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Tornados Take 1st, 2nd and 5th at IKF Regional
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Congratulations to Chris
Trickle in his first California win.
The love and support of Chuck, Barbara and the endless supply of juice boxes from younger brother Tommy all helped Chris get through a long weekend. In this picture of Chris with his winning plaque Chris looks as if he grew two inches and aged a year or two. He is a rising star on the karting scene and will have a chance to be a top race driver some day following in Chris, Chuck and Dick's footsteps. |
IKF
R7 Opener at California Speedway A Success |
Racing is full of surprises, that's one of the things that draws us back and back. Late on Friday night I asked out loud "what is it about this sport that has us here all day and into the night"? The answer from the two families, we love it, the kids love it. You never really know what you'll get. Tornados ended up taking half of the top six positions in the final. Tornado drivers Royal McKee, Chris Trickle and Braden Johnson were 1st, 2nd and 4th fastest times of the lead pack in the first race. In the final race Tornados took 1st and 3rd fastest laps as our youngest driver Chris Trickle ran a 1:12.9,1:13.012, 1:13.2 and Braden Johnson, who had never been to the track ran a 1:13.233. Chris had only been to the track once. Nelson Rader was not far behind with a 1:13.419 and finished fifth. RJ Lantz even turned in a 1:13.5 while getting around 20 karts after starting in the back with a kart that was completely rebuilt from scratch between heats. RJ would most certainly have been in the 12's had he gotten clean air. Tornados took to the track in practice with a total field of 32 drivers and looked good but track times were off for everyone as it was really cold. Royal McKee was the fastest in practice and would be the pole sitter for qualifying.. In qualifying we did not get the results we wanted because there was no separation of competitors and Royal's jet choice held him back. Officials sent out all 32 in only two groups and did not space them out. It was the crew chiefs choice on when to let them hit the track and unfortunately we didn't get them held back. Tornados qualified 5th, 6th, 10th, 11th and 12th with RJ getting a DQ because his crew chief (a self confessed mathematically challenged engineer) changed wheels before going out and forgot to re-measure the rear width. RJ Lantz would have to start at the back even though he was top ten on times even with an air leak that we caught and fixed for the premain. In the premain RJ would hit the wall trying to avoid a wreck and explode his Tornado. He had made it from 32nd to 12th before the wreck. Kurt worked quickly to completely rebuild another Tornado. Royal Mckee would lay down a 1:13.1 in the premain and send out the word he was second fastest in the pre, the fastest was DQ'd on tire pressure and sent to the back. Nelson Rader had a good run and was in fifth for the start. Braden Johnson was still learning the track and finished 10th. But the standout was our youngest and newest Tornado team member, Chris Trickle. Chris was fast and ended up fourth after the premain. In the final, Pato got sick and had to leave the track unexpectedly. Chris Trickle, Braden Johnson and Nelson Rader would lead the charge for the goal of top five finishes as Royal broke a clutch spring on the grid. Chris loves to race up front and took to the challenge quickly moving into fourth. He was running down the lead pack but ran out of time as he reached them the checked flag flew, he was fast time of those in the top half of the field and the only one to break 1:13. Cruz Fiore had fixed a front end alignment problem and ran up into 11th right ahead of the hard charging RJ Lantz that had again come from the back into 12th. I told RJ that he had passed 40 karts in one day and deserved to be 1st plus ten. He laid down a 1:13.5 while getting around all the back 20 karts. Braden and Nelson traded fifth several times but in the end Braden's new prototype Tornado needed to be another inch wider in the rear and half inch wider in the front. Had the jack been added into Braden's kart he probably would have won the race. For someone who only had been around the track 35 times he had an amazing day. He had turned a :13.1 in the last practice of the day on Friday and had we put all the settings to our advantage in the final the 2008 prototype could have won it's first race. We were very, very pleased with that result and it way exceeded our expectations for a first outing after only one day of testing. Braden will be on the same footing as everyone at Buffalo Bills because the track will be new to all participants. The weekend was a success even though we didn't take the top trophies, our youngest drivers took two of the top five. Today we give up Superbowl Sunday to test at Moran with fast time and young sensation Chris Trickle. We will test the old chassis against the new and learn the track set up. We will tune chassis and engine power curves and try to discover if we are running a torque track or rpm track at Moran. You pretty much have to have one of each type engine to survive the run for the R7 championship. Our hope is that we can use our advantage of producing the engines and chassis in the same shop to our teams benefits. Maybe we can get some of our big guys up on the podium with some of our younger racers. Congratulations again to all the drivers and to Chris and Nelson for representing us on the podium. |
