Velocity Karting

Pacific Association of Karters

Round #1 Race Report



Sunday January 29, 2017 saw 9 Velocity Karting Drivers hit the track to start the 2017 season at Apex Kart Track in Perris, CA.  The Velocity Team joined many of Southern California's top drivers competing in Round #1 of the PAK season.  Our team saw 2 drivers racing in Jr1 Comer B, 1 Driver in Jr1 Comer A, 1 driver in Miniswift and 5 drivers in the F100 class.  Out of our 9 drivers, 4 made the podium and 2 others were fast enough to make the podium but luck didn't go their way.

Jr1 B Comer Race Report

This class had 2nd year racer Bela Richard on the track with rookie racer Brett Revetta making his racing debut.  In practice it was apparent that Revetta and Richard had the speed to compete for the victory.  Seasoned driver Kayla Gibson was the fastest but Revetta and Richard were just 3/10ths and 7/10ths off her pace.  By the time qualifying was completed Revetta and Richard took 2nd and 3rd and closed the gape on Gibson to just 1/10th and 4/10ths respectively.  It looked as though both of our drivers were ready to be on the podium and both were chasing their 1st career wins. 

Heat #1 saw Gibson jump out in front and start to drive away from the Velocity drivers.  They however had a tight race with one another for 2nd and 3rd, leaving the rest of the pack in their dust.  That all changed on lap 5 when Richard and Revetta made contact causing Revetta to spin and lose his 2nd place position.  Richard was able to keep going but Revetta fell to 7th position.  Richard would finish the race in  2nd, and Revetta battled back to finish 5th.

With Richard starting the Main on outside pole he had his sight set on his first victory.  Revetta's crew had to work overtime to get his kart ready for the Main, but he was there and starting in 5th. We all knew Revetta was fast enough to make his way on to the podium. 

As the green flew on the Main Gibson took the lead, but Richard tucked into 2nd closely behind her.  Revetta didn't seem to have the same speed as we witnessed earlier and it was apparent that he still had some mechanical issues.  Revetta battled hard, but at lap 8 he was forced to retire from the race with brake issues.  Not the ending we anticipated, but all in all it was a better day than we thought this rookie driver would show.  The group needs to be ready next month as Revetta will compete for the victory.

Richard stayed close to Gibson for the first half of the race.  He was actually posting faster laps than Gibson early on.  Then Gibson found a little extra speed and ran faster laps than she had run at any other point in the day.  She would eventually pull away from Richard and win the race by a 7 second margin.  Richard would hold on to 2nd to match his career best finish and finish the race 15 seconds ahead of the 3rd place driver.  Congrats to Richard on taking home the 1st podium of 2017 for Veloctiy Karting.

Jr1A Comer Race Report

Hayden Huelsman was the only team driver in the Comer premier class.  This class is where the best of the best Comer drivers in California, Arizona and Nevada come to race.  Huelsman only raced this class 3 times last season with a career best of 5th.

In practice it appeared that Huelsman had the speed to compete for a podium and possibly a victory.  The field was stacked though with Pro Kart drivers Troy Hageman, Alex Estes and Max Saga.  In practice Huelsman posted the 2nd fastest lap.

All that changed in qualifying though.  Huelsman had trouble finding his rhythm and fell to 4th but more importantly he slowed his pace by 7/10ths and fell 1.785 seconds behind the leaders time.  

As Heat #1 started, Huelsman found himself in 4th place behind Saga and Estes.  Those drivers battled hard and on lap 2 serious contact was made.  Saga kart was damaged enough for him to withdraw from the Heat, while Estes was able to continue.   Huelsman avoided the wreck and finshed the Heat in 2nd.  Hageman dominated the race and proved why he is one of the best young drivers in California.

