After an eventful and great start to the fourth round of the WSK series in Genk Belgium – the team at J3 Competition has returned stateside. The weekend was positive in many respects and the team has taken away several positive and motivational tools for its next trip to Europe.
After a successful wet weather day on Thursday, the team entered a full dry day on Friday. Friday, was essentially the first official day that driver Tristan DeGrand took to the track in Genk under dry conditions. The young FWT Champion didn’t disappoint as he was immediately up to speed by taking the sixth fastest time in the first session. As the day progressed the team began to attack some different areas to find speed and ended the day just outside of 30th on the time charts. Of course, this wasn’t what the team was hoping for, however, this gave a good direction heading into Saturday’s qualifying session.
Saturday began with a quick warm up session, where the team utilized its race engine for the first time. The engine produced good power and Tristan was happy with its responsiveness, therefore the team made two small changes to the chassis for qualifying. The change proved to be correct as Tristan clocked his fastest time of the week at a 53.690. This put DeGrand in 24th place, whereby a time of 53.600 would have placed him 11th! That’s right, less than on tenth of a second was that big of a difference.
During the first heat Tristan was victim to a rough first lap as all the drivers outside the top three rows decided to play ‘ping pong’ with one another, thus ending Tristan’s first heat early. At the start of the second heat, Tristan immediately went to the inside and secured his position until a fellow competitor drover directly over the engine side of Kosmic chassis causing a scary looking incident that would eventually end the entire weekend prematurely. “Watching the incident unfold was tough, as Tristan went to the inside exactly as we had discussed, he was helplessly victimized in scary, scary incident. Thankfully, he walked away after some assistance and that’s the most important. ”—Justin Stefani.
Once in care of the WSK medical staff, Tristan was in no shape to compete as he suffered severely bruised ribs, which will eventually be further evaluated t once he returns home to St. Louis. However, Tristan did wake up on Sunday determined to take part in his last heat and the LCQ, yet only a couple laps on the track in morning warm up were all he could endure. The team spent the remainder of Sunday preparing its material for the next round. Most likely, Tristan will be sidelined for 4-8 weeks – J3 Competition will make sure to keep everyone updated on his progress.
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.
