February 02, 2010
odkarts.com in Phoenix for Gatorz round #1
The storms cleared and the track was dry for the first round of the 2010 Challenge of the Americas presented by Gatorz eyewear.
Friday practice saw PCR’s Tyler Wheeler at the top of the time charts in Rotax Senior. Fellow odkarts.com team mate Bobby Wallace slotted into 6th place. Emily Maddison was the team’s lone junior pilot as Austin King focused on school exams and will re-join the team for round # 2 in Fontana.
The odkarts.com Sr Max pilots qualified 2nd and 9th with Wheeler leading the way. The pre-final was a hard fought battle as Wheeler finished 5th and Wallace was not classified because he was ½ pound underweight at the scales. Both drivers were on a charge in the Final as Wallace made the best of his 25th position start for an amazing 9th place result. Wheeler advanced to 3rd mid race but battled with Quebec’s Phillip Gelinas, and finished 4th.
Emily Maddison started the day strong in JR Max with a 5th in qualifying. Contact would plague the talented Calgarian and she would come home with results of 8th and 13th.
Sunday would be a slightly different story and the senior duo started out strong again timing in 4th and 15th during warm-up. Just 0.4 and 0.5 seconds off of pole sitter Mason Marotta Wheeler would start the heats in strong fashion but made contact with Brendan Phinny while after having passed him for 8th place and falling back to 18th.. The prefinal was eventful for Wallace finishing 10th. On lap 1 of the final Wallace advanced to 5th, and some contact followed for a final result of 13th for Bobby Wallace and 14th for Wheeler after an 18th place start, later diagnosed with a low voltage issue as power would drop as the races went on and the power supply drained
Emily Maddison started the day with a new machine and knew she could have good pace if she avoided carnage. The junior class kept status quo and she was once again collected in wrecks for results of 11th in both the prefinal and final.
Team odkarts.com will be off to Fontana for round #2 at the end of February. The team will look to regain its form with some pre-event testing.
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