The Main started with Huelsman on the outside Pole.  As the flag waved he tucked into 2nd with Estes hot on his tale.  It only took Estes 3 laps to get by Huelsman as Estes found some additional speed and layed down his fastest laps of the day.  Eventually Huelsman and Saga would end up battling for the final spot on the podium.  They would race nose to tail for 10 laps, bumping and banging, with each exchanging the 3rd spot a number of times.  With 2 laps to go, Saga bumped Huelsman and over took the 3rd position.  Due to the bump Huelsman lost some momentum and fell about 10 kart lengths behind Sage.  Huelsman didn't quit and layed down his fastest lap of the race on the final lap of the Main.  Unfortunately, the distance was too much to overcome.  He cut the space between he and Saga to approx. 4 kart lengths but had to settle for 4th.  Although he was obviously bummed by missing the podium, Huelsman still had a career best finish in this class with a 4th.

MiniSwift Race Report
     

Ahkil Bahkta is a seasoned racer with 3 years behind the wheel of Comer 80's.  On this day though he was making his career debut in the MiniSwift class.  This is the class that the Pro Tour uses so in these races you are regularly racing the best drivers on the West Coast.  This day was no different as the class had seasoned Pro Tour drivers Steven Grafton, Troy Hageman, Max Saga and Delany Delamo.
 

In qualifying Bhakta showed he was in the right class racing these great drivers.  He qualified in 3rd, but more importantly he was just 0.153 behind the Pole Sitter.  This also meant he had 2 Pro Tour drivers qualifying behind him.

In the Heat race Bhakta maintained his position in 3rd place through the first corners of the race.  Grafton jumped out to the lead with Hageman in 2nd.  Grafton would find a good rhythm and drive away with the race.  Bhakta and Hageman would race with limited separation between them as they drove away from the rest of the field.  Hageman would hold on to 2nd but Bhakta would finish 3rd just a second behind Hageman.

Going into the Main. Bhakta knew he had the speed to at least finish 2nd.  As the green flag dropped Grafton and Hageman separate from the field.  Bhakta would find himself battling Adamo for 3rd throughout most of the race.  They would swap positions for the first 10 laps, then Adamo would decide to work with Bhakta and see if they could catch 2nd place Hageman.  This strategy worked as the two of them together were able to cut the lead in half and both would post faster lap times than Hageman.  Unfortunately they worked together too late in the race and Grafton would take the victory, Hageman would finish 2nd and Bhakta would find himself on the podium in 3rd.  A remarkable finish for this new class debut.

F100 Sr Class Race Report

This class was the biggest class of the race day and Velocity Karting fielded 5 of those drivers.  Seasoned drivers and past Champions Stephen Huelsman and Brian Smith were driving for Velocity and were joined by rookie drivers Phillip Ramirez, Bryan Parji and Matt Obenshain making his racing debut.

Going into qualifying Velocity believed they could win this class.  After qualifying was completed it was clear that Robert Melzer showed up to compete with the Velocity Team.  He would take the Pole with Huelsman in 2nd, Smith in 3rd, Parji in 4th, Ramirez in 6th and Obenshain in 7th.

As the green flag flew in the Heat race, Melzer, Huelsman and Smith would take off together and race closely for much of the race.  Melzer would eventually pull away, but Huelsman and Smith stayed nose to tail through the first half of the race.  Exiting turn 1 on lap 7, Huelsman would catch Obenshain as a lap kart and while making an aggressive move they would come together resulting in both of them crashing out of the race.  Huelsman would take the responsibility for the crash knowing he made a move that was too aggressive against a new driver.  This crash handed Smith 2nd for the remainder of the race.  As the checkered flew Melzer took the win, Smith took 2nd, Paul Lipke rounded out the top 3.

Because of the crash in the Heat, Huelsman was relegated to rear of the field and would have to battle hard to get to the podium or so it seemed.  As the green flag dropped for the Main Event Melzer took the lead into turn 1 with Smith hot on his tail.  Huelsman layed back on the start and as the green flew he dove low on the front straightaway darting past almost the entire field and pulling into 3rd place.  Melzer had a level of speed that was unmatched on this day.  He would drive away from the field.  Smith and Huelsman would battle each other back and forth never being more than a few inches apart.  Huelsman was never able to make a move for the position so as the checkered flew Melzer would take the win, Smith would take 2nd, Huelsman would take 3rd, Parji would have a career best finish of 4th, Ramirez would take 5th and Obenshain would finish 7th.

All in all it was a great day of racing.  Velocity has 4 podiums on opening day and learned a lot that will translate to more success in the future.