Birel “Junior” drivers finished off an amazing month of June by scoring 6 wins and 20 podiums during the WKA Manufacturer’s Cup at JET Karting this past weekend. More impressively, the wins came from five different drivers and two different chassis models with both the C28R and RY30-S5 claiming victories among the Cadet & Junior categories. Mark Fineis, David Malukas, Grant Quinlan and Gage Rodgers each scored wins while Mike McAndrews added two on the weekend.
“We had a very good weekend,” said Tim Lobaugh, Engineer & Team Manager for MRP/Birel America. “Every driver that reached the podium did so against some tough competition. To have a couple of classes where we covered 80-90% of the podium though, was a proud moment for the Birel brand.”
Birel
drivers put three drivers in each of the Yamaha Rookie Sportsman
classes with Rodgers, Fineis and Andrew Castelucci finished 1st, 3rd and
5th on Saturday and Birel sweeping the top 3 in Sunday’s final with
Fineis and Rodgers joined by Aiden Harrington, all driving the Birel C28
chassis.
Another C28 pilot, David Malukas, scored a win and two more podiums. The
young driver qualified 9th in Cadet Sportsman on Sunday and drove
through the field to take the win, setting the fastest lap of the race
in the process. He would place 3rd in Saturday’s Cadet feature and 2nd
in Komet Sportsman.
In the junior categories, the Birel RY30-S5 was the chassis of choice,
winning 3 of the 4 classes. McAndrews took the win in Komet Jr. Saturday
with Quinlan working his way up to 4th from the back of the field. The
duo looked to be strong in qualifying for the Yamaha Jr. Saturday class,
with Quinlan qualifying 2nd and McAndrews 3rd. In the final however,
they placed right behind teammate, Matt Solarczyk, who worked his way
from a 9th in qualifying to finish 3rd.
In Sunday’s junior finals, McAndrews would score his second win of the
weekend in Komet Jr. followed closely by Quinlan. Solarczyk would place
7th. The Yamaha Junior final would be nearly an ALL-BIREL podium with
Quinlan passing 19-karts after starting 20th to win the final with
Solarczyk, McAndrews and Becker Reardon finishing in the 3rd, 4th and
5th spots.
Birel drivers, with support from MRP-BirelAmerica and Birel dealers,
capped off a remarkable month that showcased several drivers scoring
wins.
“It is pretty common in motorsports for a driver to get ‘hot’ and score
several wins over the course of the season,” added Lobaugh. “One thing I
enjoy about our success so far is that it isn’t limited to a few
drivers, but several working together, all with good equipment at their
disposal. We love the junior development programs and these great
results.”
Not to be out-done by the juniors, the EKN #1-ranked TaG driver in the
country, Louie Pagano, used the same RY30-S5 chassis utilized by the
junior team to lead the TaG Senior final, setting the fastest lap of the
race before being sidelined by a thrown chain.
For more information regarding the 2013 Birel C28R or RY30-S5 chassis,
visit www.BirelAmerica.com. For more information MRP Motorsport or
MRP-Birel AMERICA race program, call (269-756-9133) or contact us at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
|