Tazio Shows his Potential with the Best Drivers in National Kart Racing

After a great performance at the legendary Daytona International Speedway, Tazio showed the speed necessary to race with the best in the national arena.

Daytona Kartweek each year, just after Christmas, kicks off the WKA National Championship. Our series is called the WKA Manufacturer Cup Series, and Tazio is in Cadet class.

After successful club and Regional competition since Tazio was 6, it was time to taste the next level. Daytona was the perfect opportunity.

Monday 12/28/09 was open practice day. National Champion Mike Doty, from the Mike Doty Racing Team prepared Tazio's kart. A Merlin cadet chassis. The Merlin had been quite dominant in the past couple of seasons. The Comer K80 motor was rebuilt and prepared by Doug Fleming from Fleming Motorsports. Doug has been looking after Tazio's motors since we entered cadet class.

With Mike's help it took Tazio no time to learn the fast .7 mile sprint track. By the afternoon Tazio was flying. His lap times were within 2 tenths of a second of the fastest drivers.

In race day 1, Tazio was able to qualify for the feature race. Only the top 30 drivers make the final race. He started 19th, ran strong, gained some positions and finished a respectable 13th. Not bad for our first National.

As always Dario, my 9 year old, was of great help with working and changing things on the kart. Under Mike Doty's supervision, of course. This guy is unbelievable. He knows exactly what the kart and the driver is doing and knows just how to set up the chassis. We feel very fortunate and proud to be part of his team.

On race day 2 Tazio went even better and placed his Merlin on the sixth row in the 12th position on the grid for the second final. Unfortunately 12th for him was on the outside line of turn one, more dangerous. He got a strong start and dove in the first turn. While he was negotiating the corner with 29 other drivers he was hit in the right rear hard enough to kick the drive chain off the motor. He was forced to retire. Tazio was very upset at first, because he knew he had the pace. He got over it after 20 minutes. Surprisingly my wife Lucia and I were not upset at all. We were rather satisfied that our little athlete had the speed, and just became a National driver. We are definitely planning to enter round 2 of the WKA Man Cup at South Bend, Indiana April 30th. Stay tuned....

Special thanks to Mike Doty, Doug Fleming, Chi Chi, John Baio, all the other dads especially Joe Cullura, my clutch specialist, and Mr. Stecher for the clutch spring.
Since Tazio & Dario were so good we treated our family to our first Disney World visit, not so far from Daytona Beach.

Cadet Sportsman Qualifying for race 2

Pos No. Name Chassis Best Lap Diff

1. 66 Zane Smith Top Kart 45.882 -

2. 28 Grant Quinlan Birel 46.074 0.192

3. 11 Leonardo Stoia PCR 46.093 0.211

4. 21 Austin Osborne Birel 46.099 0.217

5. 12 Matt Solarczyk Birel 46.126 0.244

6. 5 Gresham Wagner Birel 46.141 0.259

7. 0 Collin Campbell Birel 46.161 0.279

8. 15 Ryan Raffa Top Kart 46.211 0.329

9. 88 Emerson Reed Merlin 46.234 0.352

10. 91 Grant Sandberg Bor 46.292 0.410

11. 24 Tyler Moneypenny Arrow 46.325 0.443

12. 3 Michael Womack Birel 46.399 0.517

13. 77 Tazio Torregiani Merlin 46.429 0.547

14. 29 Austin Garrison Gillard 46.438 0.556

15. 17 Ashley Rogero Tony Kart 46.439 0.557

16. 32 Garrett Madison Birel 46.682 0.800

17. 81 Tristan VanWieringen KRT 46.748 0.866

18. 1 Derek Scott Jr. Birel 46.784 0.902

19. 6 Olli Pekka Kinos Birel 46.979 1.097

20. 4 Jacob Symank Corsa 47.068 1.186

21. 43 Levi Centeno Birel 47.427 1.545

22. 48 Brendan Cullura Birel 47.428 1.546

23. 82 William Wolfrom Birel 47.504 1.622

24. 10 Vincenzo Sarracino Maranello 47.544 1.662

25. 84 Philip Varner Tony Kart 47.604 1.722

26. 99 Logan Mitchell Margay 47.771 1.889

27. 2 Max Nikolof Top Kart 47.972 2.090

28. 8 David Malukas Birel 48.008 2.126

29. 22 Simon Sikes Energy 48.322 2.440

30. 72 Camden Donaldson Birel 48.458 2.576

31. 9 Tyler Jordan Kosmic 48.766 2.884

32. 18 John Paul Southern Jr. Tony Kart 49.500 3.618

33. 9 Nathan Pool Kosmic 49.857 3.975

34. 1 Mason Mitchell Margay 50.165 4.283

35. 46 Jared Cordova Birel No time -

DNS 80 Juan David Buitrago CRG No time -