Castaneda Maintains Championship Lead after a Win in Fontana

After an extremely successful first round in the Gatorz Challenge of the Americas Championship, Troy Castaneda was looking for another positive weekend at the California Speedway in Fontana, CA.

Heavy down pour covered all of Saturday’s racing which would make for some interesting racing. Castaneda’s morning started out the day by qualifying in second place. At the start of the pre-final, Troy slotted into second position with the rain coming down strong. The leader began to pull away in the first few laps, but Troy reeled him back in once he got into his rhythm. In an attempt to maintain the lead, the driver in first cut the track. However, Castaneda was still gaining on every lap. Troy was now within a few kart lengths and the leader cut the track again, but this time Troy was able to beat the other driver to his “re-entry” point on the track and take over the lead. On the next corner Troy lost the lead as the other driver made the pass. On the exit of the corner Castaneda got a little sideways and the leader pulled away. With only a few laps left, the order would not change.

As the rain began to fall harder and turn into hail, the rest of the day’s races were postponed until Sunday morning.

The clouds parted and the sun was shining brightly over the race track on Sunday. Even with clear skies the track was still wet, so the morning action was quite interesting. The first race of the day for Castaneda was Saturday’s main event. At the start of the race, Troy was nearly collected in a first corner incident which dropped him back to 7th place. After a few laps, he was challenging for the lead and took the top spot into one of the hairpins. The lead was short lived as in the following switchback, Castaneda got a bit of a shove and lost the spot. Troy worked his way back up to the leader and passed once again for the lead, but again it was short lived as he was punted harder this time and lost two positions. Troy was now in third with a gap to second place and only a few laps remaining. Pushing hard Castaneda once again caught back up with the leaders setting fast lap of the race. On the final lap he had an excellent run out of the final corner and was on the bumper of second place. Troy made a move for the position at the finish line, but wasn’t able to get it losing out to 2nd by .008 seconds.

With all of Sunday ahead of him, Castaneda was looking to make the most of it; and he did. Troy qualified his CRG on pole position. In the pre-final he led every lap to take a 5 second win at the checkered flag. The green flag waved and off they went for the main event. Castaneda slotted into second position after starting on pole. At the end of the first lap Troy made his move to take the lead entering into turn one. From that moment on, he checked out and continually set fast lap after fast lap about .6 tenths faster than the other drivers. At the end of the race Castaneda would pull off a 10 second win.

“This weekend was pretty interesting,” said Castaneda, “Especially with all of the rain. Overall we had a great result and I can’t wait for the finale at my home track in Sonoma!”

Troy is supported by Bariani Olive Oil, The Studios, De Anza Services, Marin Karting, SSC West, April Phillips Design Works and Infinity Karting.

For more information about Troy Castaneda and for sponsorship opportunities please visit his website at www.troycastaneda.com.