MONTECALVO SCORES FIRST WIN AT ROAD ATLANTA
February 24, 2009
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New Jersey native, Frankie Montecalvo had a busy but successful weekend racing in both the Enduro and Sprint race at Road Atlanta. In his first ever visit to the famed 2.5 mile road course located in Northeast Georgia, 18-year-old Montecalvo began his "rookie" weekend scoring a 1st in class and placing 2nd overall in the Atlanta Regions 6 hour Enduro race held on Saturday piloting the #3 Kinetic Motorsports / Luna – C sponsored BMW 330i. Montecalvo then went on to capture a win in the SCCA Sprint race on Sunday.
Montecalvo's first laps around the track took place on Friday as he participated in the official Road Atlanta test day. Montecalvo, with direction from his driving coach and mentor Gunnar Jeannette, worked throughout the day to learn all of the nuances of this challenging road course. Working with MoTec data and the Chase Cam video, Montecalvo got up to speed quickly with the other participants in the STU class.
On Saturday morning, Montecalvo qualified the #3 BMW in fourth position. Driving a flawless first stint, he handed the car over to co-driver Jeannette while in third position overall and second in class. Montecalvo took a very short break before his next stint of over two hours behind the wheel. With only an hour left in the race, Jeannette resumed driving duties and set a new track record in the STU class posting a 1.36:592. The duo crossed under the checkered flag capturing a 2nd place finish and setting the pace for Sunday's Sprint race.
The following day, after using the morning qualifying session as a warm up session only, Montecalvo started 13th in the SARRC Sprint race. Upon the start, Montecalvo was cautiously aggressive in the first lap moving into 4th position. By the third lap, Montecalvo made his way into the lead and never looked back winning the 30 minute Sprint race by over 10 seconds scoring his first win in a sports car!
"We are very excited about the talent and potential Frankie has shown.", stated Ed Hall, Team Manager for Kinetic Motorsports. "Our drivers and crew are looking forward to Frankie joining our KONI Challenge team in the near future to contend for race wins and championships."
Kinetic Motorsports next race will be the Grand-Am Series, KONI Challenge at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 15th.
ABOUT KINETIC GROUP
Kinetic is an automotive group that includes Kinetic Motorsports, Kinetic-Sunbelt Engines, and Kinetic Speed Shop. Kinetic Motorsports taps into every aspect of professional and amateur racing, from car builds to prep and trackside support. Every resource needed to develop, manage and run a professional race team in any series is located onsite. Kinetic-Sunbelt Engines have powered amateur and professional racers to numerous championships in North America. Kinetic Speed Shop caters to aftermarket street performance. Kinetic's 42,000 square foot, state-of-the-art showroom and race complex is located in Buford, Georgia, just 15 minutes from Road Atlanta. More information can be found online at www.kssmotorsports.com.
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