After a very busy end to the 2014 season, J3 Competition opened up its Florida Winter Tour campaign in familiar fashion at the renowned Homestead Karting facility. With its new livery and newly homologated COMPKART chassis line, J3 Competition entered drivers in a total of three categories; Max Sr., Max Jr., and Max Masters and the mostly new line up drivers included:
Max Sr.
Hunter Armstrong
Alessandro Bressan
Everett Thomas
Max. Jr.
Braden Eves
Max Hewitt
J.D. Villacis
Max Masters
Leonardo Nienkotter
The team starting its on track activity with open practice on Wednesday which closely followed into a continued day of testing on Thursday before qualifying on Friday. With two days of acclimating the new member’s to the internal processes and material everyone looked solid heading into the qualifying round.
In Max Masters, Leonardo Nienkotter led the way the entire week as he took both Saturday and Sunday’s prestigious pole positions. The dominance continued has Nienkotter took Saturday’s pre-final and final wins solidly and Sunday looked to be much of the same, however, a mechanical issue in the pre-final cost him the perfect weekend. Nienkotter was able to charge from the 11th starting position to take the victory on Sunday final along with the fastest lap of the race showing again the COMPKART performance.
The team’s junior trio had a rough battle in Homestead as many of the drivers were often times on the wrong side of a few on track incidents. Eves was able to show solid speed as he took 4th in Saturdays qualifying effort only to be caught up in a massive accident during the pre-final, which relegated him to a last place starting position which he made the best out of taking a 13th place finish Saturday. On Sunday Eves maintained good pace and raced in the top 10 where he finished a respectable 8th place. Teammate Max Hewitt had a solid run battling hard in both finals inside the top twenty until the later stages of the event while JD Villacis proved solid as he took a step forward on Sunday as well. All three drivers will return for rounds 3 & 4 in Orlando and all are looking for improvement.
The Max Sr. racing was intense and at most times crossed the lines of unsportsmanlike, however, this did not sway the team’s efforts and focus. The qualifying rounds were solid for team with Bressan nabbing 3rd in Saturdays round while Hunter Armstrong took a top ten effort in Sunday’s round. All three drives showed good motivation and pace throughout the week’s event as Armstrong finished just outside the top 10 in both finals showing solid signs in his first FWT. Bressan looked to be in podium contention many times, however, he was on the wrong end of a few competitors’ front bumpers forcing him from gaining a step on the box on Saturday and Sunday. Everett Thomas continued to improve in his first trip to Florida throughout the entire event as all three drivers will return to Orland for rounds 3 & 4.
“We had a very solid and productive first couple rounds of the Florida Winter Tour, and with the wins gained in the Masters category coupled with the competitive pace we showed in Jr. and Sr. its very motivating as we head into the next rounds of the FWT.” — Team Management
About J3 Competition:
J3 Competition Inc. through its COMPKART ™ brand will provide a full line of high-quality chassis and products designed and engineered for the Karting industry. J3 Competition is among the most successful Karting brands and companies internationally. J3 Competition will aim to deliver the COMPKART ™ chassis line to the North American market as well as customers globally in 2015 and beyond with unprecedented performance and service. With its content, B2B, and B2C websites presently under construction, please visit http://www.j3competition.com along with all its social media outlets to stay up to date on the latest releases and happenings regarding the COMPKART brand.
