Velocity Karting

Velocity Karting Dominates at F100 Race

Saturday July 26, 2017 Velocity Karting brought out its team to participate in the F100 race at Apex Racing in Perris, CA.  This race was a modifyed event as the promoters changed at the last second so the day was different than most races.  The most substantial change was that qualyfing was determined through a raffle rather than on the track.  A driver would pull a number and that is where he would start the first heat race.  Then the second heat race would be started in reverese order of the raffle.  The Main would be determined by the average finish of the two heat races.  This format would only hurt one driver on the Velocity Team.

Velocity brought out 7 drivers to participate in this race over three classes.  In the Cadet class Velocity had defending Champion and undefeated F100 driver Hayden Huelsman and rookie phenom Brett Revetta.  In the Intermediate class we sent veteran racer Brian Smith, 2^nd year drivers Brian Parji and Phillip Ramirez and making his racing debut was Ryan Goff Jr.  In the Masters division the team had Stephen Huelsman representing Velocity.

Normally these blog post start with the Cadet division.  Today however we will start with the Intermediate division.  Before the race day began Velocity was confident that they would win the Intermediate division.  Veteran racer Brian Smith was racing a new motor on a track that he has won on many times so he was the favorite.  Brian Parji was making his second start on his new Italkart chassis and he believed that he could take the day. 

In Heat 1, Smith’s motor would fail as he entered the track and would not take the green flag.  Parji, Ramirez and Goff would start the race and performed great in the first half of the race.  At one point Parji would be in second, Ramirez in third and Goff in fifth.  As the race progressed though, Parji would find himself off track as would Ramirez and the rookie driver Goff would be the only Velocity Finisher in the race.  He would end up in 3^rd.

In Heat 2 the bad luck would continue for Smith.  Smith again rolled on to the track before his motor would quit and again he would miss the green flag.  The other three would take the flag.  This time Parji had to battle back from the rear, with Goff on the Pole and ramirez in the midpack.  As the flag would fly, Goff would fall back to about 5^th.  Ramirez moved into the top 4 and Parji started his run to the front.  Halfway through the race, Goff would have to pull off the track with a broken exhaust pipe.  Parji and Ramirez would finish the race in the top five.

Finally the Main Event was ready to start.  Parji was starting outside Pole, Ramirez and Goff would be mid pack and Smith would be at the rear.  As the flag flew, Parji slotted into 2^nd place.  Ramirez moved up to 5^th place, Goff had a throttle cable issue and had to pit for a moment and went a lap down while Smith’s kart finally ran and he took the flag.  At the mid way point of the race, Parji would be hard on the leaders tail, with Ramirez in 4^th fighting for a podium, Smith moved up to 6^th and unfortunately Goff spun off the track and his rookie race was behind him.  With about 5 laps to go Parji would make a great racing move to dive to the inside of the hard, slow u-turn and drive into the lead.  On that same lap, Ramirez would make a mistake that would crash him out of the race for the night.  Smith would take over 5^th with a motor that still wasn’t humming on all cylinders.  With the laps ticking away, no others changes would happen and Parji would take home his first career victory.  Smith battled a bad motor and took home 5^th.  Parji has been coming on strong and he is on the verge of moving from a mid pack driver to a perenial podium contender.

The Cadet division was great racing as always.  Velocity Karting has never not won an F100 cadet race and this night would be no different.  At the teams home track and two of its top drivers in the field, we only needed to figure out who on the team would win.  Huelsman would start on the Pole with Revetta on the outside in the Main.  Into turn one, Revetta would take the lead with Huelsman hot on his tail.  Revetta has never finished in front of Huelsman so this was exciting to watch.  Through the first 4 laps Revetta would hold the lead but Huelsman would make a couple looks inside turn one for a potential pass.  On lap 5 Huelsman would make a run down the straight away and pull to the inside of turn 1.  Revetta wouldn’t give up without a fight and held the outside throughout the corner.  Hayden would make the pass but to this observer I do not know how Revetta stayed on the outside without driving off the track. 

Revetta would tuck in behind Huelsman and wouldn’t let Huelsman get out to far in front.  At lap 8 Revetta would get a run coming out of the hairpin and down towards the pits.  Huelsman left a little bit of track open on the inside and Revetta dove into it.  They would make contact and Revetta would come out with a 5 kart length lead.  Huelsman wouldn’t get irritated about the contact but rather refocus his efforts on getting the lead back.  Two laps later Huelsman was back on Revetta’s tail.  As Revetta led the pack down the long straightaway, Huelsman drafted behind him and at the 2/3^rd’s mark of the straightaway pulled out to make the pass.  Revetta wouldn’t give it up easy again and held tight against Hayden through the turn but the pass was made.  Huelsman would hang on to the lead and Revetta would take home 2^nd.

At this point we had two classes raced and two classes won with only Velocity’s most experienced driver left to race.  In Masters Huelsman drew the 15^th starting posistion for Heat 1.  Not a great place to start.  As the flag flew, Huelsman pulled out to the inside of the group and started making passes.  Unfortunately there was a new flag man at the track that was standing in the line of Huelsman’s kart.  Huelsman had to lock his breaks up to avoid a collision and was relegated to last palce.  The Heat race was only eight laps and Huelsman was able to make up some positions.  Ultimately he fell to 17^th after the incident and battled back to 11^th. 

In Heat 2 Huelsman started in 4^th position.  During the pace lap he realized he had a flat left rear tire.  The choices at that point was to either pull off the track and finish last or see what happens.  Rather than take the last place finish, he decided to battle the issue.  On straightaways and right turns the kart handled fine.  On left handed turns the kart would push out of the racing line exposing the inside.  Although the kart and motor was fast, the inability to turn left caused Huelsman to finish that heat in 8^th, which isnt too bad considering.

Going into the Main Huelsman was slated to start in 11^th.  As the green flew he held his spot through the first corner.  His kart was fast on the straightaways but still wasn’t great in corners.  As the laps ticked away Huelsman picked off 1 spot at a time.  By the final lap he had made it to 6^th place.  Coming off of the final corner though a kart passed him by an inch or two at the line and relegated Huelsman to a 7^th place finish.  Not the day the he expected.  Huelsman is in a slump this season, not yet winning a race.  He hopes to change that on Saturday night August 5^th.