On March 29th, K1 Speed Seattle held its third race of the 2009 Challenge GP series, and the racing action was intense! There were a few new faces in the line-up on Sunday, including Angela Shur, the first female racer to compete in a Challenge GP event at our Seattle / Redmond indoor karting center, and some familiar faces showed up as well to defend their positions. Sean Naslund, the current points leader of the Seattle series, exclaimed, “This was the best racing we’ve had so far!” Needless to say, everyone came away from the event with a smile on their face, which is what we love to see at K1 Speed!
The race started with Sopurkh Khalsa in the pole position, followed by Randy Olivarez and Sean Naslund. At the drop of the green flag the battle begun, and there were position changes in the first lap! Sean Naslund took advantage of the inside line at the start and managed to overtake Randy in the first turn. The fight for second was fiercely competitive, with Sean playing defense against an aggressive and very fast Randy Olivarez! The second and third-place contenders slowly started to gain ground on Sopurkh in the midst of their battle, and it wasn’t long before the three were racing around the track nose to tail, only inches between them.
Going into the Turn 3 hairpin in lap 5, the mounting excitement reached a crescendo! Sean was maintaining a very close second-place position to Sopurkh as the pack approached turns 1 and 2. Through the large sweeper, Sean was able to keep his momentum up and take the line from Sopurkh along the back stretch. Diving into the hairpin at Turn 3, Sean held the line and nudged his way past Sopurkh to take over first place.
Sean was able to lead for the remainder of the race, utilizing brilliant defensive driving against the second and third-place drivers. As the pack leaders started running into the back field, Sean’s defensive strategy became a bit more complicated, but in the end, he was able to hold off the advancing competition. Sean Naslund ended up maintaining his winning streak for the 2009 K1 Speed Seattle / Redmond Challenge GP series, taking first place in the final event ahead of Sopurkh in 2nd and Randy in 3rd! With his 3rd place finish, Randy Olivarez ended up moving up into the second spot for cumulative points! At this point, the series is still up for grabs, and we look forward to the next Challenge GP race in Seattle, which takes place on April 26th – if you think you have what it takes, we invite you to come in and race!
