A pair of back-makers spoiled Gabby’s victory at the Rotax National

09/23/2006

Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin - Gabby takes second place at the Grand National.

This race featured a heavy throw down between Floridians Nick Neri and Gabriel Chaves. Chaves had a convincing victory in the wet pre-final and was set to do the same in the final. The two youngsters waged an epic battle that saw the lead change hands several times over the first ten laps.

It was quite thrilling to watch these two go at it and before long their duel had seen them clear third place by over ten seconds. Unfortunately, what was shaping up to be a fantastic finish was spoiled just past the halfway mark when Neri and Chaves came up on a pair of back-markers. As is custom, back-markers are black-flagged to leave the track before getting lapped so as not to impede the leader's progress. It's a system that usually leads to better racing, however, this time it all went wrong. As the two speedsters approached two slower karts, Marshall Martin gave the slower karts the black flag according to procedure.

The problem this time was that the drivers being black-flagged immediately slowed down right as the leaders were coming up on them. Forced with a "change course or crash" situation, Neri went left and Chaves' only option was to go to the right which put him off on the grass in the downhill right-hand sweeper (turn eight). By the time Chaves got back on the black stuff Neri was three seconds up the road and what was a great battle for the lead was now over.

Both drivers put in fantastic drives and it looks like we'll be seeing both of them running up front and winning for a long time. In the end Neri took the win by two seconds over Chaves.

 

More news...