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Tornado Factory Drivers Chris Trickle#70 , Braden Johnson#14 and Nelson Rader#00 advanced in the points standing with sterling performances at Moran on Saturday. Chris Trickle took the pole in the morning qualifying and Braden set fast time in the heat and Chris shattered the old track record by 1.2 seconds in the final. Trickle led parts of the first heat eventually yielding to Adam Iavelli and then Braden Johnson as one of his cornering lines was off entering the straight. Braden had fallen back to 10th on the start and charged back to the lead with the record lap time of 1:00.5 in the heat, he was leading into the final corner when lapped traffic slowed him just enough for the 12 kart to get in underneath and beat him to the line. In the final Braden took the lead early but was passed by hard charging Willy Axton. Young Braden Johnson had never been to Moran and was doing an outstanding job against Axton and the others that had practiced the track many many times before. Chris Trickle worked hard from 5th to 4th. Then he hooked up with Adam Iavelli and ran down the leaders. Chris saw the white flag and went for second, they were three wide heading into turn one and Chris was on the inside, Adam on the outside and Braden decided to let off at pull in behind his teamate. Braden then saw the door left open in turn two and took second from Chris. The finish was Axton, Johnson and Trickle, Iavelli and Rader. Mylaps.com showed that Chris had the 1st and 3rd fastest laps of the race, Adam had the second fastest lap when Chris was drafting with him around the track. RJ Lantz made it from 17th to 7th with a brand new engine built Thursday night and needed a couple more laps to catch the leaders. This gives the first and second place in series points to Tornado drivers Johnson and Trickle. Nelson Rader was caught off guard by a fast green and fell back to 12th but then hooked up with hard changing RJ Lantz and rode it into 5th for his second podium of the year. He jumped into a brand new 2008 chassis and set fast time in the morning Saturday, but during qualifying his jet clogged and starved his engine of gas and oil damaging the rings. Even with a damaged engine he made it to 5th, an outstanding drive for Nelson on his home track. The unofficial point total is now 1) Braden Johnson of Illinois (ComerJet Tornado, ComerJet Stealth) 627, 2) Chris Trickle of Las Vegas (ComerJet Tornado/ComerJet Stealth) 607, 3) Brenden Baker (?/TNR), Corbit of Sacramento, CA (Birel/Emmick) 5) Nelson Rader of Carlsbad, CA (ComerJet Tornado/ComerJet Stealth)549. With drops ComerJet has 3 of the top 4 positions. Early favorite Royal Mckee's day ended in turn one of the final when he put his wheels off on the inside of the apex destabilizing the kart, breaking the plastic sprocket and sending him off the track permanently and retiring his chances for a top finish in the championship. Cruz Fiore ran great Saturday and got into the 1:01 times with his new 2008 Tornado, at one time up to fourth, he finished the day in 9th. Tornados make up a quarter of the field but currently hold half of the top ten in points and have 9 podium positions of the 15 awarded in the first three races. With all the Factory Drivers on the new 2008 chassis we should get quicker and quicker now as they learn to tune in this new design for each track. |
RJ Takes The Pole Again In The Rain At California Speedway, Trickle Wins It!
In our Sunday race of the double header using the new 2008 Tornado prototypes RJ Lantz and Chris Trickle headed to the California Speedway to try a couple things and see if we would improve on last weeks IKF R7 race results . They were up against some of the best drivers in the West: Adam Iavelli driving a Birel calls this his home track and had fast time at last years IKF race, Willy Axton driving a Topkart won the day before at Moran and Cody Kellerher in a Topkart (winner of the first IKF R7 race) were on hand with a total field of 14. The forecast was for rain early that would clear before racing. I'm convinced the weather forecasters on LA TV don't have a clue about weather but certainly know their fashion. RJ would drive a smooth run in qualifying to take the Pole position for a second straight day and Chris would time in sixth and later win the final. It was their first rain races ever. We are very please with this weekends test results on the new Tornado 2008 chassis. To come to the home track of the top drivers in the West and pull off a pole and a win was amazing. We have to hand it to the talented drivers Trickle and Lantz that adapted to new chassis', rain conditions and rain tires to pull off the win.
