Sonoma, California
September 13, 2008
PHOTO GALLERY

A trip to Sonoma’s Infineon is a welcome journey to the best motorsports facility on the west coast.  The FX Racing crew set sites on the final round of the PKC North series as a final regular season race before the famed SuperNationals.  Not with out excitement, the Monster Energy/Makita drivers took front and center for the northern region competitors.

Tough Crowd
Fresh off his S3 Championship title at Santa Maria, Philip Conte (Monster Energy/Makita/Trackmagic/Mid-Cities Honda) was looking to gauge his pace and season development with the northern California counter parts.  Running the Infineon Kart Track backwards for the first time, Conte found the pace quickly and started working on race setup. 

Leaving a bit on the table, Conte only managed to claim P4 on the grid for qualifying, just behind teammate Jim Barnes.  Conte put in steady run to pick up P3, but was sent to the back for a driver equipment infraction.  Heat 2 the Monster/Makita driver moved up to P5 from starting in the rear - a solid starting position in the main.  The big Spec Honda field looked great as 22 karts took the green at the standing start.  Conte diced back and forth in the opening laps battling for position before settling back into the fifth position.  The Lakewood, California driver made steady progress to close in on his teammate Barnes and made a pass for position in the final laps.

Barnes at Home Track
San Francisco resident Jim Barnes (Monster Energy/Makita/ Trackmagic/EnVista) finally had a chance to sleep in his own bed for a race weekend.  Commuting to all the ProKart Challenge SoCal events has definitely put Barnes on a busy travel schedule.  Moving up in weight to the heavier S4 Class, Barnes took to the track and class well qualifying in the third spot despite never visiting the Sonoma track.  Barnes raced well with teammate Conte to secure P3 in Heat 1, but slipped a spot in to fourth in Heat 2.

Barnes rocketed to the front pack in the Main, however tires and setup started to become an issue about mid-race.  Barnes did his best to hold on, but it proved to be too much as dropped one spot further to P5.

Montgomery Moves into G1
First year shifter pilot Roy Montgomery (Monster Energy/Makita /O’Connell Racing) has had a steady progression in 2008 and has set a lofty goal competing in G1 at the SuperNationals.  With the preparation, Montgomery set his sight on NorCal drivers.  Montgomery found pace with his moto package on the ICC favorable track.  Progression on the day was halted with a piston ring failure in the second heat, causing terminal engine damage.  Without skipping a beat, Montgomery took off to Utah managing the Rolex Grand-Am team, O’Connell Racing, in the season finale.

Long Trip, Short Race
San Diego’s Steve Wiener (Monster Energy/Makita/Trackmagic) had a tough trip to Sonoma.  After working through some engine issues on Friday’s test day, the TaG Masters driver was set for the race day. Wiener and tuner Kyle Kuntze nabbed the setup for the first heat race and were confident in their new found speed.  It didn’t last long as a first lap incident bought Wiener an ambulance visit and ended his day.  A tough season no doubt.

The FX Racing Makita Team is busy preparing for the SKUSA SuperNationals at The Rio November 20-23. The team stays at the leading edge of the sport with support from Monster Energy, Makita, K&N Air Filters, Bell Racing and Trackmagic. Stayed tuned to the FX Racing Makita team for news and be sure to check out the new Makita Action Sport website at www.makita.com