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| January 08, 2009 |
| Driver News: Devlin DeFrancesco - FWT Homestead Preview & WKA KartWeek Report |
 | DeFrancesco heads to his new home track for a pair of starts this weekend
(Photo: On Track Promotions - otp.ca) |
Eight-year-old Devlin DeFrancesco begins his second Championship schedule of the season this weekend as the Florida Winter Tour Rotax Max Challenge of the Americas takes the green at Homestead-Miami Speedway. After a practice day on Friday, the Micro-Max category will contest races one and two over the weekend in the first of three Championship rounds in Florida. To say the least, the firstkart.com group is excited about their prospects, and if recent events are any indication, DeFrancesco may well have eyes for the podium over the weekend.
After a family move to Florida in the fall, Homestead Karting became the home track for DeFrancesco-Tennyson Racing and Devlin completed three races in the Homestead Karting Summer Series leading up to the 2009 Winter Tour. After a mechanical DNF in his first, the young shoe became virtually unbeatable afterwards as he took back-to-back main event wins and was never off the front row. He took pole and a commanding six-second win in his second start and in his third, repeated with pole and a feature win with a last lap, final corner pass. He has quickly become comfortable running variations of Homestead, and is primed for the FWT to begin.
Starting his season at the World Karting Association’s Daytona KartWeek, DeFrancesco made his first WKA National starts at Daytona International Speedway a week ago. Racing Cadet in the George Kugler/Bridgestone Manufacturer’s Cup Series driven by Mazda, the young Canadian had a solid first outing in the Margay Racing Products Nationals and was on his way to another in the second race of the weekend when he bowed to a mechanical. He began by qualifying P21 of near 50 on opening day and worked his way forward from that point. After dropping to P23 waiting for his kart to come in during the first half of the prefinal, DeFrancesco set his quick lap on five and passed forward to P20 by the checker. The main event was similar, as after backing from P17 to P20 through ten of sixteen laps, he set his best lap of the day on ten and took five positions on his way to P15 at the final flag of the day.
Qualifying nearly four-tenths quicker on Sunday and P18 in the field, DeFrancesco gained a direct transfer to the prefinal for the second straight day. He followed with his best lap of the weekend in the Prefinal, but in recovering from a first corner melee it supported a recovery run from the back of the pack to P27. In the feature, the rising star bettered his quick lap of the weekend once again and had climbed into the top twenty when forced to retire working lap twelve of sixteen. Overall the weekend served as a fantastic learning experience in a National field of Cadets, and DeFrancesco will look for bigger and better on home turf this weekend. |
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