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PSL KARTING REBOUNDS AT FLORIDA WINTER TOUR 

PSL KARTING EARNS PAIR OF FLORIDA WINTER TOUR CHAMPIONSHIPS 

Canadian team takes four victories and two shifter kart titles with Leesmann and Vidal 

PSL Karting wrapped up the 2008 edition of the Florida Winter Tour at the sixth and final weekend of the two-group program. The third double-header weekend of the schedule took the Quebec-based CRG importer to the Ocala Gran Prix facility in Ocala, Florida on March 14-16. The weather was not typical Florida condition as strong storms cut practice short on Friday, leaving the team to battle both the track and set-up strategy throughout the weekend. Bouncing back from a tough Rotax Max finale on the previous weekend, the PSL shifter drivers scored four victories and two championships this time out, for Californian Fritz Leesmann and Virginia’s Gus Vidal. 

Since January, Leesmann (right) has been the most dominant shifter kart driver on the FWT. Earning the Saturday pole by five-hundredths of a second, Fritz tucked into second at the drop of the green flag for the Prefinal. He waited until lap seven to make his move and then cruised to a five-second victory. The Final would be all Leesmann as he turned laps a full second quicker than his qualifying time to earn the win, putting the PSL logo on the top of the podium. 

Sunday was no different as Fritz was in command all day. A blistering lap in qualifying earned him the pole and a clean start in the Prefinal allowed him to cruise to the win. After slotting into second at the start of the main event, he did not wait long to regain the top spot. Leesmann would go on unchallenged to a three-second victory, successfully clinching the FWT Pro Shifter championship. In total, Leesmann took home an impressive $7500 for his four victories and the overall crown. 

Fellow PSL Pro Shifter pilot Corey Rossman scored his two best finishes on the Tour, running 11th and 12th in the main events to move up in the standings to 12th on the year. 

Adding to the success for PSL Karting was Masters Shifter driver Gus Vidal (below). A regular on the road racing scene, Vidal was in the spotlight in his class on the weekend. After putting the CRG on the pole in Saturday qualifying, Vidal put in two dominant performances in the Prefinal and Final, winning both by over five seconds.  With the championship fight coming down to Sunday, a winner-take-all situation, Vidal found himself in a tight battle with his primary challenger, Jason Lee. Running second to Lee in Qualifying and the Prefinal, the duo started the main event from the front row. At the start, Vidal slipped back but began to reel in the leader after getting himself situated. Once he caught the leader on lap 13, he only needed one more lap before taking over the top spot, checking out once he was presented with open track. Vidal would race unchallenged to the checkered flag with a two-second advantage and a 20-point championship victory. 

Making his first Florida Winter Tour start this past weekend, Masters Shifter driver Gobeil Benoit got in some valuable race time, recording finishes of seventh and eighth in the two Finals. 

The PSL Karting team will now prepare for the Snap-on Stars of Karting presented by IndyCar - North America’s national championship program - beginning with the first round at the Ocala facility over the April 4-6 weekend

PSL KARTING HAS DIFFICULT FLORIDA WINTER TOUR ROTAX FINALE

Canadian team battles weather and tough competition at Ocala Gran Prix event

The PSL Karting team completed the Rotax portion of the Florida Winter Tour this past weekend at the Ocala Gran Prix in Ocala, Florida. The weather was not typical Florida conditions as strong storms cut practice short on Friday, leaving the team to battle both the track and set-up throughout the weekend. Though the results were not up to the team’s expectations, the Quebec-based CRG importer finished a strong January through March run in the three Rotax divisions, battling for the championships and class wins. 

