Cayden Lapcevich: Update

As many of you know, Cayden Lapcevich - the son of CASCAR / road racing veteran Jeff Lapcevich - is becoming active as a racer. Jeff regularly sends us updates on Cayden's progress, and we're happy to pass them along here. Thanks Jeff and good luck Cayden!
G.

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Hi Greg, I just wanted to drop a short note to let you know how we made out this past weekend.

The Syracuse Quarter Midget Club hosted the Region 2 Championships this weekend. Region 2 consists of nine tracks from NY, NJ, PA, DE, and MD. You must compete in a regional event to be able to qualify for the Grands in June which is a week long National event which will attract likely over 500 cars from across the country.

This was our first trip to an event of this size. There were nearly 200 cars entered among the different classes. Cayden's class; Jr. Honda, had 11 cars of which only eight would qualify for the A-Main.

Although there were only 11 cars, there were some pretty heavy hitters which included Anthony Losurdo who was the 2005 Region 2 Champ, 2005 Syracuse Co-champ, and 2005 Oswego champ, Jonathon Laureigh who was the 2005 Wall Speedway Champ, Austin O'Reilly who was the 2005 Syracuse Co-champ, and Oswego runner up, as well as 2006 A-Main winners Kyle Demo from Fulton, NY and Derek Krum from Wall, NJ.

Due to bad rain, Friday's practice was washed out but we were given one five minute round of practice on Saturday morning. It turned out to be good for us since Cayden was fighting a bug or something on Friday and really didn't feel up to racing. He spent much of the day sleeping in the motorhome and I considered taking him home but he wanted to stay and race and assured me that he would feel better for Saturday.

Saturday morning he felt a little better but was still not quite himself. He made it out for the one short practice but I could see that he wasn't really into it. After practice he went back to the motorhome to rest before time trials.

For time trials, the kids are given three warm-up laps and the three timed laps. The top four cars from time trials advance directly to the A-Main and the rest to the B-Main since there were only 11 this time. Cayden really picked it up in qualifying and posted the fourth fastest time behind pace setter Anthony Losurdo, Kyle Demo, and Jonathon Laureigh. This was great since there was a four car inversion for the A-Main that put Cayden on the pole.

Sunday morning Cayden was feeling much better and him and I watched the B-Main which was won by eight year old Austin O'Reilly of Mexico, NY.

Cayden took the green for the A-Main from the pole and began to pull away from the field. He was wicked fast, lapping consistently below the track record. By midway through the 30 lap feature Anthony Losurdo had moved to second from his fourth place starting spot followed by Kyle Demo in third. A caution for a spin bunched the field together and Cayden got beat on the restart and fell to second behind eight year old Anthony Losurdo.

Cayden would maintain the second spot tight on the bumper of Losurdo's car as the two of them separated themselves from the rest of the field. I think Cayden was actually quicker but was reluctant to make a move for the lead after being involved in a couple small altercations earlier in the season while attempting to pass. At only six years old he was the youngest in the field and the least experienced but he is certainly making an impression. He finished comfortably in second on the tail of Losurdo followed distantly by Kyle Demo.

They impounded the top three cars from each class. We had to remove the engines and after all the features were run they began tear down. Tech didn't finish until nearly midnight at which time they had the trophy presentation.

This Friday is a regular race at Syracuse and then a regular show at Oswego on Sunday. More to come.

Thanks,
Jeff