Driver News: Kiel Spaulding - IKF Region 7 CalSpeed Report

At the IKF Region 7 presented by Bridgestone event this past weekend, TrackMagic Racing Karts factory works driver Kiel Spaulding battled storms coming from both the sky and the track. A weather front moving through the Southern California region turned the normally blue skies above CalSpeed Karting in Fontana dark and turbulent. The weather made track conditions treacherous and set the perfect backdrop for some tough but fair racing action and difficult calls by the IKF officials, both of which had a big impact on Spaulding’s weekend.

Running this event with the FX Racing Makita Junior Team, the young Northern California driver quickly unleashed the speed of his new TrackMagic Hornet 100 and SwedeTech Jr. Super Sportsman package. Spaulding was at the fast end of the timesheets throughout Friday’s practice – not an easy task when running in a very competitive class against the likes of Taylor Miinch, Raquel Martinez and Camden Giese.

Dry sessions were tough to come by on Saturday as dark clouds rolled over California Speedway, bringing plenty of rain. Kiel handled the tricky conditions with the finesse of a veteran, despite this being only his third rain race. A wet Qualifying session brought Spaulding P6 on the grid, which he turned into P4 at the end of the Heat race behind Palmer, Miinch and Martinez.

Saturday’s Jr. Super Sportsman Final served up the kind of conditions that make historic drives. A drying track peppered with the occasional river across it, and to keep things interesting, the threat of more rain any minute. Miinch took off from the start, deciding the best way to stay out of trouble was to be 14 seconds ahead of P2 at the end of the race, leaving everyone else to battle for the lower podium steps.

Keeping a cool head in these conditions paid off as drivers fell from the track, moving Spaulding up the field quickly. P2 starter Palmer dropped back early on but worked his way back up to the TrackMagic driver’s bumper by mid-race, setting up a close battle for second. After some back and forth over laps six, seven and eight, Palmer moved ahead, staying in front of Spaulding for the final two laps to make the finishing order Miinch in P1, Palmer in P2 and Spaulding rounding out the podium.

For Sunday, Spaulding moved over to the HPV-2 class where he was joined by a lot of the other fast runners from Jr. Super Sportsman. The off and on rain was in the full “on” position all day, and Kiel made the most of the conditions and his TrackMagic and SwedeTech package to take P4 in qualifying.

In the Heat race, Spaulding capitalized on his great starting position to move up and take the lead, ultimately securing P2 at the checkered flag, although with a bit of drama. Racing was tough but fair across the HPV-2 field, however with rain, rooster tails and a huge field of karts, things are bound to get tight. Contact on track almost put Kiel to the back of the field for the Final but with some good cooperation between the competitors and officials, the finishing order was allowed to stand.

Starting the Final from P2, Spaulding dropped back to fourth due to poor starts by the field. Hopes of grabbing the lead again were dashed however, as some close racing pushed Kiel off track. Duly noting his excursion, Spaulding rejoined and gave back any positions gained by his forced shortcut. The officials did not agree with that solution though and black flagged the TrackMagic driver, resulting in a DQ — disappointing payback for a well driven and hard fought weekend.

Despite the huge disappointment, there was a silver lining to the clouded weekend – the performance of the TrackMagic Hornet 100. Kiel’s dad, Dave Spaulding said “The initial performance of the TrackMagic was very promising, especially since we only had one solid test before the event. I think Friday’s dry running showed the true potential even more. We were consistently very fast in the dry and the rain does tend to equalize everyone out a bit.”

Kiel shared his Dad’s assessment of the new package “My TrackMagic Hornet powered by Swedetech motors was fast from the time we unloaded it. With the help of my dad, Buck from Swedetech and on-site coaching and guidance from FX Racing — especially Frank, Jon and Ryan, I was able to learn a lot about racing in the rain and be competitive all weekend.”

There was another strong TrackMagic performer under the FX Racing tent for this event — regular FX Racing Makita team driver Steve Wiener took the TaG Masters win on Sunday with his TrackMagic Hornet/SwedeTech Leopard.

The next event for Kiel Spaulding will be the IKF Region 7 round 2 at Buttonwillow Raceway Park March 6-8.

TrackMagic Racing Karts, located in Benicia, California, is a leader in the design and development of high performance racing karts, supporting a full product line from cadet to shifter models. For more information visit http://www.trackmagic.com or contact Mike Pickman at mike@trackmagic.com or 925.639.6453.