Black Flag Racing Micro Max
Saturday Report
Record numbers for the Micro Max class equated into some
awesome racing throughout the day for the youngest group in
the Rotax Max Challenge. The first driver into the 59-mark was
Jak Crawford (Birel), with five minutes remaining. Austin Torger-
son (KBG) was the next to reach that point, back of Crawford by
just over a tenth of a second. As the time ran down, no one was
able to better the time set by Crawford, as he secured the pole
position over Torgerson. Paden Hall (CRG) jumped up on the
final circuit to the third position, dropping Diego LaRoque (Birel)
to fourth and Cole Keith Cotham (CRG) to fifth. Following tech
however, Crawford was removed for an improper setting on the
carburetor, moving everyone up a position to put Torgerson on
the pole position and dropping Crawford to the tail of the field.
The nearly 20 Micro Max drivers put on a great show to open
up their racing for the 2014 season, mixing up the positions
early. Ethan Arndt (Tony Kart) came up from sixth on the grid to
lead after the opening circuits, establishing a solid lead as the
field continued to shuffle. Crawford took advantage and was
on the charge, breaking into the top-five by the halfway point.
He locked up with LaRoque and Jacob Yesnick (Birel) to close
up on Arndt. Lap seven, they had caught Arndt but contact was
made as they entered turn one. That resulted in Cotham taking
advantage and moving up to first, followed by Torgerson. The
former top-four dropped outside the top five, including LaRoque
all the way back to 18th. When the checkered flag waved, it was
Sebastian Davis (Tony Kart) with the win, edging out Torgerson.
Arndt worked back to third with Hall fourth and Yesnick fifth.
The top four of Davis, Arndt, Crawford and Cotham broke
away from the field in the early laps of the 14-lap main event.
Arndt, like he did in the prefinal, positioned himself at the front of
the field. That was until Crawford took over the top spot for the
first time on the day. He and Arndt worked together to pull away
from the other two, leaving three laps left to fight it out for the
lead. After swapping around the final circuit, Crawford would
muscle down the long straight to secure the top spot and hold on
to cross the finish line for the victory. Arndt settled for second with
Davis completing the podium. Cotham ran fourth with Torgerson
getting away in the fifth position. Cotham however would be re-
moved from the results for a float height issue in the carb, putting
Torgerson fourth and Jonathan Portz (Kosmic) fifth.
Black Flag Racing Micro Max
Sunday Report
Much like the racing was on Saturday, the qualifying session
was tight again at the top of the order. The same two from the
timed session yesterday were the quickest out of the both in the
morning, with Saturday winner Jak Crawford (Birel) posting the
fast lap by 55 thousandths over Austin Torgerson (KGB). Sebas-
tian Davis (Tony Kart) was third with Josh Pierson (Tony Kart) and
Cooper Becklin (FA) making up the fast five.
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A four driver lead group formed at the start of the prefinal, with
Crawford leading Torgerson, Davis and Ethan Arndt (Tony Kart). They
ran static for much of the race until two laps to go when Arndt took
over lead from Crawford, mixing it up for the final lap. Crawford
was able to take the top spot away in the final corners, crossing the
line first but was penalized three seconds for a start infraction. That
dropped him back to fourth in the order, moving Davis to the pole
position for the main event with Arndt outside row one. Torgerson
was classified third with Crawford fourth. Jonathon Portz (Kosmic)
won the fight for fifth.
Arndt got the jump on the field to begin the 14-lap main event for
the Micro drivers. From third, Arndt led Davis, and Crawford across
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