Connor Iseli

2008 Race Season

December 20, 2008.   Connor was busy continuing his racing this fall.   He wrapped up the overall season championship in Rotax Junior at NTK by winning the Fall Series, to complete his season long sweep.  Connor was victorious in the Spring, Summer and Fall Series.  Connor also ran another road race weekend, for the second event in a row at Oak Hill.  He finished second in both the Saturday and Sunday events, with lapped traffic upsetting his shot at the victory.  Finally Connor had his day cut short at Eagle Canyon, in the end of year SWRA event, his stomach was bothering him all day which turned out to be appendicitis.  Connor had his appendix removed the next day.  He has recovered well and is back in school.   Connor hopes to be ready for the NTK winter series in January.  

September 21, 2008.  Connor participated in another SWRA www.swra.org road race event at Oak Hill Raceway in Henderson, TX.   Once again Connor showed his affinity for high speed racing - taking the win by over 20 seconds on Saturday and running up front for the first third of the Sunday race until dropping a wheel off the track and losing touch with the lead pack.  Still Connor was able to recover by the end for a second place finish.  

September 6, 2008.  Connor had a good night at the first race of the Fall season at North Texas Kartway in Denton, Texas.    Connor qualified on the pole and won the prefinal and final.  The latest point standings show Connor winning the Summer season and leading the points for the full year.  

August 24, 2008.   Connor raced in the second road race event of his career this time making a full weekend of the SWRA www.swra.org event on the 2.8 mile course of Texas World Speedway in College Station, TX.  After a full day of practice in the sunshine on Friday, Saturday brought rain just before Connor's race.  The race began on a wet track but almost immediately after the green flag start the clouds opened up and a strong downpour covered the track.   In quickly deteriorating conditions Connor opened a big lead over the field and was in first to take the checkered flag when the race was stopped just before the halfway point.   So Connor captured his first road race win in the rain!  

Sunday was bright and sunny much like Friday and Connor in his words, "had his best race ever".   A pack of four karts broke away from the field in front and these four swapped positions and the lead multiple times in every lap throughout the 30 minute race.   Connor estimated he made 50 passes!   At the end Connor finished second, just behind Alex Tartaglia who made a nice pass coming out of the final turn.   Overall Connor came away with a first and second place finishes in the double race weekend.  

August 2, 2008.  Connor finished 2nd in the Summer 5 Rotax Junior Final at NTK.   He had a very eventful race, after a red flag before the start to get the grid order correct Connor's kart began experiencing mechanical difficulties, still he was running a competitive 3rd place when an incident with another kart (in a different class) sent both Connor and the 2nd place kart into the grass.  Connor held on despite the ongoing mechanical problems to finish 2nd. 

July 31, 2008.  Connor has had mixed results in the NTK Summer series.   Although running very well he could only manage a 5th place finish in Summer 1 after a turn 1 incident on the start of the final dropped him all the way to the back.   Connor took Summer 2 off for vacation, then captured pole position and won the Summer 3 race in a very nice drive.  Summer 4 brought Connor a competitive 4th place finish.  Next up is Summer 5 on August 2. 

 May 10, 2008.  Connor battled mechanical problems all night in the Spring 6 event but still managed to bring home 3rd place which was good enough to give him the points championship for the 2008 Spring Series.   In the prefinal Connor had a brake linkage problem and had to leave the race in the first lap.  Starting in the back of the final - Connor had his clutch fail, but thankfully it held up long enough to finish the race in 3rd position.   

May 3, 2008.  Connor raced in the Spring 5 event at NTK.   He ran well moving up from a 5th place qualifying position, to 4th in the Prefinal, and 3rd in the Final.  During the final he made a thrilling outside pass to move up from 4th to 3rd in the very tight turn 3 of the Denton track.  Connor promptly chased down the 2nd place kart, closely challenging him the remainder of the race but he wasn't able to get past.  

April 26, 2008.  Connor raced in his first road race.  This high speed race at the new Eagles Canyon race track in Decatur, TX saw him hit speeds over 80 mph. Despite minimal practice before the race Connor had a good steady drive to a 2nd place finish. 

April 20, 2008.  Connor raced his first KART regional race of the season at JRP Speedway in Tulsa.  He had a strong weekend, qualifying 2nd, finishing 3rd in the prefinal, and battling to a 2nd place finish in the final behind two time National Champion Gabriel Bargas.

March 16, 2008.   Connor raced his first race of the NTK Spring series starting off with a nice win.  He qualified on the pole and won the prefinal and final.   In the final Connor overcame a first lap, first turn incident when the racer behind him ran over the back of his kart hitting Connor and seriously damaging his radiator.  Battling dangerously high engine temperatures as the race went on Connor balanced taking it easy on his engine and holding off the second place contender to take the win.  To the right is a picture of Connor at the top of the podium after his first win in the Junior Rotax class.

February 23, 2008.   Connor has been racing his new Jr. Rotax in the NTK Winter Outlaw series.  Despite learning a new chassis, class, tires and motor configuration he is racing very competitively.   The fourth and final NTK Outlaw race is February 24.  

December 14, 2007.  Connor has been busy in the off season testing his new kart.  For the 2008 season Connor will be racing an Arrow AX9 B-Max chassis in the Junior Rotax Class.  Here is Connor going through turn 5 at NTK in the Arrow.