2019CalSpeedMagazineOctober

W hile the overall championship had been decided at the penultimate round, the Season Finale for the 2019 CalSpeed Super Series would play host to several point battles still up for grabs. It would all take place on the challenging Tecnico circuit, with some of the best racing of the year… One driver emerged in the 2019 season as the driver to beat in the green/white/checkered qualifying session, and Sam Hunt stamped his authority on that fact with his 4th pole of the year to kick things off. Joining him in the qualifying bonus points would be fellow hardware contender Paulo Franca, and a breakout performance by one-off racer Sean Bradley in third. But for the second event in a row, the top qualifiers would be the pace-setters in the heats, again, except for Hunt who claimed a win in his second heat. Other heat winners included some fresh faces at the front, including Sheng Wu, Ayrton and Max DeMoss, Andrew Wood, and another podium contender in Chris Huerta. Kicking off the mains for the final event in the 10th year of the Super Series would of course be the C-Main, with Grand Masters driver Joe Sabella leading the field at the green. Up and coming talent Leo Ovtcharov would slot in behind at the start, while another Grand Masters standout in Vladimir Orlov capped off the top three. For Orlov it was his first race back after a long stint of work in his home country of Russia, but he looked like he hadn’t missed a step, moving to the front by lap 2. From there it was all Orlov, pulling away to a comfortable lead in the end, some to do with the infighting for second behind him. It would be a win for Vlad, and a solid 2nd place for John Hennessey, who came away as best of the rest after the dust settled. The B-Main would see long-time runner Frank Hsu lead the field away at the start, and unlike the race prior, hold onto it through about the halfway point. The first attack came from Ivan Martinez, snagging away the lead for a lap, before Evan Lawrence put in his bid for the A-Main transfer. Lawrence would lead over Martinez for the next couple of laps, but lurking behind the front duo was veteran Taylor Hays. With two to go he dispatched Martinez, and on the white flag lap his sights were set on Lawrence, making the move stick, and holding on for the B-Main win. Scoring the A-Main transfer was a nice way to cap off Hays’ 90th career Super Series, eventually working up to 15th in the A, while sealing the deal on 10th overall in the championship. While neither driver won a heat race, both Alyssa Yauney (pole) and Paulo Franca would lock out the front row on the back of consistency in the heat races, with the former snagging a pair of seconds. It would actually be the latter that would lead the first however, as Paulo Franca surged to put his kart into the Round 10 - Nov 2 A Main Podium B-Main Winner Taylor Hays C-Main Winner Vladimir Orlov