The final race of the IKF Region 7 Southwest SuperSeries is in the record books and driver Eric Gunderson is the series champion in HPV 2. The month ended with another win for Eric at Tri C Karters and he secured the overall HPV 2 championship in that series as well.
Eric went into the IKF final round, held at CalSpeed Kart Track in Fontana, CA with a slight lead in the HPV 2 championship points and in 3rd place in the HPV 4 Jr. championship. He needed to finish no worse than three positions behind the driver who was second in points in HPV 2 in order to win the championship.
On Saturday, Eric's kart was fast at the start of the HPV 4 Jr final. Early in the race Eric attempted an aggressive pass to take 2nd place. Unfortunately he touched wheels with the kart he was passing and ran up over the other kart. The rear axle in Eric's kart was bent in the collision, and he was not able to continue. Eric recorded a DNF for the race and moved to 4th place in the final series points standing in HPV 4 Jr.
Sunday, however, was a different story. Eric qualified 4th for the HPV 2 race. He drove too conservatively and found himself in 7th place at the finish of the premain. Fully focused on the main, Eric began his charge toward the front as soon as the green flag dropped. He moved into the lead position by the 5th lap. Eric and two other karts made up the lead group which pulled ahead of the rest of the field. Eric soon moved up to the lead.
One of the other two developed a mechanical problem and dropped out and the race was down to the two leaders. At that point, the cap came off one of the brake master cylinders on Eric's kart, leaving Eric with about 10% brake force to work with. Eric fell to second while he was learning how to control his kart with no brakes.
Although he knew he had the speed to re-take the lead, he decided under the circumstances to focus on winning the series championshp instead. He stayed right on the rear bumper of the lead kart for the rest of the race. Coming out of the last turn on the last lap, he pulled out to pass while they headed for the checkered flag. He didn't quite make it and crossed the finish line about 2 inches behind the first place kart. But 2nd place in this race was good enough to win the series championships! In only his 3rd year in karting, Eric became an IKF Region 7 champion.
Eric Gunderson clinches the Tri C Karters 2007 HPV 2 Championship November, 2007
Eric won the October TriC Karters race in HPV 2, and extended his points lead in the series championship. Mathematically, after the October race, Eric could not lose the series championship even though the November race remained.
Eric entered the November race to record some practice laps at Apex Karting Center in preparation for the California State Championship races. Once in the lead in the main event, Eric pulled off the track to let the other karts battle it out for the November race win. This allowed the two drivers that were second and third in the series championship to determine who would end the season in 2nd place. Eric finished the HPV 2 championship series in 1st place, and won the Junior High Points Championship as well.
