Driver News: Devlin DeFrancesco - Rotax Pan American Challenge New Castle Report

Devlin DeFrancesco was back racing on American soil last weekend as the Pan American Rotax Max Challenge resumed at the famed New Castle Motorsports Park in Indiana. Third in points after the opening race weekend in Texas, DeFrancesco produced two very different runs to sixth at New Castle to remain in the hunt for the overall championship as the schedule hits its halfway point. After working his way among the fastest in a twenty-two kart Mini-Max field through practice, all work was tossed in warm-up when the skies opened and added fifteen seconds or more per lap. Quickly adjusting under the DFR/Supertune USA tent, DeFrancesco matched his position from final practice and still posted P3, exactly one-tenth from the front row. He then held position through the opening laps of the prefinal and worked through the heat race with teammate Patricio O’Ward. The pair finished a comfortable three-four, and well up on the rest of the field. In the Saturday final DeFrancesco was once again third through the opening lap and after slotting fourth through the early stages, was back in P3 dicing for a third-consecutive Pan American podium as the race worked to and through half distance. He dropped one spot heading to the checker to cross fourth, but a three-second time penalty incurred at the start dropped him to sixth in the final classification. He matched the result on Sunday, yet in very different fashion. After qualifying ninth for race four of the championship, DeFrancesco was thumped at the start of the Sunday prefinal and fell all the way to the tail of the field. Taking back spots was then a tall order in an eleven-lap heat race, but DeFrancesco took eleven on his way to the checker. He was seventeenth through one, fifteenth through two, and thirteenth through three laps as he set to work on the top ten. He grabbed another on lap four, and was eleventh in the field through six, the spot he would take as he lined up for the main event. The charge resumed at the drop of the green, and through the first lap of the final the ten-year-old was seventh, two spots better than he had qualified to begin the day. He inherited sixth, and passed into fifth on lap nine in beginning a three-kart scrap that ran to the checker. The position changed hands five times among three drivers over the last six laps before DeFrancesco took sixth once again, his second-consecutive that brought the weekend to a close. Racing at New Castle for the second time this season served as a warm-up for the upcoming US Rotax Grand Nationals in July, and from there DeFrancesco will once again set his sites on Europe. Five Italian dates are in the future for the rising star this season, three rounds of the WSK Master Series; the Vortex Rok Italian Championships and the Vortex Rok World Championships. To keep tabs on Devlin DeFrancesco and his team, please visit DFR/Supertune USA on Facebook.