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1-31-12 Top 10
Finishes Highlight CRG USA Results in Tucson
Up and down opening weekend for CRG squad at Gatorz Challenge of
the Americas opener
CRG-USA opened up their 2012 season in Tucson, Arizona this past
weekend, taking part in the first two rounds of the Gatorz
Challenge of the Americas series. Musselman Honda Circuit was
the backdrop for the international Rotax Max Challenge program
with the Grand Junction, Colorado-based squad fielding a team of
nine drivers in four categories. Junior Max driver Jake Craig
scored a pair of top-10 finishes with Cody Dempster in the hunt
piloting a CRG-USA Micro Max entry.
While podium finishes did not welcome the CRG-USA drivers in
Tucson, Craig was the one driver in position to earn the squads
first honor of the season. Runner-up in last year’s title chase,
Craig was among the favorites entering the weekend. Round one
began with Craig qualifying third and working himself up to the
second spot in the Prefinal. Holding the position through the
main event, Craig was provisionally on the podium until a
10-second penalty for a start infraction dropped him out of the
top-five, into seventh. Looking to bounce back in round two,
Craig qualified second, finished second in the Prefinal, and was
closing in on a slowing leader during the main event with a
chance at victory in his sights. On lap 18, Craig attempted to
pass his weekend rival when contact was made entering turn four.
The result put both of them off the track and outside the
top-10. Driving up to eighth by the checkered flag, Craig was
penalized one position for the mid-race contact to put him ninth
in the final tally.
Filling out the large contingent of CRG-USA in the Junior Max
category was Brendan Baker, Mianna Wick, Annie Breidinger and
Toni Breidinger. Baker continued to improve each time out,
driving from 17th to 10th on Saturday. Qualifying ninth for
Sunday’s event, Baker advanced to fifth in the Prefinal to set
up a podium run. In a battle for the third position, the fight
moved to the chase for the victory when Craig’s incident took
place. The following lap, Baker was fighting for position when
he accidently hit the kill switch, stalling his motor. Once
re-fired, Brendan went on to finish 17th. Wick worked with
veteran karter Alan Rudolph over the weekend and made great
strides in her Gatorz debut. The results were up and down as she
continued to improve her pace each time on track. Involved in an
opening lap wreck on Saturday, she recovered to finish 24th.
After reaching the top-15 at one point during Sunday’s action,
Wick came three laps short of finishing the main event after
getting bumped off-track at turn one. The Breidinger sisters
showed well in their Junior debut against a strong 36-kart field
in Tucson. Annie finished 21st and 16th on the weekend with Toni
placing 29th and 25th, both showing great potential for 2012 as
the season begins.
Defending Gatorz Micro Max champion Cody Dempster had a tough
start to his title defense. Round one was an uphill battle as he
did not arrive to the track until Saturday morning, missing out
on the official practice day. After qualifying sixth, he raced
his way up to fourth in the Prefinal. Cody held the spot through
the main event, missing out one the podium by one position.
Finding some changes overnight, Dempster was in the hunt on
Sunday. Qualifying third, Dempster finished second in the heat
race to start the feature outside row one. Trouble struck quick
for most of the field as an opening corner melee sent a number
of drivers spinning around, including Cody. Dropped back to
seventh after the opening lap, Dempster knifed his way forward
to third until lap 12 when he spun once again. He would finish
the race in seventh despite recording the fast lap of the race.
Senior Max driver Sabré Cook experienced a tough start to the
2012 season. Saturday was a rough day as her Rotax engine was
not at peak performance throughout the day, finishing 21st for
the opening feature. Making some major carburetion changes for
day two, Cook qualified 14th overall despite running in the
slower group. Contact, however, in the opening lap wiped away
any hope of improving on that as another driver drove over top
of her, dropping Sabré back to 30th. Knifing her way forward,
Cook ended up 19th after 17 laps. Putting in her best
performance of the weekend, Cook was on the charge in the 25-lap
main event. Up to 11th by the halfway point, she looked to move
forward even more when another driver pushed her off track,
causing her to spin. Losing four positions, Cook laid down lap
times similar to the leaders to drive back to 12th.
Evan Roshak and Riley Cook completed the CRG-USA roster for the
event, contesting the Mini Max division. The duo posted near
identical results as Roshak finished 13th and 11th while Riley
drove to 11th and 12th on the weekend, both taking in a lot of
knowledge and a fun experience under the tent.
“Our trip to Tucson was interesting, that’s for sure. While the
results were not exactly what we had hoped for some of our
drivers, they all made great progress during the weekend,”
stated CRG-USA principal Stacey Cook. “Starting out the season
in January is tough being located in Colorado, as we did not
have much testing time leading up to this weekend. Once the bugs
and one-month rust was shaken off, our drivers and crew stepped
up and showed speed on track. With the first weekend behind us,
we now have a baseline heading into the next round in four weeks
and our drivers will be up to the challenge of standing on the
podium for the first time in 2012.”
Throughout 2012, CRG-USA will be focused on a full assault
across the country for the race team while working with new and
existing CRG dealers. CRG-USA is scheduled to support the
Challenge of the Americas, Superkarts! USA Pro Tour, SKUSA
ProKart Challenge, United States Rotax Max Challenge, Pan
American Challenge event, and the SKUSA Mountain Region series.
Any interested drivers looking to compete with CRG-USA for 2012
are asked to contact Stacey Cook at info@CRG-USA.com or phone
855-TEAMCRG.
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