Taylor Hays entered Round 10, his 36th consecutive Super Series appearance, riding the longest winless streak in CalSpeed history. A series frontrunner since day one, Hays finally climbed that elusive top step for the first time this past weekend, besting 99 other drivers in the process and keeping his championship hopes alive heading into the finale.
QUALIFYING HIGHLIGHTS:
With morning practice complete, qualifying groups would be shuffled so that the quickest drivers from practice would all be on track together in the last quali group of the morning, a format which generally means that pole position is scored from someone in that final session. That would not be the case this time around however, as Jerott King would find himself in Quali Group C, only to throw down a flier of a lap at a 51.171, a time half a second clear of anybody else in his group. With the bar set high, KC Cook would be the closest challenger in Group D, as he would come up just 0.016s shy of King, but would score a valuable 10 championship bonus points to pad his overall championship lead. Claiming the last few bonus points availalble would be Chris Huerta, putting in yet another strong qualifying effort here in the second half of the year.
QUALFYING TOP 5:
1. Jerott King – 51.171
2. KC Cook – 51.187
3. Chris Huerta – 51.416
4. Darren Mercer – 51.422
5. Cameron Rose – 51.493
HEAT RACING HIGHLIGHTS:
Round 10’s heat racing action would again produce a number of close finishes, a common theme this Super Series season. None would be closer however, than the Group 2B duel between Miles Calvin, Bill Kreig, and Darren Mercer. Mercer would lead the trio thru much of the early going with Kreig briefly snatching the lead from Mercer on Lap 6, with Mercer going right back to the front the very next lap. Calvin would then move into P2 late in the session looking to have a crack at Mercer for the lead, but Kreig would capitalize on their scuffle and be first to the white flag. Calvin would regroup on the final lap, throwing down his best lap as he went around Kreig for the lead en route to a hard fought win. With eight heat races on the day’s schedule, we’d head into the Mains with seven different heat winners as KC Cook, the championship points leader, the only driver to double up on the day.
HEAT RACE WINNERS:
Group 1A: Logan Calvin +0.656
Group 1B: KC Cook +0.265
Group 1C: Taylor Hays +0.262
Group 1D: Darren Mercer +0.433
Group 2A: KC Cook +2.323
Group 2B: Miles Calvin +0.081
Group 2C: Jon Kimbrell +3.388
Group 2D: Sergio Bravo +0.242
D-MAIN HIGHLIGHTS:
The Round 10 D-Main would produce some fantastic action straight away as paddock favorite Greg Reinhardt would get around both Mike Arnold and Tom Zevin in the early going to control the race lead for a number of laps. While Reinhardt would display the pace to dispatch of Zevin permanently, Arnold would not go so quietly. Arnold, having come into the day leading the Heavy Class category, knew he would need to salvage a tough day in the points with a D-Main victory. Meanwhile, further back in the field Rene Moreno, having suffered a tough black flag in his first session, only to miss the grid completely in his second session, would be on a charge and looking to reel in the leaders.
Back up front, Arnold would finally make his move on Reinhardt on Lap 5, not only taking the lead, but pulling out a sizeable gap to boot. Arnold would remain in control late in the race, but by Lap 8 would now see Moreno closing in P2. That lead would continue to shrink as Moreno would post fast lap of the race as he took the White Flag, but he would run out of time to complete his charge as Arnold came across the checkers breathing a sigh of relief. With the win, he would advance to take the final grid spot on the C-Main grid.
D-MAIN TOP 5:
1. Mike Arnold +0.090s
2. Rene Moreno
3. Lucian Millar
4. Greg Reinhardt
5. Tom Zevin
C-MAIN HIGHLIGHTS:
The C-Main would coincidentally have a very similar look to the D-Main session just prior once the race got underway. This time it would be Phoenix native Peter Liwanag making his way around Mike Randall and Zoli Sule in the early going to take control of the point, while deeper in the field Christopher Hill, in his first Super Series appearance, would be mounting a charge. By Lap 6 Hill would find Liwanag’s back bumper as the two pulled away from the rest of the field to make it a one-on-one duel for the win.
Hill would take a peek multiple times, but would simply not have enough to complete any of his attempted passes on Liwanag. Liwanag would hang tough for the final six laps of the session, refusing to relinquish control, and would lead Hill to the checkers by a margin of just 0.075s for the win. Liwanag, visibly excited with the hard earned victory, would gather himself back up and climb right back in the seat to join the B-Main field up next.
