Los Angeles, CA (January 29, 2010) – The West Coast was hit with heavy rain leading up to the first round of the Gatorz Challenge of Americas, but the weather would clear just in time for the start of the event.  13 year-old Raquel Martinez returned to Rotax competition after taking the last two years to focus on IKF, WKA, and CKI events.  With limited testing under her belt, she was looking forward to rebounding from a disappointing start of the 2010 season in Daytona.

The team was late to arrive on Friday for practice due to cancelled flights, but Raquel was able to make it on track for the last two sessions of the day to shake down the kart.  In the final practice session she posted the fourth fastest time.  The weather was great on Saturday with the sun out and Raquel was ready to race posting the fastest lap of the session in her Supertune USA powered Top Kart giving her the pole position for the prefinal.  The prefinal was a great battle between Louie Pagano and Raquel with the duo battling back and forth for the lead checking out from the rest of the field.  In the end Pagano just narrowly beat out Raquel for the win, but Raquel set fast lap.  The final started off looking the same with the two young stars gapping the rest of the field.  Raquel again grabbed the lead and held it for around five laps until Pagano retook the lead for good.  Raquel would end up second, a great result for her first race back in a Rotax Jr. kart.

Sunday looked to be a different day with many drivers stepping up their game.  Raquel had pole at one point during the session, but ended up in fourth just one tenth of a second off pole.  At the start of the prefinal Raquel was hung out on the outside and lost a few position, but battled her way back up to second position by the end of the seventeen lap run.  After the team made a few changes to her Top Kart Flash for the final event Raquel got the jump at the start of the race taking the lead.  After leading the first few laps Raquel would be passed for the lead where she would finish the race.  Unfortunately in post race tech a part of her engine was deemed illegal.  The team has filed an appeal and will hear shortly of the results.

“I am very happy with the results this past weekend and I am determined to get my first win of the season at CalSpeed in February,” commented Martinez.  “I have to thank Chris Wehrheim and Corey Pollock for giving me an awesome setup all weekend.  Louie was on his game this weekend, but I am confident we can win at round two.”

Raquel and the team will be busy testing in the coming weeks in preperation for round two of the Gatorz Challenge of America’s at CalSpeed.  For more information on Raquel Martinez please visit www.martinezracing.com.