The forecast was off a bit and it didn't clear before qualifying. It wasn't a trickle of rain it was a medium downpour. LAKC and Calspeed officials worked quickly to reroute the track around a huge puddle on the main straight, we would not be racing on the Grande Track as we did last week. Parents used milk jugs, soda cans and in our case cone shaped oil measuring cups to cover the cone air filters for the rain. Fourteen karts showed for the race with rain tires on! You gotta love the enthusiasm although new crew chiefs that hadn't drilled the seat had drivers that were floating when they came in. By qualifying we had our selections made and bumpers modified to avoid submarining in the big puddles around turn 11.
RJ's jet choice for the qualifying was spot on but hindered him in the heat race as he fell back to fourth. Chris took off and was on a mission and quickly worked his way up to 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd and then to assume the lead. At five laps he was leading. I asked the announcer why aren't we done. He replied it is really an 8 lap race, I announced it wrong.... Adam Iavelli worked underneath Chris and assumed the lead. Chris would start the final on the outside front row.
When we showed up for the final the track had dried off and the heats before had been running slicks. My instructions to Chris, looks ahead if you get in the lead and don't look back, just race the track. All the field had switched to slicks except Adam. To Adam's credit he made those tires work for him in the race and laid down the fastest lap of the race .02 seconds faster than Chris on slicks. Chris jumped into the lead at the start and rarely looked back. He pulled away early to a three kart length lead as Axton and Iavelli were nose to tail for second. Eventually Willy would get around Adam and come up to challenge Chris. Lap after lap Chris lead and held good lines, always faster in the corners and coming out and then they would real him in on the straight. Chris' engine was tired and didn't have top end. Chuck's choices on set up worked for Chris and the new chassis did it's job in the corners as Chris darted through the corners and under lapped traffic. I did not see him lift once as he came to lapped traffic - the sign of a maturing driver. At one turn Chris went underneath one competitor and around the next splitting them with the precision of a top Jr 1 driver, never lifting in the process.
Axton made several tests at passing Chris on the upper portion of the track, working a little further underneath each time. The final time Willy got alongside Chris and it was a drag race side by side down the hill into the esses and hair pin. Chris said, "I saw him along side me and said not today". He held the gas full on and charged down the hill and held the lead. That would be it as Willy and Adam would get close as Chris got way wide in turn 8. He was tired but not giving up. Chris held on to end any speculations that some may have had about a six year old running a clean line up front. RJ did the best with his jetting and held on to fourth.
Great drivers make our engines and
chassis' look better than they are on many days. Chris and RJ showed this weekend why we are so pleased to have them
both as Factory Tornado Team Drivers. They have talent. Both teams
took home the new prototype chassis' and will continue to test
the limits of set up and attempt to dial them in for the next
big race. We hope the testing of the adjustable Ackerman steering
will subtract tenths from certain track configurations. The race
for the IKF R7 title is going to be interesting as we work the
remaining kinks out of the design and bring five 2008 models to
the next race. We may even get some changes in before the race
that Kurt and Chuck want to see made. Thanks to them and their
endless search for speed we keep getting better and better.
Chris
Trickle Says It Is Faster!
The day before Chris took fourth and was the only one in the top fifteen to get under a 1:13 in the race. In testing the New Tornado proved to be .8 to 2.3 seconds faster each time we tested side by side. Had he been driving it the day before his time should have been about a 1:12.3 or better, enough to win the race. I think Anna has designs on the old chassis already and may want to follow in big brother Chris' tread marks.
Chuck took home the chassis and will
race it this weekend at Moran and California Speedway. "It's
faster, and we want to give it a workout at the same track to
see what we can do with it."
