PLYMOUTH, Wis. — Coyote Motorsports racers continue to roll through 2023 and wins continue to rack up. After this past weekend at the Briggs & Stratton Motorplex at Road America, one of our youngest talents has been added to this year’s win column.
AJ Stoner of Columbus, Ind., joined Cade Jaeger as a Coyote winner in the 2023 Route 66 Sprint Series by racing to a big win Sunday, July 9 at Road America on his No. 214 A-Maxx Racing Coyote Kryptonite.
Route 66 has been a premier karting series in the Midwest for several decades. In recent years the series added 206 Sportsman, Junior and Senior to their class structure and the 4-cycle divisions have seen solid entry counts this year at opening rounds of the predominately 2-cycle series at New Castle and Road America.
Stoner drove to victory in the Briggs 206 Sportsman final Sunday, winning the highly contested 20-lap final over a tough 19-kart field.
Jaeger, who finished P4 on his Coyote Zenith in 206 Junior on Sunday, was a Route winner in 206 Junior final competition at the series’ 2023 opener in May at New Castle. He also won Sunday’s KA100 Junior final at Road America.
Stoner’s Route 66 win was special for a couple of reasons. It marked the 10-year-old’s first win on the Coyote cadet chassis — the Kryptonite — after he helped with the development of the kart throughout the early months of the year. And the win gave the Kryptonite it’s first triumph on a national-level stage after recent new development of the chassis.
Stoner is one of many drivers who competes under the A-Maxx Racing tent. A-Maxx is a family-owned Indiana-based team that fields karts for many different racers of all ages and experience levels.
A-Maxx and Coyote Motorsports formed a partnership earlier this year when the team’s senior driver and coach Adam Maxwell first ran a Coyote Zenith at the CKNA Spring Nationals at Charlotte Motor Speedway in March. The partnership has evolved to include a renewed focus on the Kryptonite as A-Maxx’s team includes a number of fast young cadet and junior sportsman racers including Stoner.
A-Maxx owner Charles Maxwell gave us his thoughts on the Kryptonite after this past weekend’s win with Stoner.
“Our relationship with Coyote has been great so far,” Maxwell said. “The chassis have been very easy to tune, and the Kryptonite is really coming along. When we first started working with the chassis, we communicated the changes we wanted to (Coyote owner) Jim Lipari, mainly in the front end, and he’s gone above and beyond with everything we’ve asked. Now we’ve found a standard baseline setup that is working really well wherever we go, and we can make small adjustments from there depending on the track and conditions.
“With the cadet chassis, as a tuner or coach you need to be able to see the difference in the chassis’ handling when you make an adjustment, and we can do that with the Kryptonite,” Maxwell added. “We’ve got it in a good spot, and we’re looking to make one more change to the front, and I think it’ll be even better. AJ is really good at giving feedback and he’s helped a ton in getting the kart dialed in.”
Stoner had all good things to say about his new chassis after his Road America win.
“The Coyote Kryptonite was really fun to drive,” AJ said. “It allowed me to be smooth with the wheel and hit my marks on the track. It was fun to be fast and win on a chassis that not a lot of people run. We are going to continue working to make it the best 206 cadet chassis so that everyone will want to be on it!”
Maxwell also rode his Coyote Zenith in 206 Senior in between coaching A-Maxx’s younger drivers and also racing in KA100 Senior. The 17-year-old had an up-and-down weekend and ended up with a DNF in the final after finishing P5 and P6 in the pair of heat races.
Stoner and A-Maxx Racing will be in action a number of times over the next few months including CKNA North, Route 66 and WKA Gold Cup rounds at the team’s home track, Whiteland Raceway Park near Indianapolis.
To track AJ’s upcoming racing, follow Stoner Boyz Racing on Facebook and Instagram.
For more information on A-Maxx Racing, follow the team on Facebook and Instagram and visit their official website at amaxxracing.com.
Leave a Reply