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| January 13, 2010 |
| Driver News: Devlin DeFrancesco - Florida Winter Tour Orlando Report |
 | DeFrancesco began 2010 with a pair of top-five drives
(Photo: Jim Leggett - CKN) |
Devlin DeFrancesco kicked off his 2010 karting season last weekend by overcoming a pair of mechanical challenges to record two top-five finishes. In Orlando as the Florida Winter Tour began its Formula Kart Schedule, DeFranceso came from the back of the pack to fifth on Saturday, and from the same spot charged forward to fourth on Sunday in Alonso Kart USA / Vortex TaG Cadet.
Despite rain drenching the Orlando Kart Center on Saturday, the nine-year-old was off on solid footing beginning day one as he was fourth from morning warm-up and qualified third shortly after. Then, after a pair of waved starts, DeFrancesco inherited the pole position for the first run of the season. A wild first lap saw him sit first, second and third multiple times before ultimately crossing second after the first flyer where the top three checked out. A race-long battle would ensue, but it was all for naught after the checker waved as he was placed P8 due to a mechanical disqualification. DeFrancesco had lost a bumper bolt during the run and raced through a meatball while dragging plastic on his way to the final flag.
As the main event took waved green, DeFrancesco spent the first four laps of fourteen in the final settling into line before beginning to move forward on five. That lap saw him take seventh, and two laps later he was into sixth where he raced the middle stages. In the closing phase, the Alonso Kart USA driver set his best lap on ten, and began closing in on a top five finish. He bagged it working twelve, and maintained it to the checker. Though the day had been salvaged, Sunday began even worse.
On the first lap of qualifying for day two, DeFrancesco tagged a curb and snapped a bearing cassette - the result being the back of the pack once again. He improved to seventh position in the prefinal, and sat fourth on the inside row headed to race number two. The first lap proved frantic for the second straight day and as the Cadet field completed the first of fourteen laps DeFrancesco was already P4 in the field of twelve. From there he turned consistent laps, including five straight within a tenth-of-a-second racing through the middle stages of the race. He set his best of the final on nine, a withstood a last lap charge to keep fourth at the final flag.
The opening weekend set led to 345 points for DeFrancesco and he sits fifth in the Vortex TaG Cadet Championship through the first of three rounds. He will be back on track this coming weekend as the Florida Winter Tour Rotax Max Challenge runs the same venue, DeFrancesco contesting Rotax Mini-Max. Fans can view archived footage and follow all the action from trackside this weekend by visiting http://www.floridawintertour.com/fwtlive/2010 powered by Supertune USA and DeFrancesco Racing.
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