Cacciavillani Wins 3 Grand National Bears
press release
After nearly a month off from racing during the peak of the karting season, CF Racing's Cory Cacciavillani put on a dominating performance this past weekend at the annual Brian Stewart Racing Karting Championship (BSRKC) Shannonville event.
With the coveted Grand National Bear trophies on the line, Cacciavillani (right, Jim McGlade pic) was looking to build on his team's recent success including a win as well as a second place finish at the Rotax Pan American Challenge qualifying event at Michiana Raceway Park and three wins at the Point Pelee rounds of the BSRKC series.
"To be competitive in six classes in one race weekend, the team needed to be firing on all cylinders. Ultimately we did just that, and I think that speaks volumes to the cohesiveness and drive to win within our squad," stated longtime tuner and driver coach JP Frydrychowicz.
The CF Racing team and driver Cacciavillani showed that cohesiveness and speed right off the start during Thursday's practice sessions. Entering an astounding six classes over the three days of racing action, the 17-year-old pilot would look to add to his four Bears collected during the 2009 edition of the event.
Starting his weekend off with qualifying for the Senior Medium class, a torrential downpour saw drivers take to the track in the most demanding of conditions. With the rain coming down even harder halfway through the session, Cory managed a respectable eighth place qualifying spot among the stacked field of 32 competitors despite the challenging conditions. Due to the heavy rain, the rest of Friday's sessions were postponed to Saturday morning.
Come Saturday, Friday's sessions resumed and Cacciavillani worked his way up to sixth in the Senior Medium prefinal. The final was battle royale, as the CF Racing pilot made his way up to the second spot in the closing stages of the 15-lap main event. Coming through the famed carousels of the Shannonville circuit, Cacciavillani caught the leader and a drag race ensued down the main straight with Cory taking the win and his first Bear of the weekend by the slightest of margins, 0.005 over Greg Rempel. The honour-roll student at Cardinal Carter High School was also able to score a second Bear in the Rotax/TaG Senior class on Saturday. After taking second during the qualifying session, Cacciavillani took the prefinal and final wins despite the ever-rising pressure of fellow competitor Michael Glaze.
With Friday's make-up sessions now complete, the Saturday classes were set to resume during the afternoon. In the Senior Heavy class, Cacciavillani put his kart on the outside of the second row for the prefinal after the class's qualifying session. During prefinal action, Cacciavillani battled up front throughout the entire race to finish second and then bettered his result in the final to take the win and add to his Bear collection. In the Rotax DD2 class, Cacciavillani again showed strong speed in qualifying to clock the second quickest time and then lead the majority of the ten lap prefinal, only to be given the "bump and run" in the closing laps eventually ending up fourth. After the contact, the CF Racing crew went to work to make a few adjustments to the chassis, but would never see the results as contact again in the final, this time on the first lap, summoned Cacciavillani to the sidelines. With a disappointing end to the day, as the CF Team believed they had the speed to contest for the Bear in the DD2 class, everyone could still hold their head high knowing they had won three Bears out of four classes and still the highly-contested Senior Honda divisions were to come on Sunday.
With the CF team working to make improvements to Cacciavillani's Rok powered Kosmic kart for Sunday's TaG Senior class, the hard work paid off with Cacciavillani taking the pole position by three tenths and taking the prefinal win by a hefty margin. Starting on pole for the main event, Cacciavillani dropped to second at the start of the race as the outside polesitter managed to gain the point heading into the first corner. Contact then ensued, with Cacciavillani's 7A CF Racing machine being run over by the third place competitor over thus relegating him down to sixth. Working his way back to third, Cacciavillani again endured contact after the pass for second place was completed. Finding himself again in the sixth place, Cacciavillani sliced his way through the field and reached the second place as he began to hunt down the leader who had began to pull away. Running out of laps as he closed in, the three-time winner had a second place finish in the cards for TaG Senior after dominating the class all day.
The final event of the weekend saw Cacciavillani qualify in the tenth position in the Senior Lite category. Working his way up to fourth in the prefinal, the up-and-coming pilot would be assessed a four position penalty putting him back to eighth for the start of the final. A battle then ensued in the final with Cacciavillani working his way up to fourth as the front three drivers had already hooked up and were driving away from the field. With the speed to run at the front, the CF Racing kart could not close the gap created by the leaders. Despite running in fourth for most of the racing a showing speed matching the front pack, in true Shannonville style, just as he had won the day prior Cacciavillani was caught at the line to finish fifth.
"It was a great weekend for the CF Racing team. Once again we were able to show no matter the race, track or class CF Racing is always in contention to win," noted Position 1 Fitness CEO and tuner Adam Zaremba. "To win three coveted Bears at Shannonville, consecutively in one day, is quite the accomplishment. The fact that we had the speed to potentially win in each of the six classes entered speaks volumes of Cory's skill as a driver and the foundation JP and Cole have built with Cory and CF Racing over the years."
The next event for Cory Cacciavillani and the CR Racing team is the TaG World Championships slated for August 19-21 at New Castle Motorsports Park in New Castle, Indiana.
