06/14/2022
Race Report from The SKUSA SpringNationals at Utah Motorsports Campus…
This weekend we raced at the SuperKarts! USA SpringNationals at Utah Motorsports Campus.
In racing we have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows and we had all of the above this weekend.
The ARCANE Motorsports squad brought Cole Kleck in for X30 Sr. and KA Sr. categories. This was first race with the new CRG Factory KT5 kart. We partnered with CRG Nordam and Speed Concepts Racing for this event using their SpeedLab Racing Engines for the X30 power as well and the great services and hospitality they provide for their customers at every event. Precision Works Racing Engines powered the KA100 Sr. category and it was second to none.
The weekend started off great!
Cole Kleck was on his game and ready to give a run for the win in both classes.
We definitely had the speed to do it!!!
In the final practices on Friday in KA we had our only DNF failure of the weekend with a bent sprocket and tossed the chain on the out lap with no times posted for the session.
In X30 we showed everyone we were there with force and finished off the happy hour sessions in the P1 position! We had a fast hot rod and everyone knew it!!!
Saturday started off with the KA Sr. qualifier session. Because of the DNF’s in the happy hour we had to run in the slow group. Cole did a great job working with Payton Phillips to post the best lap he could and was on the provisional pole! After the fast group had posted their times we ended up with a P12 starting position. P12 was not what we were looking for but we could race from there.
In X30 we posted a P10 starting position but knew we had the pace that could win the race!
PreFinals:
In the KA Cole drove a flawless race moving up from 10th to 3rd at one point and ended the race in 4th. A P4 starting position was set for the Main Event with a bonus setting fast lap of the race.
In X30 Cole was on pace from the start with a strategy to conserve tires, he still managed to race up to the front trio. With one lap to go he mad a bold move for the 3rd position and wasn’t raced with respect and was almost wrecked out. Cole managed to make it to the line in the 9th position and again recorded the fast lap of the race.
Main Event Finals:
In KA from the start to finish Cole was 2nd and that was all he could give Jeremy Fletcher Racing 💪🏼 as he was just too fast to beat. Congrats to him and the Ryan Perry Motorsport crew on the win! 🏁🏆
The X30 show was here and show it was to say the least. Cole had a flawless start and went straight into the P5 position by turn 2. Settling in he moved to P4 on the 4th lap and 2 laps later he took over the 3rd spot. As he pressed forward to the next group the lead had grown 1.5 second deficit. On the 9th lap he took over 2nd position and had his sights on the leader! Lap 10 he would post again the fastest lap of the race on his charge forward. Closing lap by lap .2 seconds lap faster than the leader… Cole Kleck was coming! The whole paddock was on their toes for this barn burner of a drive! The cheering from different teams pulling for Cole was something to see! Everyone knowing what we’re observing could be the biggest win of his career. Also coming could be biggest upset in the current era of karting against arguably the best! Ryan Norberg Racing and the Rolison Performance Group results speak for themselves as they are the guys to beat and it wouldn’t come eazy at the hands of a veteran like Ryan. On lap 14 Cole made it to Ryan’s bumper for the challenge and on lap 15 he took the point and put himself in the lead for the race of his life. Never being in a X30 battle for the win and Ryan didn’t make it eazy, taking the lead back 2 laps later. They would dog fight over the next 3 laps to see who would pull off this win. This battle would draw the P3 and P4 drivers into the mix. At the white flag with one lap to go running P2 Cole would be challenged by one of the best in the world Pedro Hiltbrand and would be shuffled back into P3 and Nate Cicero was there also to capitalize. With 4 corners to go Cole was making a last shot at the podium by passing Nate coming to the checkered flag. Cole did a great cross up maneuver coming onto the straightaway pulling up alongside Nate coming to the line. Then Cicero blatantly and deliberately crashed Cole into the tire wall barrier. The crash that Cole took from that was very dangerous and terrifying to everyone that witnessed it and something we never would want to see ever again.
I ran as fast as I could to Cole’s aid which was only about 100 feet from where I was watching the race. Not having my eyes able to see the crash but seeing him ejected and his body flailing though the air I knew it was bad very bad. My mind was picturing dismemberment or some kind of deadly result and trust me when I say this it could have been that bad! Thank God for watching over him in this moment and making sure that he came out of this incident safe! With only a fractured left wrist, concussion, sore neck, bumps and bruises Cole was fine.
Note:
In the moment of this incident I want to apologize to everyone for my reactions for not handling the situation professionally. Cole Kleck is family to me and when emotions run over and when one of your people are hurt deliberately like this it becomes fight or flight. I voiced my opinions and my actions were loud and clear and I’m sorry for that, and I should’ve handled it better. I want to apologize for escalating the situation and I will learn from this and move forward and do my best to not ever let that happen again.
On Sunday…
The crew made a quick decision to have Frankie Mossmann fill in for Cole for the KA Sr. category. Without driving the kart at all… No warm up laps, no qualifying laps, starting from back of the field. Frankie jumped in the ARCANE Motorsports CRG blindly and made a great drive from a P36 starting spot to end 12th. Then after receiving a penalty he would start the Final from the P20 position.
Starting 20th Frankie would race forward one spot shy of the podium to end the day in 4th running the 3rd fast lap of the race showing how fast the package was!
Thank you and great job Frankie!
Thanks to SKUSA and their officials and staff for their hard work and devotion to the sport of karting!
The Kleck family for their support and dedication Chris Freckleton of Precision Works Racing Engines, Euan Jeffery of CRG Nordam, SpeedConceptsRacing and staff, Mario at Speed Lab Racing Engines, for this stellar past couple of weeks!
We would not have been able to do it without all of the support… Thank you all!
The force is strong in this group!!! Press on!
Also thank you Kremers for the great sportsmanship gesture, and class at the X30 podium towards Cole and the outcome! 👊🏼
