Race Report: ROK Sonoma Race #3 Presented By Sanzaru
The weekend turned out sunny and warm for the third race of the season with many moms on hand to support their racers this Mother's Day weekend. To celebrate, pictures were taken of drivers and their moms, with flowers given to moms and gift baskets raffled off to them as well. The day was scheduled to finish early so that everyone could spend the remainder of the weekend celebrating our Mothers.
This weekend welcomed the beginning of the season for the Kid Kart class with three new drivers, Cypress Andruss, Zoquan Holbrook and Mateo Calderon. All showing great promise to their future in karting.
The "Feature Race" was Mini ROK, one of the fastest growing classes this year bringing in several new competitors. Daytona winner, Stephen Cameron's son Christian moved up from Micro to Mini this race and Ganassi IMSA driver, Joey Hand's son Chase started in the ROK Vortex for the first time this race. But the newest competitor to beat was Sebastiaan Mulder with a qualifying lap time of 52.837 putting him on pole. The performance of our Feature Class racers did not disappoint, the 13-lap Pre-Main and 18-lap Main was filled with excitement throughout both races. The top five drivers, Sebastiaan Mulder, Stephan Eisert, Chase Hand, Ethan Nascimento and Harrison Marsh were battling during the Pre-Main and really turned it up in the Main. While the latter half of the field Alex Rantala, Christian Cameron, Scott Coneybeer and Derek Domingos continued in their own battle.
At the start of the Pre-Main the inside row was the place to be as our pole sitter, Mulder and the drivers behind him, Eisert, Nascimento and Marsh all moved forward behind him after the first turn. Hand sitting outside pole got shuffled back whereas the inside line gave no room to move back in. Mulder and Eisert checked out to a comfortable lead but Hand's patience and the extra laps helped him move back up to finish in third spot followed by Nascimento and Marsh. In the second group Cameron would change two spots with Domingos in the first lap and lap two would find Rantala down two spots with Domingos continuing to move forward and Coneybeer close behind. At the finish it was Coneybeer at 6th, Domingos, Cameron and Rantala.
The Main event proved to be just as exciting as the Heat. Once again, the inside line made the move through turn one shuffling off pole sitter, Eisert all the way back to 5th. Mulder on the Pole took the lead and held it for the entire race with a the 1st place win, while the fight continued behind him. Nascimento made a strong move in lap three which secured his 2nd place finish. Now the race was on for 3rd place, Hand, Marsh and Eisert fought the next 14 laps going back and forth the entire time. Some great strategy and patience between all three leads to a fantastic finish with Hand 3rd, Marsh 4th and Eisert in 5th. The rest of the field settled down in lap 9 with Coneybeer finishing 6th, Cameron 7th, Domingos 8th, and Rantala 9th.
ROK Sonoma Presented by Sanzaru Games Round 3 Results
Molecule Kid Karts
1st Cypress Andruss $30 Sanzaru Bucks
2nd Zoquan Holbrook
3rd Mateo Calderon
Molecule Micro ROK
1st Anthony White $100 Sanzaru Bucks + VP fuel
2nd Nico Sarphati $50 Sanzaru Bucks
Molecule Junior ROK Shifter
1st Cole Shade $30 Sanzaru Bucks
2nd Nolan Siegel
3rd Seth Huntley
Molecule 80 Masters
1st Tom Nelson $30 Sanzaru Bucks
2nd Mat Kattanek
3rd Geoff Provo
Molecule Junior ROK
1st William Ferguson $75 Sanzaru Bucks
2nd Oliver Reed $50 Sanzaru Bucks
3rd Nolan Siegel $30 Sanzaru Bucks
Molecule Mini ROK
1st Sebastiaan Mulder $100 Sanzaru Bucks + VP Fuel
2nd Ethan Nascimento $50 Sanzaru Bucks
3rd Chase Hand $30 Sanzaru Bucks
Molecule Senior ROK
1st Michael Avansino $50 Sanzaru Bucks
2nd Bijoy Garg $30 Sanzaru Bucks
3rd Ryan Tate
Molecule Master ROK
1st John Breidinger $50 Sanzaru Bucks
2nd David Palic $30 Sanzaru Bucks
3rd Vasili Stratton
Molecule Senior ROK Shifter
1st Cabot Bingham $75 Sanzaru Bucks
2nd Enzo Prevost $50 Sanzaru Bucks
3rd Zach Pettinicchi
Molecule Master ROK Shifter
1st Patrick O'Neill $50 Sanzaru Bucks
2nd Jeff Smith
3rd Jim Inglebright
Next race will be June 10 where the track configuration will be the Sprint Track and the feature class will be the Senior ROK.
All results and points can be seen on the series website at www.sanzarukarting.com.
