Chelootz Opens Season With Florida Race Wins
Tweetpress release
Opening the 2012 karting season at the World Karting Association (WKA) Manufacturer's Cup and Florida Winter Tour (FWT) programs, Texan Top Kart pilot Mason Chelootz competed in multiple disciplines scoring impressive race wins and podium results. While most drivers focus on one or two classes of racing action, Chelootz competed in six different divisions with four different motors and finished all six main events inside the top ten including a pair of race wins.
Above: Top Kart driver Mason Chelootz scored the win in Saturday's Rotax Senior final
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Autosports Media
Chelootz's biggest race win to date came this past weekend at the opening round of the Formula Kart Productions Florida Winter Tour. Having not raced a Rotax powered kart for the past eighteen months, the Team Top Kart driver entered the event in the hopes of a top ten.
After turning times inside the top ten throughout the test day, Chelootz qualified his Koene Racing/Ocala Gran Prix powered and Tony Loniewski tuned Top Kart to a ninth place result in Saturday's session. Improving in the prefinal to claim a fourth place finish, the young Texan stole the show in the main event to take the race win ahead of a field of multi-time national and international race winners and champions.
"Today was a successful one for me," explained Mason Chelootz at Saturday evening's award ceremony. "I will look to continue this success in tomorrow in what will be a hard fought battle. The competition here is second to none."
After qualifying 26th for Sunday's action, Chelootz gained fourteen positions in the prefinal and another three in the main event to come home ninth. Not the result that he was expecting, but nonetheless, a great start to his 2012 Florida Winter Tour program.
Before his 2012 Rotax debut, Chelootz competed in Northern Florida at the famed Daytona International Speedway during the annual WKA Kartweek program. Seeing action in Komet Heavy, Komet Lite, Parilla Leopard and both TaG 1 and TaG 2 classes, the Top Kart driver never finished outside the top ten.
On day one of WKA action Chelootz would do battle in three separate divisions, Komet Heavy, Parilla Leopard and TaG 1, qualifying second, sixth and second respectively. With a timing and scoring delay that shut down racing action for almost two hours, series officials decided to forgo the prefinals and move directly to the main events.
When the dust had finally settled, Chelootz would stand atop the podium in the Komet Heavy class as he scored the race win and early season points lead. Chelootz would score his second podium result of the week with a strong second place finish in Parilla Leopard after qualifying P6 and after a hard fought battle in TaG 1, the Top Kart driver would take home a solid sixth place result.
The second day of action would not go well for Chelootz as on track contact would take him out of the running for the race win. After qualifying fifth in TaG 2 and moving forward one spot in the prefinal, the 15-year-old would be involved in an incident and sent down the running order. Battling hard to gain positions, Mason would come home tenth.
In the Komet Lite division, a second place result in qualifying and the prefinal, Chelootz would run into some trouble in the main event to finish seventh.
Mason would like to thank Grand Products, Top Kart, Hytorc of Texas, Comet Kart Sales, P1 Engines, Ocala Gran Prix, Koene Racing and his tuners Tony Loniewski, John Wiegand as well as his parents for all their hard work and continued support.