C-MAIN TOP 5:
1. Peter Liwanag +0.075
2. Christopher Hill
3. Vince Burke
4. Ariel Rubio
5. Jeff Latimer
B-MAIN HIGHLIGHTS:
B-Main polesitter Rene Hourian would jump out to a sizable lead once the green flag was out in the day’s penultimate session, leaving both Justin Tolman, Vlad Orlov, and Bruce Allen to duke it out in his wake. It would have the makings of a runaway victory, however once again we would see a deeper field charge put together by Charles Eichlin as he looked to keep himself alive in the Rookie Championship hunt. Eichlin would make his way to P2 before rapidly starting to reel Hourian back in. By Lap 7 the lead had all but evaporated for Hourian as Eichlin would post quick lap of the session. Three laps later Eichlin would make the move, navigating cleanly around Hourian for the lead with just two to go. Hourian would hang tight on Eichlin’s bumper, but would simply not have enough to regain the lead before the checkers came out. Eichlin would claim the win by just under two-tenths of a second, and again find himself gearing up for yet another A-main appearance in his Rookie campaign.
B-MAIN TOP 5:
1. Charles Eichlin +0.187
2. Rene Hourian
3. Jerott King
4. Justin Tolman
5. Bruce Allen
A-MAIN HIGHLIGHTS:
KC Cook would find himself precisely where he hoped to be as the championship points leader heading into Round 10: Leading the A-Main field to the green flag as the polesitter for the final session of the day. Cook, having won both of his earlier heat races after qualifying P2 on the day, would be joined on the front row by Taylor Hays, known as a bit of a specialist of the ‘Classico’ configuration in use this round. With the first attempted rolling start waived off by officials, the field would circle back around to give it another go.
Hays would get a bit of help from teammate Chris Huerta at the drop of the green and would take decisive control of the lead by Turn 4, with Miles Calvin also making his way around Cook in the early going to slot into P2 just behind. By the midway point of the race Hays looked to be in clear control, but the field began to organize a coordinated charge not far behind him. Both Logan Calvin and Darren Mercer had now also cleared Cook and their drafting party had now closed the gap to Miles. Just two laps later, both Sergio Bravo and Jon Kimbrell would join the pack in chase of Hays, the group clearly cutting into his advantage lap after lap. With just a few laps remaining the field would indeed catch Hays, who looked like he’d be immediately swallowed up by the caravan.
Instead, M.Calvin would make his move exiting Turn 4 to wrestle the lead from Hays, but Hays would counter later in the lap showing he still had plenty of fight left in him. With the white flag out Hays would now play full defense as he looked to hold on for his first win in 36 appearances, by far the longest drought of any A-Main regular in series history. Just behind the race for the win, Mercer would finally make his move on L.Calvin for the final podium spot, but both would be leapfrogged by Sergio Bravo as they pushed up the track creating daylight for the two time Masters Champion to go by underneath them. Back up front, Hays would lead Miles thru the esses one final time to the tune of a cheering fenceline, winning the sprint to the waiving checkered flag and throwing his hands up in utter excitement and relief, now able to say he’s a CalSpeed A-Main winner.
The scene in the pit lane and subsequent winner’s circle was pure pandemonium as friends and fellow racers couldn’t wait to congratulate Hays on the long overdue victory. Soaked with champagne, beer, and the contents of someone’s race day ice chest, Hays will now look to refocus himself and make it two in a row if he hopes to claim his first CalSpeed title in just three weeks time.
A-MAIN TOP 5:
1. Taylor Hays +0.265
2. Miles Calvin
3. Sergio Bravo
4. Logan Calvin
5. Darren Mercer
With just one round left to go in the 2013 campaign, KC Cook sits in control of his own destiny as he walks into the final race of the season with a 56 point advantage over his nearest rival. That rival, Sergio Bravo, will need some things to go his way to claim the coveted Overall Title, however he has all but clinched his third consecutive Masters Championship in the process. With his win in R10, Tayor Hays jumps two spots to P3 Overall, and is also still in the hunt for the Title.
In the Rookie Championship, Justin Tolman put in another solid performance in Round 10 to close the gap to Steve Spring to just three points with one race to go. It is not simply a two-horse race however, as both Ian Enz or Michael Wojdat could pull off the upset with a brilliant run in the finale.
And in the Heavy Class Championship, Steve Jasinski has officially taken control of the point lead as he heads into the final round with a 97 point advantage over rival Mike Arnold. He’ll look to close it out with another strong run in just three weeks time.
Registration for the 2013 Super Series Season Finale Event on November 23rd is currently underway and can be done via the CalSpeed Karting website. For information on the series, or questions on how to secure your spot on the grid, please contact Brad Packard at 951.241.3872, or via email at brad@calspeedkarting.com.
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