J3 Competition Race Department brought a very talented group of drivers to the final round of the FWT in Ocala, Florida. In total, J3 Competition was in contention for two different championships and several podium finishes.
Starting with MicroMax it was team driver from Sweden, Rasmus Lindh who need to secure two solid results to take home the championship. Lindh did what he needed to on Saturday by taking the win, but a questionable call by officials forced the pilot to take 9th place points, and thus the championship would have to be decided on Sunday. Not disappointing the team, himself or the fans, Lindh drove a masterful final on Sunday to take the victory (his third in the series) and subsequently took home the championship in his first ever FWT attempt!
In Rotax MiniMax, Patricio O’Ward came into Ocala second in the point’s standings with a chance to take the championship. Working extremely hard the entire weekend, O’Ward was still alive with hopes for the championship heading into Sunday, but a second place finish in Sunday’s final would not be enough to take the championship. Having proved himself and J3 Competition as frontrunner in the MiniMax category, O’Ward will take his second place finish in the championship and begin to focus his sights on the Pan American Championship and US Nationals.
Canadian Alex Guenette and Brazilian Gustavo Lima took J3 Competition’s colors to the junior category for the final round in Ocala. With extremely close competition, Guenette was able qualify fourth for Sunday and just outside the top ten for Saturday while Lima secured two good starting positions for Saturday and Sunday as well. An exciting battle in Saturday’s final put Guenette in sixth and teammate Lima in ninth for the final standings. Sunday’s racing proved even more exciting as both Guenette and Lima proved strong in their pre-finals giving themselves good starting positions for the final. In the final Guenette would encounter an incident that left him sidelined for the event, while Lima battled fiercely upfront to take home a top five finish in fifth.
DeGrand w. Mecahnic
The weekend was capped off with the highly intense Rotax Sr. category where J3 Competition had, Tristan DeGrand, Kara Guenette, Alessandra Madrigal, Nicolas Morales, and Andrew Palmer lined up aboard Kosmic/Supertune powered machines. Once official time practiced concluded, J3 Competition positioned four of its drivers in the top ten with Palmer highlighting the charts in first followed by Madrigal in second. Moving in to qualifying, Palmer took the point for Sunday’s event, while Morales grabbed fourth, DeGrand seventh, Madrigal tenth and Guenette in seventeenth. Saturday’s qualifying round was similar with Morales taking the point with Palmer in fourth, DeGrand in fifth, Guenette in twentieth while Madrigal encountered a mechanical DNF.
Saturday’s final was exciting as the lead pack broke away with DeGrand and Palmer in hot pursuit of the leaders. At the checkered it was DeGrand third and Palmer fifth, however, post-tech would award DeGrand second and Palmer fourth. Morales completed the final in fifth, while Guenette 21st and Madrigal in thirteenth.
Sunday started out well as Palmer lead the pre-final from the point the checkered and took a commanding win with Morales in fifth, Guenette in 12th and DeGrand in thirteenth. After making some key adjustments for the final the looked poised to secure solid results. An unfortunate ‘off’ by a competitor forced a dirty track on lap two, which Palmer would unfortunately inherit and subsequently be forced off line and lose several positions. Two laps after the incident, Palmer was sidelined with an apparent mechanical failure. The final proved a great drive by Morales as he took the final step in third with DeGrand showing expert driving experience as he took home fourth place with Guenette taking her best result home in eleventh, while Madrigal drove he way up to a 17th place finish from 30th. The final championship points put Morales in sixth; DeGrand amazingly finished the series in seventh with only two events to his credit while Palmer took home a solid eight place in the championship points.
Justin Stefani, Race Team Manager, J3 Competition commented: “The final round of the FWT showed the continuation of our driver’s and material development. It is very rewarding taking home the MicroMax Championship and second in the MiniMax championship as well. The results and speed which our rookie senior driver showed was a great testament to their hard work as well as the entire team. We are looking forward to moving through the 2011 in the same refined direction which we have achieved to this point.”
J3 Competition Race Department is exclusively utilizing the 2011 Kosmic Racing Kart line coupled with Supertune USA powered Rotax engines and Unipro data logging systems in the 2011 FWT series. For further information regarding the J3 Competition Race Department please email Technical@J3Competition.com.
About J3 Competition:
J3 Competition Inc. is an undisputed leader in Race Services since 2004, providing the necessary tooling and management to take drivers to the next level. Starting in 2015 through its COMPKART ™ brand, J3 Competition will provide a full line of high-quality chassis and products designed and engineered for the Karting industry alongside it potent Race Department. 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.
