Mike Vincec - Race Report - Stars New Castle

Snap On Stars of Karting presented by IRL
East Division Round 1 - New Castle , IN

Vincec puts it on the podium for East Division opener


Stouffville, ON - May 22, 2006
Round one of the Stars East Division series took place at New Castle Motorsports
 Park this past weekend (May 19-21) and 15 year old Mike Vincec would be up 
against a group of seasoned veterans in the senior ICC class. From the start
 of practice on Friday, Mike was making his mark and already putting up top 
ten times. He would move to the top five in later sessions, less than one 
one-thousandth back. It was going to be a tight field with the top 30 karts 
all within one second. This is where thousandths of a second could be very
 important. In the Saturday morning practice, Mike took 6/10ths off his Friday 
times and had the second fastest lap, just two one-thousandths off the leader.


In qualifying, Mike would put his Cameron Motorsports CRG into the P6 starting 
position for the pre-final. Mike would place third in his group pre-final and 
start the race P4. In the final he was up to second by lap 4 and fighting for 
the lead. Mike would finish the race in second but would be sent to the back 
after post race tech as the kart was determined to be slightly underweight. 
“My tuner Brian (Bettencourt) worked hard to get every tenth 
out of the kart,�?? noted Mike. “We were happy with 
the setup and the kart performed great. To lose second place on the scales 
was disappointing but we feel we proved ourselves throughout the practice 
and qualifying sessions.�?? Mike continued, “at this 
point, Brian and I decided we would not let this happen on Sunday. We knew 
we had the kart that could run at the front.�?? Mike’s 
fastest lap in the final was just two-one-hundreths off the leader.

They used Sunday’s warmup and practice sessions to fine tune 
the kart and make weight adjustments. Mike went out for qualifying and broke 
into the one-minute zero-second territory (1:00.982). He would start on the 
front row of his pre-final where he jumped into the lead from the start and
 went on to win. This would set up for a front row start in the main event 
and Mike made it work grabbing the lead on the opening lap. The pole-sitter 
fought back to take the lead with Mike in pursuit. Mike would bring his 
Swedetech powered Cameron Motorsports CRG across the line in second. Mike 
summed up the race. “We proved that we could run at the front 
today. Brian did a terrific job and the kart was flawless, even with the 
extra weight we added. I really have to thank Brian for all the effort he 
put in to get me on the podium.�??

Despite the disappointment on Saturday, Mike came away from New Castle in 
third place overall in the East Division. “We are looking 
forward to the next Stars event at Charlotte in July and we will be 
ready‚�?? reports Mike.

Mike and BIG Racing would like to thank Pilot Race Gear, Cameron Motorsports, 
The DecalZone and Level Ten Communications for their continued support and 
encouragement.

For more information and results visit 
www.mikev.ca.