in the results with Adam Rylance (CRG) coming in fourth and Andre Castro (FA Kart) finishing fifth to claim the last direct transfer spot to the Final. 

 

       In Heat 2, chaos was even more magnified. Brenden Baker had the only uneventful race out of all racers, winning the race in dominating fashion. Max Tadd (TB Kart) avoided the calamity to bring home a second place in the session, with Ian Bushey (Italkart) and Braden Eves (Comp Kart) third and fourth, respectively. Eves had a lot of problems that marred him to a poor finishing position, while Dan Burgess overcame similar odds to secure a starting spot in the Final. With Tadd having outside contributors forcing him to not start the Final, three spots were up for grabs. Connor Tebbe (FA Kart) took the lead after bringing the field to the green, receiving the pole starting position after Michael Geringer had to withdraw. He held onto that spot to transfer, with Austin Hervias (CRG) and Jarrett Duncovich (CRG) finishing second and third, respectively.

 

       In the Final, Ryan Harris and Xander Clements collided in turn one, send Harris around and Clements right in front of Ian Bushey, who attempted to hold the throttle down and ended up sending Clements off sliding as well. This hurt both their chances at victory by severely damaging their chassis, although Harris was able to recover back to fifth place with an incredible drive back through the field. Adam Rylance kept up his quiet consistency to hold off Andre Castro at the end for third place, punching his ticket to the podium for the second time this season. Early on Corrie Hiatt broke away with Brenden Baker at the front, but after a near spin in the Turn 1-2 compex on Lap 6, Hiatt fell too far back to challenge. As he recovered from this spin, he unintentionally merged back on track right in front of his teammate, Braden Eves, spinning Eves out and making him the only DNF of the Final. With the marginal gap early on, Baker never wavered, and captured his second victory of the season and his first SKWC Driver's Championship. His win also secured J3 Competition's first Owner's Championship in its sophomore season of competition in the league, with Hiatt's runner-up finish clinching his second consecutive silver medal in the Driver's Cup. Ryan Harris came in to the race with a small margin in second, but after some bad luck in both his heat and the Final, he fell down to third place in the overall standings. Andre Castro held onto fourth, while Xander Clements and Adam Rylance tied for fifth place. Connor Tebbe took Rookie of the Year honors over Mark Pickett (Flandria) with an 11th place in the overall championship. Rounding out the Constructor's Title podium, Italkart KartSport held off KartSport North America East for second place by a considerable gap after the final round.

 

3rd Place Finisher: Adam Rylance #140 (PSL Karting) "I'm really pleased to bring home a surprise podium finish for PSL Karting here today at GoPro Motorplex. My original goal was just to make it to the final after performing poorly in qualifying, but I have clearly achieved more than I thought I would. Yesterday in practice things looked promising. I was consistently running 47.2's and 3's, and seemed to be up at the pace of the front runners. However at the beginning of practice today, I lost my pace and was suddenly back doing 47.5's and 6's, which I was not at all satisfied with. I don't really know why this happened, and couldn't figure out why I had lost so much speed. I struggled in qualifying and the heat, but still managed to make it to the final without going through the LCQ. Then in the final starting from 6th, I finally managed to pull it together and pick up some speed again. This season in SKWC has been great, and I am satisfied with my 5th place finishing position in the points. I look forward to seeing what next season has in store."

 

2nd Place Finisher: Corrie Hiatt #142 (J3 Competition) ""

 

1st Place Finisher: Brenden Baker #109 (J3 Competition) ""

 

Official Results:

1st) Brenden Baker #109 (Comp Kart)

2nd) Corrie Hiatt #142 (Comp Kart)

3rd) Adam Rylance #140 (CRG)

4th) Andre Castro #104 (FA Kart)

5th) Ryan Harris #122 (Italkart)

6th) Ian Bushey #137 (Italkart)

7th) Daniel Burgess #156 (TB Kart)

8th) Xander Clements #136 (FA Kart)

9th) Connor Tebbe #114 (FA Kart)

10th) Austin Hervias #177 (CRG)

11th) Jarrett Duncovich #188 (CRG)

12th) Braden Eves #141 (Comp Kart)

13th) Max Tadd #135 (TB Kart)

14th) Carson Clements #124 (FA Kart)

15th) Gresham Wagner #105 (FA Kart)

16th) Michael Geringer #103 (Tony Kart)

17th) Russell Soto #150 (CRG)

18th) Drew Lindley #120 (FA Kart)

19th) Mark Pickett #192 (Flandria)