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| June 02, 2009 |
| Driver News: Devlin DeFrancesco - May Report |
 | DeFrancesco is rounding into form with Alonso Kart USA.
(Photo: On Track Promotions - otp.ca) |
Devlin DeFrancesco continues to criss-cross the continent in gaining his racing education as over the last four weekends he has raced a pair of starts in both Canada and the United States. After beginning in Indiana with a World Karting Association National, three Rotax Max Challenge qualifying rounds followed and all told the nine-year-old added two wins and five more podiums to his season total.
The latest start in the four pack was in Ontario, Canada, a week ago as the 2009 Brian Stewart Racing Karting Championship got underway at fabled 3S GoKarts in Sutton. Arguably the most intense Rotax Max Challenge in the country, DeFrancesco saw action in both his Alonso Kart Micro-Max and four-stroke Novice, climbing the podium in each. Saturday provided RMC qualifying events and DeFrancesco began the day off-pole. A prefinal win followed before an intense battle to settle the top step of the podium in the Micro-Max main event. DeFrancesco slotted second in the opening laps before leading four to six, and ten to the last lap board. Over the final flyer the action was nose-to-bumper and in a drag to the flag out of the final set of corners DeFrancesco came up second, just 0.079 seconds from the stripe! One day later he was on pole in Novice and though he set the fastest lap of the race in the prefinal he lined up on the outside of row two for the main event. After settling in during the early stages, DeFrancesco upped the wick in the middle portion of the race and moved forward to second to book a return to the podium.
The DeFrancesco/Alonso Kart squad arrived at Sutton from another famed circuit as one week prior it was racing in Norman, at the Oklahoma Motorsports Park. The growing Alonso Kart effort was racing the third and fourth races of the Southwest Regional Cup Series and DeFrancesco found himself going toe-to-toe with Florida Winter Tour Micro-Max Champion Logan Sargeant. The pair were easily the class of the field, though officials pulled them from it in race one. After exchanging top spot throughout the final and bump-drafting together to establish a fifteen-second lead, first Sargeant and then DeFrancesco, were taken from the track owing to black flags for the contact! A day later it was much the same, though with new rules officially allowing bump-drafting to take place. DeFrancesco began off-pole, took the win in the prefinal, and broke the track record in the final though he came up just short of the top of the blocks.
If not for the Official gaff, DeFrancesco would have been on a run of six consecutive podiums as in returning to Ontario for the first start of the Toronto Racing Association of Karters’ Rotax Max Challenge he swept both Micro-Max and Novice. After taking pole in rotax he chopped a more than a second from with his best lap in the prefinal as the track dried out and went even quicker in the main event. It was much the same in Novice as after recording pole, DeFrancesco backed it up with a prefinal win and cut another full second from his best lap in the main. The weekend was polar opposite to what he suffered through at MRP, as the team continues to struggle with Comer power in the World Karting Association. The nine-year-old cooked a pair of motors racing at Michiana Raceway Park, and though he advanced from his qualifying spot in both starts, the team left feeling optimistic about the next series start.
Much racing will take place before that though, as the WKA Manufacturer’s Cup resumes in July. This weekend will see DeFrancesco return to Homestead Karting for Rotax Max Challenge qualifying races and he will be back in Canada two weeks later. For more news and information, please visit http://www.devlindefrancesco.com |
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