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Rounds 3&4 of the 2009 Florida Winter Tour presented by TonyKart Florida is now in the books after a thrilling weekend at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. The action on track was wild and many races went down to the wire. Alex Speed scored three wins on the weekend and Nick Neri finally won in KF3 action. After the Rotax classes broke in the new surface last weekend, the Formula Kart classes laid down the rubber aboard their sticky MG tires.

PSLKarting.com Pro Shifter – Speed and Carlton split wins in Pro Shifter
Entering his first race of the 2009 season, Gary Carlton jumped into his familiar CRG/Swedetech Maxter machine and posted the fastest time in qualifying narrowly edging out Fritz Leesmann and Alex Speed. The gap between the top three pilots was a mere nine thousands of a second, setting up a race for the ages. Carlton, Speed and Leesmann cruised throughout the fourteen-lap pre-final with Carlton earning the pole for the final. Speed was able to get by Leesmann on lap two lining him up on the outside of the front row. As the green flag dropped in the final, Carlton and Speed went neck and neck into turn one with Carlton holding the position on the inside. But it didn’t take Speed long to jump to the lead and steal the opening lap with Carlton, Matt Lee and Leesmann in tow. Returning the favor in lap two, Carlton stole the point back as Leesmann disposed of Lee on lap three. As the top two began to pull away, Speed made his move on lap six entering the turn eight hairpin. Contact between the two sent Speed off the track done for the event with many bent components on his TonyKart. This action allowed Leesmann and Lee to catch Carlton, but after a brief battle, Carlton refocused and cruised to victory. Leesmann edged Lee at the line with Hayden Duerson and Cody Hodgson rounding out the top five.

Kicking off the events on Sunday morning, Speed laid down a blistering lap in qualifying, edging out Leesmann by eight hundredths of a second followed by Lee and Carlton. The opening laps of the pre-final witnessed lots of contact, which ended Lee’s race allowing Leesmann and Carlton to switch hands for the second spot. The battle for second allowed Speed to pull a slight lead and cruise to victory. Leesmann snagged the outside front row starting spot from Carlton in the closing laps, giving him the best shot of Speed for the final. Grabbing the holeshot in the main event, Speed showed enlightening determination as he proved he was not going to lose again. Putting the hammer down and not letting any driver near him, Speed pulled to an early lead. After falling in behind Speed on the opening lap, contact sent Leesmann down the order to sixth when he crossed the stripe-completing lap two. Keeping his head down, Leesmann endured in a race long battle with Duerson eventually climbing to fourth. Carlton struggled in the second half of the race ultimately dropping to finish third, but up front it was all Speed as he drove to victory, with Lee in tow.

International Racing KF3 – Neri FINALLY gets a win in KF3!
When chatting about the KF3 class, no conversation is complete without mentioning the name Nick Neri. The Floridian driver has dominated the speed charts every time he jumps into his kart, but mere bad luck has held this stellar junior driver from jumping onto the top step. Once again, he lead the way in qualifying, placing his TonyKart on the pole position for Saturday’s pre-final. Neri pulled a significant gap as he rounded lap one, but again tragedy struck the young pilot. Exiting turn two, Neri slammed hard into the outside barriers, with a broken hub and wheel ending his race thirteen laps early. This opened the door for Jesus Rios Jr. After missing the opening rounds, Rios powered his PSL Karting/Maxter package to a four second pre-final victory. Sorting out her engines woes from the opening rounds, Alessandra Madrigal grabbed the lead from Rios on lap one for the start of the final. Sitting tight in second, Rios drove to the inside of Madrigal in turn two on lap seven and took the lead. Controlling the point from there, Rios scored the win and brought Maxter their first win in their first FWT KF3 race. Battling back from his pre-final crash, Neri grabbed the final podium position with Madrigal coming home in the second place.

Neri once again secured the pole position on Sunday, just narrowly edging out Rios Jr. and Madrigal. During this pre-final however, Neri kept his nose clean as he drove his TonyKart/Ocala Gran Prix Vortex machine to a five second victory over his two KF3 rivals Madrigal and Rios Jr. Neri blasted his competition in the final, taking the victory by a staggering nine seconds, securing a much deserved and emotional win for the young pilot. Dore Chaponick Jr. and Madrigal completed the podium, just ahead of France’s Alex Barron and Taylor Miinch.

Rysa Racing KF2 – All Speed, all weekend
Alex Speed was able to secure the pole in his second class on the day, and was the only pilot to break into the 45 second time frame. Speed held on for the pre-final victory, ahead of fellow TonyKart pilot Jarvis Gennari and Kosmic’s Richard Benitez. Speed sailed to the final win, blasting his competition by almost ten seconds. A one position penalty for jumping the start gave Andrew Hawkins a spot on the second step of the podium, with Gennari demoted to third – completing a TonyKart podium sweep.

Speed was once again the man to beat on Sunday and just edged out Gennari for the coveted pole. Victor Pedrosa and Gennari were unable to catch Speed in the pre-final, and he completed the weekend sweep with the Sunday win. Pedrosa took the checkers in second, with the “Bus Driver” Joey Collins completing once again the TonyKart podium sweep.

