Birel pilot clinches the Rotax Senior championship at Ocala finale.

The final round of the Florida Winter Tour has wrapped up at the Ocala Grand Prix in Ocala, FL and Birel has come out with yet another championship at the hands of Max Papis Racing w/ Fittipaldi driver, Fabio Orsolon. Through three weekends of action packed racing, the Florida Winter Tour has closed out this past weekend with many successful performances from several Birel Rotax drivers.

"We really did have a strong FWT program this season," said Marc Miller, Director of Brand Development for MRP Motorsport, importer for Birel. "Thanks to performances from a great group of our dealers in the region, Birel came away with several top finishes and championship results. We feel other classes would have had even stronger results, but many drivers did not compete in the entire championship, yet still scored big wins like Collin Lynn and Max Papis."

With each of the six Rotax Florida Winter Tour classes averaging over 30 starters per race, competition was intense and drivers from many Birel camps were more than up for the challenge.

Fabio Orsolon finished off a fabulous season with a 6th on Saturday and a 3rd place finish on Sunday, wrapping up the Rotax Senior FWT Championship. MRP-Birel AMERICA driver, Wesley Philips, joined the final round and put in a pair of strong podium results (3rd on Saturday and 2nd on Sunday).

In Rotax Junior, Daniel Formal put in a stellar performance by winning on Saturday and started his Birel kart from the pole position on Sunday, coming home with a solid 3rd place finish. The effort put the young MRP-Birel in 4th place in the final championship chase, just 13 points out of 3rd. Two other Birel drivers put in solid FWT performances. Austin Self (MKP-Birel) finished in 8th on Saturday and Taylor Tzouanakis (CIR-MRP/Birel) finished the season with a solid 4th place finish. The drivers would place 14th and 11th respectively in the championship out of 57 racers.

The Rotax MiniMax class was highlighted by Dore Chaponick Jr. on Saturday when he qualified his Birel 2nd and came home on the podium with a 3rd place finish. Dore would end up 7th in the championship. Also on Saturday, Grant Quinlan finished in 9th place in his first season after moving up from MicroMax. On Sunday, Colin Daley Jr. rebounded from struggles on Saturday to finish 6th in the season finale and 10th in the Rotax Mini Max FWT championship.

Two Birel drivers enjoyed top ten finishes both Saturday and Sunday and finished in the top ten in the season championship in the Rotax Micro Max class. Jesse Seeley finished 6th then 7th, finishing 9th in the FWT championship and Augusto Soto-Schirripa finished 8th then 10th, finishing out the season a respectable 7th in points.

In the Rotax DD2 class, Bill Mclaughlin Jr. finished the season out with a 7th and 6th place finish, and that kind of consistency helped him finish the Rotax DD2 FWT class championship in 6th place.

In the Rotax Masters division, Max Papis started of the weekend with a 9th place finish on Saturday. After a tough pre-final that saw the driver not finish, Papis had to work his way up from the 27th starting position to place a solid 7th place, running the fastest lap of the race along the way. Papis finished the Rotax Masters FWT championship in 8th place.

"We are looking forward to now putting what we learned running the FWT to good use in other series and in our local Rotax program,” said Tim Lobaugh, Engineer for MRP-Birel AMERICA. “We hope to continue with the success that we have started in 2009."

For more information regarding MRP Motorsport, Birel or the MRP-Birel AMERICA race program, call (269-756-9133) or contact us online at www.mrpmotorsport.com. Information regarding the Birel chassis line may be found at www.GoBirel.com.

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