Constant Improvement Lands JBR No. 18 Team A Top-Five Finish For Tri-C Karters Round Five Race At Ca

Date: July 1, 2017 Event: Junior LO206 (Race 5 of 8) Series: Tri-C Karters Location: CalSpeed Karting Center, Auto Club Speedway Layout: Sportivo CW (0.640-mile 13-turn sprint course) Format: Five Stages; 5 min prac/5 min qual/8 lap heat/8 lap heat/16 lap main Finishes: 5th / 6th / 7th / 6th / 5th Winner: Dakota Tate (TonyKart #14c)

Justin Blumenfeld and the No. 18 JBR Racing team put on a hard fought battle throughout the day, and with constant improvement in setup and driving technique, each successive round bested the previous run, and Justin was able to salvage a top-five finish when all was said and done.

Practice Recap:

Justin's morning began with a difficult challenge, when after unloading and gassing the kart up, the team discovered they had a cracked fuel tank. With only 25 minutes to spare before the start of practice, and no parts sellers on site due to another same-day race up in Santa Maria, the team was able to secure a loaner tank from a helpful club member named Peter, who ended up saving the day. Making quick work of the replacement, Justin was up and running in time for practice. However, the gearing setup was far from optimal, and he was running 4.132 seconds off pace from the leader by the end of the session.

Qualifying Recap:

After a gearing change, Justin took to the track for qualifying, and was able to shave 2.587 seconds off his laptime. Another 2.463 seconds would've landed him in the top spot, but with more work to do on the setup, he was only able to qualify in sixth place.

Heat 1 & 2 Recap:

Both heats showed improvement, but proved difficult to move up due to the poor starting position near the tail end of the field. In the first heat, another gear change improved his fastest laptime by 0.994 seconds, and in heat two, the final gear adjustment and some technique improvements through the high speed corners shaved off another 0.026 seconds, landing him in sixth for the start of the main.

Main Recap:

With his gearing at a much better setting, Justin was able to mount an attack at the start of the race and move up two spots, which he would hold onto for nearly half the race before losing a position to competitor Daniel Eaton after a bump and run pass. He was able to secure another position after competitor Jalen Mack's kart gave out mechanically, landing him a DNF. Justin was able to again improve his laptime by another 0.401 seconds, and while this was still 1.83 seconds slower than the fastest driver in this round, the constant improvement throughout the day was a big accomplishment, and the top five finish was well deserved. Although disappointed with his results overall, Justin goes forward with some newfound confidence and an increased drive to get some speed back for the upcoming round six race on July 29th.

Tri-C Karters 2017 Season Championship Standings:

Justin currently sits in second place, trailing first place Sophia Storey by 78 points, a growing gap that may prove difficult to overcome in the next three races. He'll continue to battle hard however, and see if he can make it happen to pull off the championship by season's end.

Next Race:

Blumenfeld's next race will take place on Saturday, July 29th at CalSpeed at the Auto Club Speedway for round six of Tri-C Karters, where he will be running the short 0.551-mile Classico layout in the clockwise direction. After the last two less than stellar races in the series, he is looking to regain a podium finish and compete for his still-elusive first win in this series and shorten the lead from the first place challenger.