Podiums and More, at the world wide debut of the OK-N Class at Tucson COTA

Sunday Main podium Dustin Salaverria in P2 and Christopher Martin in P3, with Blake Nash in P1 (CanadianKartingNews photo)

“We punched way above our weight, and yes, we will be analyzing and learning everything we can, but the quality and tunability of the Sodi Chassis, the raw talent of our drivers, and the support of Ron White, Race Engineer/dad Chris Martin, mechanics Dave Harwin and team physio Bridgette LeBer made a fantastic weekend possible.”

Left to right, Race Engineer Dave Harwin, Engine builder Ron White, Dustin Salaverria, and Team Principal Nic Le Duc

Two hard days of racing against the big teams at the Tucson Challenge of the Americas resulted in strong performances by the Karting Collective drivers. In the worldwide debut of the new OK-N class, out of a 9-kart grid, Christopher Martin delivered a remarkable, controlled performance, with a P5 in the Saturday main and P3 in the Sunday main. Christopher had never been to Tucson before and faced competition that had been there racing and practicing for two weeks; Christopher delivered a stunning performance on just a single day of open practice.

Dustin Salaverria

Christopher Martin

Dustin Salaverria qualified in the front row, 2 thousand’s of a second off pole-sitter Blake Nash, but had to fight back into P3 in the Saturday main from a first-lap tussle that put him back into P5. Sunday brought more challenge as Dustin got pushed off-track in the pre-main and fought back to P5. In the main Dustin surged into P2 capping off a remarkable weekend for the two team mates.

Christopher Martin dealing with extremely exciting OK-N engine (CanadianKartingNews photo)

Team mates Christopher Martin and Dustin Salaverria working together in qualy (photo CanadianKartingNews)

Tazio Otiz, relaunched his comeback to national kart competition after a 10-year absence while he focused on his IMSA career, with a strong drive in Senior Shifter. Tazio pushed up to P8 out of a 14-kart grid in the Sunday Main, that featured young phenoms like Macy Williams, and Jacob Gulick.

Tazio Otis P8 Sunday Main (CanadianKartingNews photo)

First time nation competitor and first time visitor to the Musselman Circuit, Andrew Wait improved from P9 to P5 in Sunday qualifying and P6 in the Saturday and Sunday mains in the Masters 100cc class.

Andrew Wait 100cc Masters competitor (CanadianKartingNews photo)

The strong performance underlined the quality of the Sodi Chassis. Christopher Martin was race engineered by his dad, Chris Sr. “"For my son to show up to a track he has never been to, get one day of practice, and finish P4 and P3, against big teams that had been there for over a week practicing, including the club race, I mean credit to him, and I feel to the Sodi Chassis as well. It is great out of the box.  With minimal changes, it got better and better, and was easy to tune for any surface"

Race Mechanic/Engineer Dave Harwin was impressed by his first experience with the Sodi brand… “"In my opinion, working on the Sodi for the first time, it is very impressive in how responsive and predictable it is when making changes"