Masters
Nash Motorsportz Masters Max
Saturday Report
Point leader John Crow was unable to attend this weekend’s
event in Phoenix, handing the championship lead to defending title
winner Donald Durbin Jr. (Birel). Looking to add to his lead, the
NorCal driver earned five more points with the pole position in
qualifying, but not without a challenge. Durbin was quickest early
on, but last year’s PKRA winner Ken Maxfield (Arrow) was able to
make some changes on pit lane to better his time. He stole the top
spot in the session for a few laps, using no draft and working on the
track alone. Durbin ducked into pit lane, making adjustments to his
Birel machine of his own, and came back to steal the position away
by just six hundredths of a second. Maxfield settled for second with
Brian Phillipsen (Tony Kart) also coming on late to move up to third.
Justin Peck (Tony Kart) was fourth with Larry Hayashigawa (Tony
Kart) in fifth.
A three-driver pack drove away at the start of the prefinal with
Durbin and Maxfield joined by Peck after contact with Hayashiga-
wa, Phillipsen and Kurt Fisher (CRG) dropped them down the order.
That allowed Jacob Zamora (Arrow) and James Dix (Birel) the early
top five. Hayashigawa and Phillipsen hooked up and put them-
selves into fifth and sixth quickly, applying pressure to Zamora by
lap five. Hayashigawa worked past Zamora at the end of the long
straight, with Phillipsen trying to go past as well but made contact
with Zamora. He went off course and dropped back to eighth, as
Zamora now had to fight with Dix and Fisher. Out front, Durbin and
Maxfield pulled away from Peck with Maxfield able to pace the
lead duo for much of the 17-lap event. With two laps to go, Durbin
was able to move past Maxfield for the lead position. Maxfield
tried to move back inside at the end of the long straight, but locked
up the brakes and nearly drove off trying not to hit Durbin. They
went on to cross the line 1-2 with Peck in third. Hayashigawa drove
to fourth with Phillipsen to fifth ahead of Fisher.
Donald Durbin Jr.
