Rotax Max Challenge, Keystone/Buckeye Series
BeaveRun Motorsports Complex, Beaver Falls, PA
August 3rd, Race #5
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Friday Practice
This weekend was surely going to be some of the best weather we'll
ever have, with high 70's to low 80's throughout the weekend. The
last Rotax race was on Sunday, but we decided to take advantage of the
weekend and take practice on Friday and a club race on Saturday.
Right off the bat, the times were consistently fast, even on the very
old practice tires, and he turned a lap record of 1:01.16. Julian
tired out quickly as it had been a month and a half since the last
Sprint weekend, but things looked prime for him to run a lap record.
Sunday Race
Nothing changed in the weather and we started Sunday morning with nice
motor weather for practice. Julian has gotten into a pattern of doing
the first practice and sitting out the second as long as everything is
running fine. This helps him rest up for his ultimate Qualifying
laps. It seemed to have helped as he ran his lap record on the third
qualifying lap, a 1:01.05 before running into traffic. There's no
doubt Julian has a knack for laying down fast times very quickly, and
this got him very excited for the rest of the day.
In the Heat Race, Ryan Killen ran closer than he has all season and
kept Julian honest. Julian ran consistently in the 1:01.2's-3's, so
consistently that he ran two 1:01.29's in a row, while Killen was in
the 1:01.3's. There wasn't any room for mistakes, and it would seem
Julian didn't make many as he ended up pulling a few kart lengths away
by the end. There is no doubt that competition is getting tight in
Minimax, something we love to watch.
Maybe it was the weather, maybe the track, or maybe the driver
realizing he didn't like things as close as they were in the Heat
Race, but it wasn't going to be the same in the Feature race. Right
from the start, Julian pulled away from Ryan Killen and began laying
down some of his fastest laps of the weekend...continuously. Most of
his 12 laps (including traffic) were faster than any previous visit to
this track. While he was striving for his goal to get into the 1:00
territory, he did it...twice. Finishing up the race with those two
laps, there wasn't much opportunity for Ryan to catch Julian and he
finished the season with another win.
So with Pole, Heat win, Feature win, and a new Minimax track record of
1:00.83, it was a great weekend. But, this weekend had bigger
implications as he also won the Keystone/Buckeye Region Rotax Minimax
Championship and qualified for the Rotax Grand Nationals.
Unfortunately, due to time and money, we're going to have to skip out
on the Nationals this year, but we'll look forward to qualifying and
competing in them in 2009.
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