The top performer for the weekend was Rotax Masters driver Denis Lachance. The Quebec pilot came into the weekend with a slight chance at the title, needing some help to move up in the standings. Saturday did not start out well for Lachance with an eighth place run in qualifying leading into a Prefinal that saw him fall back to 13th. The Final would see him battle back, advancing up to fifth by the time the chequered flew. Sunday was better all -round, running in the top-five throughout the day before finishing on the podium in the third spot to earn runner-up position in the final standings. Fellow PSL Masters driver Michel Legrand had a difficult weekend, scoring finishes of 16th and 13th.  He would end the year fifth in the championship standings. Photo:  PSL Karting’s Rudy Camarillo took 11^th in the Florida Winter Tour Rotax Senior class last Saturday (Pic: www.otp.ca)

Five drivers entered the Rotax Senior category under the PSL tent. Mexican pilot Rudy Camarillo led the squad on the weekend, recording the highest finish of 11th during Saturday’s action. He was closely followed by Quebec’s Olivier Sirois (14th) and Columbian Federico Moreno (15th), who was making his first Florida Winter Tour appearance. Moving up to the Senior ranks for the first time, Chris Ernst was quick early on but trouble in the Prefinal dropped him the tail of the field, battling in the Final to 26th. Making a return from injury in round two, Julia Claveau came up just short of qualifying for the main event. 

Sunday began on a brighter note with all five drivers qualifying in the top-25. The day, however, would not end as it began with all the drivers finished outside the top-20. Camarillo was running in the top-10 until dropping back to the tail of the in the opening lap. He would go on to finish 21st, just ahead of Moreno and Sirois. Ernst would cross the line 26th while Claveau retired on lap eight. Sirois would end the Tour ninth in the standings while Camarillo was classified 13th overall. 

The two Junior PSL drivers looked poised to both score podium finishes on Saturday with Jesus Rios Jr. starting third and Tommy Beshro on row four. That would end in the opening circuits as Rios retired on lap two while Beshro fell to the tail of the field. Rios would be classified 34th while Beshro battled to finish 23rd. On Sunday, the duo ran in the top-10 in all three sessions, with Beshro crossing the line eighth in the Final and Rios just one spot back. Those finishes put Rios into tenth in the final point standings while Beshro would end the season in 13th. 

This coming weekend, the shifter, TaG and Cadet categories will battle at the Ocala facility. Returning from a recent test with the CRG factory Italy, Californian Fritz Leesmann will battle for the Pro Shifter championship. Heading into the weekend, Leesmann sits second in the standings, only five points out of first when calculating in the drop race. Corey Rossmann will join him in the Pro Shifter category, looking to score a couple of top-10 finishes. In Masters Shifter, Gus Vidal is tied with another driver for the championship following his first and second place performances at round two. Ben Gobeil will be making his first appearance at the FWT this season alongside Vidal. In Cadet, Colombian Juan Esteban Garcia will represent PSL Karting in the ultra-competitive class.

Canadian team scores two wins at second Moroso weekend event 

PSL Karting rebounded from a difficult opening weekend at the Moroso Motorsports Park in Jupiter, Florida during the second rounds of the Florida Winter Tour, looking good when Group B hit the track, a line-up that included the Pro and Masters Shifter divisions. The Quebec-based CRG importer fielded eight drivers in these two classes, coming home with two victories on Sunday thanks in part to American pilots Fritz Leesmann and Gus Vidal. (pictured below)

Leesmann led the six-driver Pro Shifter PSL squad at the event, running at the front all weekend long. Qualifying on pole for Saturday’s event, Leesmann struggled with the race set-up, falling back to third in the Prefinal and fifth in the Final. The next day was a different story as the PSL crew was able to find the right set-up to turn quick laps all day long. Leesmann scored the pole again and fell back early in the Prefinal. This time, he was able to climb back for the win and then repeated the performance in the Final for his second win of the series. 

The five remaining drivers scored five top-10 finishes on the weekend. After a tire issue in Qualifying on Saturday, California’s Jacob Neal came from 23rd to 13th in the Prefinal and then finished ninth in Final, repeating the same main event result on Sunday. This pair of results gave him his third straight top-10 finish in only his first two months of racing an ICC machine. PSL regular Tom Cadieux was 12th on Saturday and eighth Sunday. Florida driver Joey Riceputo recorded finishes of 14th and 10th, while Corey Rossman was 17th and 18th. Anthony Llopiz struggled on Saturday, finishing 22nd, but found the extra speed he needed for a solid 11th on Sunday. 

