![]() We’re very excited to announce that FKR will have a kart on the grid in the world’s largest and most prestigious karting street race. Jake Mann has been entered into the Rock Island GP to be held over Labor Day Weekend. You’ve got to check this out – it’s truly the ultimate thrill in karting. FKR is proud to be sending Jake Mann to represent our team, along with Reno Dennis attending as crew chief. Our team will be racing under the Italian Motors banner and will be receiving trackside support. This is one of the biggest karting events in the U.S. and we feel privileged to be a part of it. This is a street course conducted over the Rock Island District in Illinois. Yes, street course. Jake will be racing the Italkart Rapido VI chassis in two different Briggs LO206 classes. Our other driver, Monroe Jordan, raced at Rock Island last year for his own team and ran up front all weekend. With insight from Monroe, along with advice and guidance from Michael Valiante and the Italian Motors team, our expectations are high. Stay tuned for more exciting news in days to come. And we’d love to have your help in the form of sponsorship or just donations to keep us karting and building the sport of karting in the Pacific Northwest.
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We were greeted with clear skies and sunny warm weather for race 3 of PGP’s summer four-stroke racing series. Although fewer karts than the last race, there was plenty of talent with Kevin Janders, Mason Buck, HRE Top-Kart drivers Craig Collins and Sammy Barrera-Garcia , and Davin Sturdivant in his new Kosmic chassis, among others. Monroe qualified fastest, but was DQ’d because of being underweight. This meant that he would be starting last in his first heat race. After fighting his way to fourth place at the checkers, he was confident that the Italkart Rapido chassis and Huggler Racing prepped engine was fastest. A gear change and air pressure adjustment were made before the second heat. Starting 4th, the second heat provided outstanding back and forth racing with Kevin Janders taking 1st and Monroe 2nd. Air pressure was the only adjustment for the main (and Monroe’s strategy). Great racing in the main as well, particularly 5th through 2nd. It took Monroe just a couple of laps to pass Kevin and then he was in the wind as the karters behind him started battling, allowing the “Mo machine” to cruise to over a four-second lead at the checkers. This was a very momentous occasion as it was Monroe’s first victory at PGP. Jon Jordan provided crew chief duties and Jake and Reno worked in the pits and helped with spotting. I really can’t say how proud I am of this team. They’ve come together in a relatively short time and yet work like they’ve been together for years.
Thanks to PGP Motorsports Park, Italian Motors, Michael and Claudio Valiante for advice and guidance, Huggler Racing Enterprises, Roger and Gene at Kart-o-Rama, and JMD Signs and Graphics. Gotta keep this train a rollin’! See you at the races and, oh yeah, #kartingrocks! Day 1 – Saturday, July 16
Arrived at the track Saturday to threatening skies, with a hint of showers at one time, but all cleared for main event time. Good racing was the order of the day. FKR debuted as an official team for this important race. Successful sprint car racer Jake Mann had driving duties this weekend and brought along sprint car mechanic Ryan “Reno” Dennis. Jake and Reno spent a couple of days prepping the 2015 ItalKart Rapido V1. Huggler Racing provided a fresh short block and re-built head. Friday practice was very challenging as we were experiencing run-ability issues. Finally, after hours of investigation and hard work by Jake, Reno, Monroe, and Jon, a new carb was installed and problem solved. Pretty sure I goofed the carb up when I was transporting the engine in the trunk of the BRZ. (Note to self…) The day started well with Jake posting fast time. Big shout-out to Michael V. for all his advice! We were starting on the pole for the pre-final and were looking forward to a good start and finish. Brandon Cusack seemed to have similar speed with us, but had to start in the rear due to transponder issues during qualifying. After some confusion at the start, Jake fell back to second, but was out in front by several kart lengths at the end of the first lap and stayed out front till the end. Brandon drove through the entire field and finished a strong second. It truly was an impressive run for Brandon and it was apparent that we’d have to tune our kart if we were going to run with him in the final. A higher gear ratio was the biggest change we made. The final start was much cleaner than the pre-final and Brandon passed Jake going into turn 1. From that point forward, they ran nose to tail till the finish. Jake made a move in turn 5 on the last lap, but was unable to pull off the pass. It was a great race to watch as two of the Northwest’s finest four-stroke racers battled the entire race. At the end of the day, we had a pole award, a first, and a second. Pretty impressive debut! Reno was indispensable in the pits and is now a permanent team member. He’s a