The J3 Competition Race Department took part in the second round of the Rotax Pan American Championships this past weekend at New Castle, IN Raceway. What will be the site of the US Rotax Nationals; New Castle Raceway always boasts stellar fields of driver’s as well as exciting racing. J3 Competition officially entered Tristan DeGrand and Andrew Palmer in the Junior Max category with newcomer Clay Van Eerd in the Mini Max Category no to mention several other Kosmic entrants. The weekend proved a success on many fronts with the highlight coming from long-time team member Tristan DeGrand as he recorded two vastly different victories, yet stunning nonetheless.
At the conclusion of the official practice days, the team secured the speed necessary as the top of the time charts were littered with the J3 Competition/Kosmic classification. J3 Competition coupled their hard work on Thursday and Friday in part to the accurate and reliable Unipro data collection which allows the team the ability to analyze the material to make the final decisions for Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday the focus shifted to managing the setup to deal with what initially appeared to be a full messy day of rain. However, the morning qualifying session was the only on track session impacted by wet weather. At the conclusion of qualifying DeGrand would be classified in 5th place, with Palmer further down the grid after a problematic session. The track soon went dry and the team reverted to their primary setup for the pre final and final. In the pre final DeGrand took little time to affirm his stance as he went to the point on lap two and marched to a comfortable win. Palmer moved up the line in similar fashion as he made a move for 5th place from 18th in the early stages when contact struck and ended his pre final early. In the final it was all J3 Competition and Tristan DeGrand as victory was claimed by the multi time National Champion by over five seconds. Palmer put in another stellar drive coming from deep in the field to take a solid top ten finish.
The team looked for the same results on Sunday in qualifying when DeGrand took provisional pole position with Palmer in fourth, unfortunately DeGrand would be penalized thirty positions for a driving infraction in qualifying, which the team is still searching the rule set to no avail. The pre final looked stout for Palmer as he battled in the lead trio of karts looking to make his move to the point just before a mechanical failure sidelined his solid effort. Palmer’s teammate DeGrand systematically moved from his 31st starting position to take the point with two laps to go before settling for a second place finish! With DeGrand off pole and Palmer starting deep in the field in 34th , the final provided fireworks as Palmer marched to an eight place finish with the fastest lap of the final while DeGrand battled his way through the field after a tough start to secure the lead with a brilliant late race move and his second victory of the weekend.
The weekend was also a positive direction with first time team member, Clay Van Eerd an Ontario Canada native. Van Eerd’s first time in the United States aboard his new Kosmic chassis was positive as he worked on improving his position as well as the team’s cadet material as he found himself in the top ten throughout most of the weekend. Struck by some unfortunate luck, Van Eerd will be back to tackle the challenges of the US Mini Max category.
“The weekend proved that the team is on pace and our driver’s did a great job at utilizing the material. We will work on some changes to improve our efforts for next month’s US Nationals as well, but we are definitely satisfied how this weekend ended.” – Team Manager
For further information regarding the Team of the Year – J3 Competition please email them at Technical@J3Competition.com. For inquires on all other product lines including the 2010 Kosmic Racing Kart line, Vortex Engines, ROK Series Engines, Unipro Lap Timers, IBEA, JHC, OTK Kart Parts, and Tranzformer products please contact the Sales Department at; Sales@J3Competition.com or 814-864-1846.
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.
