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Rolison Performance Group Junior
Max Sunday Report
After sitting out Saturday’s round of racing, Nick Brueckner (Tony
Kart) jumped to the top of the order early on in qualifying. It appeared
his time would stand as the minutes clicked off in the 15-minute session
until just before the checkered flag waved with Saturday winner Sting
Ray Robb posting a monster lap. The point leader dipped below the
51-second mark to clear Brueckner by 0.182 seconds. David Ilavia
(CompKart) finished the session third with Kellen Ritter (Kosmic) and
Michael Michoff (Kosmic) making up the fast five.
Rolison Performance Group driver Michoff recorded his best result of
the season, scoring the Prefinal win. He locked onto Brueckner’s bumper
from the start, after Sting Ray elected to go to the back and only make
one lap. They ran nose to tail until after the halfway point when it was a
continuous exchange for the lead. This allowed a charging Trey Brown
(Tony Kart) to close up on the lead duo, and with two laps remain-
ing was right there. Brown thought following in behind Michoff during
one of his pass attempts on Brueckner would be the best opportunity,
however, he made contact with Bruckner. Both went off the track, and
Brueckner continued while Brown sat off the course. This gave Michoff a
clear run to the checkered flag while Annie Breidinger (Kosmic) moved
to second over Ilavia. Saturday top qualifier Carter Herrera (BirelART)
came from 12th to fourth, with Brueckner ending up fifth.
The race ended up becoming a duel after the top four broke away
early. Michoff set the pace and was trailed by three others as Brueckner
was shuffled out of the top five. He eventually found himself back in fifth,
and ran down the top four. By lap 10, the Orsolon Racing driver was
at the point. Michoff planted himself onto Nick’s bumper, and they were
able to pull away from a hard fought battle for third. With five laps re-
maining, the top two began racing for the lead once again. On the final
circuit, Brueckner took over the point in turn one, and Michoff respond-
ed on the exit of tic-tac-toe. That dropped Brueckner a couple of kart
lengths, which he was not able to recover until a run to the checkered
flag, coming just 61 thousandths short at the stripe. Michoff celebrated
his first ever Challenge victory. Zoey Edenholm (Kosmic) came from
eighth to win the fight for third and land her first series podium result.
Breidinger was fourth in another great effort, putting two female drivers
in the top-four. Ilavia capped off his series with another top-five result.
Sting Ray Robb completed zero laps, presented himself to the grid and
used Sunday’s round of racing as his drop to earn his second straight
trip to the Rotax Grand Finals. Brueckner accumulated enough points to
end up vice-champion with Trey Brown in third.
Jr. Max
Nick Brueckner
Michael Micho