great guy and a super mechanic. Welcome Reno! Thanks again to Michael Valiante and the Valiante family for putting on this great event. ![]() Sweet and sour weekend here at Sumas International Motorsports Academy marking the penultimate round of the IKF Region 6 Gold-Cup series. Friday practice served its purpose as valuable practice time to switch driving styles from the previous two weeks, racing the Follis Kart Racing 4-stroke at PGP and Spanaway. This time, hopping from the 9hp lawn mower to the beastly 45hp shifter and the screaming fast TaG motor. The more comfortable I got with the karts, the more previous problems started to arise. Come the big weekend, a brand new carb for the TaG on Saturday put me in P2 for the final and my bent shifter chassis, with the help of new tires, held on to P3. It was a stretch in itself to finish on the podium in the shifter with such tough competition, knowing there was nothing we could change to the chassis to make it better. I knew I had some work to do to keep a podium come Sunday. The last day of the 3-day event puts the pressure on for all drivers and mechanics. It’s the make it or break it day for many, knowing it’s their last shot to throw everything on the table and hope for the best. A crappy and miscalculated qualifying meant we started further down the running order, not where we needed to be. Halfway through the day, dark, overcasting clouds cast a shadow over SIMA, the rain came shortly after... Perfect! Was my reaction as I knew it would level the playing field and if I dealt my cards right, a win was possible. Come the TaG final, the rain really started to pick up as we frantically rushed to put the rain setup on the kart. The green flag dropped and we went from 4th to 1st within 2 laps and increased our gap by a mile by the halfway mark. But, to our disadvantage, the rain cleared and the hot black tarmac quickly evaporated the water leaving my wet setup now lacking speed. Within a few laps the gap decreased and I was dropping back one-by-one to ultimately finish 5th. A big disappointment, as was the shifter final where my chassis kept me out of podium contention. Two hard Gold-Cup weekends in a row takes its toll on my dad and I but we keep our heads high for the last round in McMinnville, Oregon. It was a blast helping out my FKR teammate, Jake Mann getting up to speed in the 4-stroke where he ended up finishing P2 and P1 over the weekend - awesome job Jake! Can’t thank my parents, Italian Motors, and 425 Motorsports enough for their support.
On to the next one... Currently, FKR is campaigning a 2015 Italkart Rapido V in the Briggs 206 class. Targeting sprint kart races in the Pacific Northwest, we consider SIMA raceway to be our "home track."
We don't want to brag, but... we've got podium finishes at all three tracks we have raced on this year: PSGKA, PGP, and SIMA. We put FKR in the running in every race we enter. Our kart is running a Huggler Racing prepped engine, with chassis development and tuning by Jon Jordan and Leonardo Borrego. As fall approaches (sorry, continue to enjoy your summer - at least we didn't say winter is coming), our schedule is ramping up. We'll be attending the last two Northwest Gold Cup events. SIMA Raceway in Sumas, WA hosts the event on July 15-17, 2016 and then we'll head to McMinnville, OR MacTrack on August 19-21. Lots of club races at PGP, PGSKA, and SIMA fill in the gaps. Other events in our sights are the Can-am race at Pat's Acres, September 9-11 and the Rock Island, IL GP on Labor Day weekend. We're also hoping to debut our Arrow X-2/Rotax Kart for the Can-Am event. This machine was formerly driven by Indy car and current Fort GT driver, Ryan Briscoe. He's so cool, we named our dog after him. We can't say enough about our team right now! Currently we're working with Monroe Jordan Racing, with Jon Jordan doing some pretty fine tuning and Monroe Jordan showing the rest of the field how to get around the track. Jake Mann is also joining us as a second driver. Jon and Monroe have been racing sprint karts for three years. Under the tutelage of Claudio and Michael Valiante, they've achieved significant success as they worked their way through four-stroke and TaG ranks into shifter this year. Jon has mastered the tuning on the Italkart chassis and two-stroke engines! Monroe has proven to be one of the most talented TaG and shifter racers in the Northwest and beyond. Our newest member, Jake Mann, is a prolific sprint car racer with a winning career under his belt. Jake's career started when he raced 80 CC shifters in the mod-90's, moving from pavement sprint kart racing to dirt kart racing. Jake then moved up to sprint cars, finding most of his success on pavement, but also putting down many laps on dirt, including a run with the ASCS Sprint Car series. Jake is new to the 206 class and will be bringing his wealth of experience to our program. He also owns a graphics company and provides racing logos and graphics to the racing industry and elsewhere. Both of our drivers are bad (in a good way) fast!! |
Follis Kart Racing
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