In Masters Shifters, Gus Vidal and Michael Legrand battled for three top-five finishes, including Vidal’s victory on Sunday. The Virginia pilot qualified second on Saturday and finished in the same spot in the Final. On Sunday, Vidal put his CRG on the pole and took the unofficial Prefinal victory until being penalized four spots for running the wrong tire compound - which was handed out by the series officials. After sorting out the error, Vidal was forced to run Saturday’s tires, but it didn’t slow him down as he made up those spots to take the lead and the win. Legrand also had a solid weekend, finishing fifth on Saturday and seventh on Sunday after running has high as second.

PSL Karting will wrap-up their Florida Winter Tour journey with the third and final rounds of the series at the Ocala Gran Prix, just north of Orlando, Florida, over the March 7-9 weekend for the Rotax program and March 14-16 for the shifter groups.  From there, they will look towards the start of the national circuit when the Stars of Karting kicks off its season in Florida on the April 4-6 weekend.

PSL KARTING BACK TO MOROSO AFTER MIXED ROTAX WEEKEND IN FLORIDA 

Canadian team scores 10 top-ten finishes at Moroso event and is looking for more 

PSL Karting looked to continue their solid start to the 2008 season when they trekked to Jupiter, Florida for the second Rotax round of the Florida Winter Tour at Moroso Motorsports Park last weekend. The first of two weekends at the 9/10-mile facility saw the team’s CRG drivers back under the Quebec-based kart shop tent and while they showed quickness throughout the weekend, nagging gremlins kept the 13 drivers working harder than expected.  After a short week ‘off’, the team is back at Moroso for the back-end of the doubleheader this weekend to support a new cast of drivers in the gearbox, direct drive and TaG categories. 

With the absence of ‘Bad’ Brad Smith to an illness, the rest of PSL’s Masters squad stepped up last weekend, recording five top-ten finishes. Leading the way was Denis Lachance with duplicate results during the two days of competition. After a sixth in qualifying and moving up to fourth in the Prefinals, Lachance scored fifth place in both Finals. Michel Legrand scored duplicate results in the finals as well - running just outside the top-10 throughout the weekend before stepping up in the Finals with a pair of seventh place results. Camille Villeneuve was battling in the top-five Saturday before falling to 20^th in the Final. On Sunday, he returned to the front and recorded a sixth place result. Martin Lachance showed improvement from round one, running near the top-10, but trouble in both finals put him outside the top 20. 

The Junior contingent was led by Tommy Beshro. The Quebec pilot was unable to find a quick qualifying set-up, starting both Prefinals outside the top-10. Once green flag racing began, however, Beshro worked into the top-10, scoring 10^th place results in both Finals. Florida pilot Jesus Rios Jr. was quick all weekend as well. Running in the lead group, trouble in Saturday’s Final took him out of podium contention. On Sunday, Rios was up front again, recording and eighth place finish. Chris Ernst had a difficult weekend, running 31^st and 21^st. 

Olivier Sirois(pictured) led the Senior drivers on the weekend, transferring his quickness from round one to round two. Qualifying tenth on Saturday, Sirois worked up to finish seventh on the day for another strong points day. Sunday looked to be a better day, qualifying outside row one but trouble in the main event dropped him to 29^th. Mexican pilot Rodolfo Camarillo ran to a 15^th and eighth place finishes, while Julia Claveau sat out the remainder of the weekend following Saturday’s Prefinal run. 

Three drivers made up the Mini Max PSL squad for the first time in 2008. Zacharie Scalzo recorded finishes of 12^th and 19^th. Colombian Camillo Forero was 21^st on Saturday and 28^th on Sunday, while fellow countryman Juan Garcia was 18^th on Saturday before sitting out Sunday’s events following qualifying. 

This weekend will be the Group B of the Florida Winter Tour at the Moroso facility, which will include the CIK/Shifter/TaG classes where PSL will look to return to the podium.  The team will have nationally-ranked drivers Fritz Leesmann and Tom Cadieux in the Pro Shifter category, joined by Jacob Neal, Corey Rossman, Jey Riceputo and Anthony Llopiz.  In Masters Shifter, Gus Vidal and Michel Legrand will lead the charge.