Maranello Racing Karts Comer Cadet – Ferrucci near perfection, comes short of Saturday’s victory
Last year’s Cadet class champion, Santino Ferrucci, was able to place himself on the pole position during Saturday’s qualifying session. He turned that into a pre-final victory over Colin Warren and Derek James Sobel. Ferrucci was unable to complete the day’s sweep after spinning on lap one, as Kosmic’s Ashley Rogero drove an epic race and was able to take the Cadet checkers in front of Jimmy Cabrera and Joel Jens.

Sunday however had Ferrucci’s name all over it, as he was able to sweep the day. Starting off in qualifying, the Maranello supported Top Kart driver was able to secure the number one starting position, ahead of Jens and Warren. The pre-final win was secured by over four seconds, with Cabrera and Jens nose to tail as they crossed the stripe. The final would end in the same fashion with an exuberant Ferrucci throwing his arms up as the checkered flag flew and completed his victory lap to the cheers of the crowd.

FirstKart.com TaG Senior – Martindale and Benitez victorious
TonyKart’s Will Martindale and Energy’s Pat Iannucci battled for the pole position in Saturday’s TaG Senior qualifying session, with Martindale just edging out Iannucci by a mere four hundredths of a second. Martindale cruised to a victory in the pre-final, leaving Richard Benitez, Iannucci and Michael Self to battle for the final front row starting position. Drama ensued during the final, with Daniel Formal crossing the stripe in the first position. A ten second post-race penalty was issued to Formal for hitting a cone, thus cycling him down to seventh. Benitez was also issued a penalty for jumping the start, bumping him down to the fourth position. Once all the penalties were sorted out, Martindale emerged as the winner, with Iannucci and Andrick Zeen rounding out the podium.

During qualifying on Sunday, four karts fought hard for the coveted pole position with a scant .034 separating first from third. Martindale emerged as the victor, narrowly edging out Benitez, Formal and Zeen for the front row starting position. Formal just squeezed by Benitez for the pre-final win after Martindale went off track in the final corners. In the final, it was again Formal and Benitez battling for the win, although this time Benitez was able to beat Formal to the line for the Sunday win. Zeen rounded out the podium, with Martindale making a commendable effort in finishing fourth after starting the final in the 14th position.

Franklin Motorsports TaG Junior – Miinch flawless on Sunday
Austin Self set the pace for Saturday’s qualifying session, with a fast lap time two-tenths quicker than his nearest competitor. Self capitalized on his pole position in the pre-final, setting himself up for the win ahead of Californian Taylor Miinch and Kosmic pilot Tristan DeGrand. Disaster struck on the opening lap of the final, with the front row tangling, ending the day for both Self and Miinch. This opened the door for the Kosmic driver DeGrand as he took the lead early. Capitalizing on the first corner incident, Top Kart’s Tyler Thomas moved from the 11th starting position to close the first lap in the third position. A fierce four kart battle then ensued for the victory as DeGrand, Thomas, Alessandra Madrigal and Mark Pellegrini were nose to tail. Swapping positions after the halfway mark, Thomas hounded DeGrand for the lead until the final two circuits. Madrigal moved to P2 and Pellegrini to third allowing DeGrand to drive pressure free to the checkered flag.

Top Kart pilot Taylor Miinch was the class of the field in Sunday’s action sweeping the TaG Junior category. After qualifying pole and taking the pre-final win, Miinch drove away to a four second victory in the main event. Leaving a five kart battle behind him, Arrow’s CJ Cronis claimed the second step of the podium while Pellegrini claimed his second podium of the weekend just edging out Shawn Sharkey, Sebastian Ordonez and Thomas.

Grand Products Masters Shifter / RDD Motorsports Stock Moto – Martins sweeps Saturday, Cox sweeps Sunday
Brazil’s Eduardo Martins secured the pole position, just ahead of fellow Brazilian Victor Carbone. Martins was able to capitalize on his front row starting position to take the pre-final victory ahead of Ryan Garcia and Doug Cox. Ending the day and sweeping the class, Martins was able to drive his TonyKart/Vortex to the final victory, as Garcia and Cox swapping finishing positions from the pre-final as Cox nipped Garcia of the second place podium.

PSL Karting’s Cox was able to grab the pole during Sunday’s session, and turned that into a pre-final win over Saturday’s final winner Martins. The two walked away from the field, as third place finisher Tim Roberts was 18 seconds out of the number two spot. Cox was able to sweep the day’s events, as he drove to the win over Martins and Carbone, who rounded out the podium.

The final rounds of the Florida Winter Tour conclude in March at the Ocala Gran Prix in Ocala, FL, with the Rotax rounds hitting the track March 13-15 and the Formula Kart classes set for March 20-22. Be sure to tune into the unprecedented coverage available through FWT Live! featuring a live webcam, audio feed, interactive blog and live timing and scoring.