K1 Speed Carlsbad held round two of its Challenge GP Race series this past Sunday. A packed house full of some of San Diego’s top indoor kart drivers with a good mix of Los Angeles racers were all chasing after the top qualifying spot in the A Main. It wasn’t until round 2 when the drivers really started to get into their groove, and Shawn Walker would be the man of the evening, posting a very fast 27.825 second single lap time, almost breaking the current lap record of 27.80 seconds. The rest of the group kept qualifying pretty straight forward and most of the racing action came down to the main events.

The B Main would start off the night with new comer to the GP series Justin Cope on pole followed by local resident Jon Simms and Stephen Robertson in third. Justin brought the group around for the green flag rolling start and was able to hang on to the lead for the first couple of laps but it was long before Jon and Stephen were able to find a more consistent way around the track, Justin would end up getting sideways out of the hair pin corner and that’s where Jon was able to make his move and take over the lead and he never looked back. Stephen followed Jon’s line and got around Justin and the rest of the pack stayed in tow working to try to catch the top 3 but it wasn’t going to happen. Jon would take the win followed by Stephen in second and Justin would finish out in third.

A Main drivers took to the track with pole sitter Shawn Walker leading the group and when the green flag dropped it wasn’t long before everyone was freight training with each other all trying to find some room to pass on the driver in front of them. Eventually something had to give and a few drivers found them selves getting ping-ponged between each other. The group would spread out a bit, but unfortunately for Shawn he had lost a number of positions and dropped to the back. Thomas Litton was right there to take advantage followed by Matt Merrill with Jordan Robertson making his way through the field. Shawn was able to get his kart swapped out since it was starting to slow down, but it was too late and he had to settle for finishing in the back of the pack after the re-start. It looked as though Matt may be able to hold pace with Thomas, but Thomas seemed to have the fast line dialed and he pulled away from Matt finding a quicker way through some of the more technical sections. Thomas would end up coming out on top, followed by Matt Merrill in second. Jordan ended up dropping back a few spots after doing some rubbing with Kirk Messse. Kirk and Jordan seem to have a magnetic attraction when they are racing close cause both of them seem to get into trouble when they get within a few feet of each other. Justin Davenport would wind up in third with the hard charging David Messimer following closely in 4th.

K1 Speed in Carlsbad offers the best indoor kart racing in San Diego with our technical track layout offering multiple spots to pass around the course, drivers are finding the good line and getting faster each week.

Don’t miss out on our next Challenge GP race at K1 Carlsbad September 19th and join in on the racing action.

K1 Speed in San Diego kicked off its second half of the Challenge GP race series for 2010 this past Sunday. With an all new track layout, and all the points reset to 0 for every driver this was going to be good. Plenty of new faces were in the mix of many returning Challenge GP racers made for a great qualifying session. With qualifying karts picked via a lottery system giving everyone as equal of an opportunity as possible – Matt Merrill showed his track day racing experiences with his full size car, would be difficult to match posting a 28.185 second lap time to take the overall pole position. Johnny Miller would qualify second overall posting 28.194 second lap time. Justin Tolman would wind up qualifying 3rd posting a 28.237 second lap time. The rest of the drivers all qualified within a full second of Matt, which pushed drivers to the edge trying to find a way to shave off tenths of a second from their qualifying times trying to make the A Main.

The B Main drivers would kick off the main event action for the night with Stephen Robertson sitting on pole. He was followed by Olivia Ma, and sitting in third was Stephen’s son Jordan who is very good at protecting his line. Also in the mix was Kirk Messe, and Ivan Maric along with a number of others all trying to make a run at Stephen for the top spot. On the green flag rolling start, Stephen kept the group at bay and started to take a slight lead over the rest of the pack. Unfortunately Olivia was unable to keep pace and some how dropped back to the rear of the group 2 laps into the race. At the half-way point, Stephen was working to keep the hard charging Ivan Maric and Kirk Messe from getting past him with Jordan right in the middle. Heading into the last chicane before the final turn there just wasn’t enough room, and Jordan collected the wall and the rest of the group pulled away. The group would get slowed down, and Jordan was allowed to catch back up to rear of the pack and the race was re-started. Unfortunately 2 laps after the restart, Kirk was victim to the same chicane and got sideways, and he had to wait till everyone drove past him before he could turn around. Jordan somehow worked his way back up front within 3 laps. With just one lap to go, Stephen bobbled a bit in turn 2 and Jordan took the opening and ran with it coming out with the win. Stephen was able to hold onto second place and Justin Finegan had worked his way up into third.

A Main race action would close out the night with Matt Merrill bringing the group around for the rolling start, and it was a freight train of karts heading into turn one. The pack would get away clean for a couple of turns but in the back of the field Jon Simms would end up going into the new key-hole corner and getting spun out. Mean while Matt would run away from the field and was basically out for a Sunday drive as his smooth driving helped him gain a comfortable lead over the rest of the field. Johnny Miller would also maintain a distance over the rest of the group to remain in second, but was unable to catch up with Matt who was over a half second in front of him. The real battle was going on for third, fourth, fifth and sixth as Alex Rodrigues, Justin Tolman, Orlando Rodrigues, and Thomas Litton would go back and forth with each other trying to find a way to best one another. Taylor Wynne was in the mix as well as he and Jon Simms had caught back up to the group and worked to try to find a way around the other drivers. Alex was able to hold everyone off and take the third podium spot but it didn’t come easy as the other drivers were all working to find ways to catch and pass him. Fortunately for Alex the checked flag came out, and the other drivers ran out of time.

This was a great event and the drivers that attended really created some great racing performances on the track. The new track layout offers new challenges for drivers as they are still looking to find the fast way around the week old track design.

Don’t miss out on our next Challenge GP event in Carlsbad on August 22nd. This event is open to anyone and all are welcome to come out and give this new fast technical course a try.

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