Bray Second at Major Kart Meeting in the United States
Confirming the potential he showed at the same meeting last year, New Zealand karter Daniel Bray finished second in class at the National Guard-backed SKUSA SuperNationals meeting at Las Vegas over the weekend of 22/23 Nov 2008.
Daniel Bray
Photo : Fast Company/Team Aluminos
In his debut drive at the
annual meeting last year, Aucklander Bray qualified quickest and won his
first class heat only to be forced out of the Final when a bolt in his
kart's steering column broke.
This year there were no such problems, and despite a tooth-and-nail battle which saw him at one stage back in fourth place in the 30-lap Final, the Kiwi fought back to cross the line second behind the man who had dominated proceedings in the S1 class over the weekend, Jose Zanella.
"Fantastic," Bray said after the race. "I bogged a bit off the start which allowed Jose to get away but after that he and I pretty much ran away from the field until my kart started gripping up and and the two other guys, Cody Hodgson and Jacob Neal, caught up. From then on in there was just this huge battle for second between myself and the two of them. Cody got into second when he and Jacob got past me, but I managed to get back past Jacob and then Cody's engine seized with two laps to go and though he was pushing me all the way on the last lap I was able to hold off Jacob by about half a kart length at the line.
"Last year was good in that we proved we could be competitive at this level, but everything was new. This time around we were ready, we had been up here testing and it paid off. So big thanks to my team, Team Aluminos, my tuner Joe White and driver coach Tom Dyre, plus everyoine at home who helped me get here, Right Karts, Lincoln Shaw at R & R Powersports, Turbo Traders and of course, Dave Bray's Chassis Shoppe.
"Everyone up here wants to know about what we do in New Zealand now and we're already talking about coming back here next year to run with the big guns in Superpro."
Bray's travelling companion, fellow Auckland karter Bradley Alexander, didn't have quite as good a run, despite working his way forward from his 20th qualifying position in each heat.
Unfortunately he was an early casualty of contact in his S4 support class Final eventually being credited with 28th position after completing 12 of the 30 laps.
For the Team News: Aluminos - SKUSA SuperNationals Report go to :-
http://www.ekartingnews.com/news_info.php?n=113702008 National Guard SKUSA SuperNationals X11 Las Vegas USA Nov 20-23
S1
Qualifying
1. Jose Zanella 40.879
2. Jacob Neal 41.343
3. Daniel Bray (NZ) 41.352
4. Michael Hogg 41.598
5. Damiano Belliotti 41.639
6. Zach Beard 41.643
Heat 1
1. Zanella 15 laps
2. Neal +1.391
3. Bray +0.692
4. Damiano Belliotti +6.688
5. Jess Peterson +1.803
6. Jimmy McNeil +5.509
Final
1. Zanella 30 laps
2. Bray +10.388
3. Neal +10.496
4. Andrew Zimmer +18.392
5. Derek Crockett +18.448
6. Derek Tillett +28.270
S4
Qualifying
1. Mike Jones 43.028
2. Chris Jennings 43.165
3. Paul Russell 43.216
4. Craig Sender 43.280
5. Oscar Casillas 43.440
6. Phil Conte 43.487
also
20. Bradley Alexander 44.038
Heat 1
1. Jones 15 laps
2. Jennings +0.525
3. Sender +1.000
4. Conte +4.459
5. Russell +2.594
6. Doug Hayashi +0.711
also
8. Alexander +10.197
Final
1. Jennings 30 laps
2. Jones +3.568
3. Conte +5.292
4. Sender +6.670
5. Steve Perdue +22.350
6. Cole Powelson +23.606
also
28. Alexander 18 laps
Prepared by FAST COMPANY on behalf of KartSport New Zealand. To find out more about KartSport contact Ross MacKay on 021 677 919 or via e-mail on ross@fastcompany.co.nz
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