Norcal Drivers do well at Gatorz Infineon Race in less than ideal conditions

The Gatorz Challenge Cup of the Americas Series came to Infineon Raceway on Feb 24-26 to hold their second winter race event. 89 drivers Rotax raced with 17 being from Norcal. Like the first Gatorz race in late January, the weather had a lot to do with the outcome of the races. Unfortunately, the weather on the Sunday race schedule was so bad with high winds and rain, the second race day of the weekend had to be cancelled. Norcal drivers showed strong performances on Saturday.

In the Rotax Masters class, 3 Norcal drivers battled the best from Socal. There were a total of 18 entries with Reno's David Harwin taking pole. Harwin had trouble in the Prefinal as the rain came in and finished 10th. David Carlisle did well in the Prefinal and finished 6th. In the Main, Harwin recovered some to take 6th overall with Jay Brosius in 12th and Carlisle having troubles and had to settle for 17th.

In the Rotax DD2 class, there were 4 entries. Last months double winner, Curtis Cooksey from Las Vegas took pole ahead of Norcal's Gregory Liefooghe, David Arnstein and David Palic. In the Prefinal Liefooghe took the win ahead of Arnstein and Cooksey. In the Main, Gregory repeated his Prefinal performance and won over Cooksey followed by Palic and Arnstein.

In Junior Rotax, 5 Norcal drivers took on 22 Socal drivers. In his first Junior Rotax event, Sacramento's Kiel Spaulding took the pole over a talented field with Jordan Jadallah in 4th. In the Prefinal, Spaulding had trouble in the rain and fell back to 26th, but Jadallah went on and used put his home track knowledge to take the Prefinal win. Bobby Tifft was 14th, Brody Zink 17th and Mikee Mejia had a DNS. In the Main, Jordan had to fight for a third place finish, his second podium for the series. Brody Zink continued his improving ways and took a very good 11th with Mejia coming from 27th to 13th by race end. Tifft was 16th and Spaulding to settle for a DNF.

In the Senior International class, 8 Norcal drivers were in the 28 kart field. In Qualifying, Nikola Radosaljevjich took 2nd, Ray Bustamante Jr 5th, Troy Castaneda 9th, Wes Phillips 10th. In the Prefinal, Castaneda and Phillips put on quiet a show as the race went from dry to wet early in the race. Troy took 1st ahead of Phillips with Nikola 7th and Nic LeDuc 11th after starting 25th. In the Main, Wes continued his rain mastery by taking the win with LeDuc working his way up to 3rd, Nikola improved to 6th, Jake Mottaz 16th, Carlos Calderon 20th, Bustamante 21st and Castaneda took a DNF. This was Wes's second rain win out of 3 races and puts him in a good position in the series for the class championship.

The next Gatorz Challenge of the Americas race will be March 28-30 at the X-Plex track in Las Vegas.