Cacciavillani Victorious At Pan American Challenge
press release
Returning to the Michiana Raceway Park facility near South Bend, Indiana, Ontario native Cory Cacciavillani was impressive in only his second regional event of the season. Earning the Sunday victory in the DD2 class at the second eastern qualifier for the Rotax Pan American Challenge this past weekend, the CF Racing driver showed true speed and form at the tight and twisty MRP circuit.
Above: Cory Cacciavillani captured the victory on Sunday at the Pan American Challenge event in South Bend
pic - Cody Schindel, Autosports Media Group
Using the pre-event practice sessions for some fine tuning with mechanics JP Frydrychowicz and Adam Zaremba, Cacciavillani turned up the wick during Saturday's qualifying session by taking the elusive pole position and backed that up with a victory in the prefinal. The 17-year-old pilot missed out on the sweep, as rain during the final dampened his day. Completing only nine laps, Cacciavillani would suffer a DNF and eventually be classified in the seventh position.
Come Sunday, Cacciavillani would not repeat his qualifying efforts from Saturday and settled in to the second place with a time of 42.479. Prefinal action saw the four-time Ontario Grand National Champion maintain his second place and set himself up for a front row starting position for the final. Steering his Kosmic chassis for the twenty lap final, Cacciavillani edged out his competitors to take the checkered flag of the DD2 final.
"After struggling to find our true pace during practice, the team worked hard to bring things together. It was great to see us come away with the win on Sunday, and if the weather would have held out on Saturday, I feel we would have had a shot at that one as well," commented longtime tuner and mentor JP Frydrychowicz after the weekend.
Even with limited seat time so far in 2011 compared to some of his competitors, Cacciavillani was impressive in his first event with the Pan American series. As a second year pilot in the headline DD2 class, the honour-roll student at Cardinal Carter High School maintains a strict regime of off-track conditioning to keep his skills honed.
"Cory drove a great race on Sunday to win in spectacular style. With my involvement in P1 Fitness, I see a lot of drivers and riders come through our facility and our programs. Cory is definitely one of the fittest drivers on the track. His high level of fitness was shown on Sunday afternoon, hunting down the leader and setting his fastest laps consecutively on laps 16, 17 and 18 of the 20 lap final - a true display of his talent, drive to win and high level of fitness," stated Position 1 Fitness CEO and tuner Adam Zaremba.
Cacciavillani and his CF Racing Team will next see on-track action at the second round of the Brian Stewart Racing Karting Championship at his hometown track of Point Pelee Karting June 10-12.