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| July 30, 2009 News |
| Rock Island Grand Prix – The Top-15 Performances - Numbers 10 and 11 |
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The Rock Island Grand Prix - recognized as the world’s largest street race - will be celebrating its 15th anniversary when Labor Day 2009 weekend rolls around this September. From the previous 14 events - beginning with a cold, rainy inaugural race in 1994 and rolling through to last year’s bright, sunny and historic weekend – we have assembled a number of memories that drivers, crew members, and spectators will remember for a lifetime. To help commemorate the 15th running of the popular event, eKartingNews.com - along with the help of RIGP historians - has created a list of the 15 best driver performances of the Rock Island Grand Prix. We’ll be unveiling them as we draw closer toward the September 5-6 event, looking at numbers 10 and 11 today.
 | Gary Lawson carried the checkered flag three times in 2005
(Photo: EKN) |
Number 10 - Lawson Bags Three for Second Time at RIGP - 2005
Winning a race at the Rock Island Grand Prix is a tough enough task to accomplish on its own, however, to win multiple main events on the same day is certainly a remarkable achievement. Only a limited number of drivers have had what it takes to pull off this feat, but no one has matched all-time RIGP winner Gary Lawson. In 2003, the veteran street racer steered himself to an impressive triple-win weekend, and he then returned two years later to match the trifecta to bring his RIGP win total to eight in just his third visit to the famed street race.
First off in ’05 event, the Mentor, Ohio driver put in a dominant performance in the 2-Cycle Senior Sportsman division. Earning the pole position with a new qualifying record for the class, Lawson drove to a nine-second victory (the largest margin of the event) while posting the record fast lap during the 12-lap event.
The next win came in 2-Cycle Super Sportsman, where the then 22-year old established a one-second advantage at the start of the race and held it until a red flag. Duplicating his first great start, Lawson got an even better one on the restart and then posted new record fast laps for the race to get to the line first by just over a second from Mike Welsh.
Lawson’s third win of the event came in the ‘Rumble at The Rock’ division, set for the 4-Cycle Animal Heavy group. Starting seventh, Lawson got another great start to knife his way to the lead when the field came by the scoring loop for the first time. Lawson was able to outrun polesitter and former race winner Billy Dickson by two seconds for the victory.
Driving a Margay at the time, Lawson also added two pole positions in the 4-Cycle Stock Medium and Heavy categories, running to a third place in Heavy while recording a DNF on the final lap of the Medium feature after clipping a barrier. The three wins earned by Lawson in 2005 would not be his last as we will see him later on in the RIGP Top-15 list, highlighting yet another stellar performance.
 | | Jason Birdsell made the cover of 'The Inside Track' following his five win performance at the 1998 RIGP, seen here congratulated by his father Mike |
Number 11 - Birdsell Wins Record Five of Nine Races - 1998
Street racing tends to bring out the ‘Ironman’ in many racers, as they jump in feet first by running multiple classes. And by multiple, we don’t mean three or four….think eight or nine. The leader for this generation in the karting ironman alumni might very well be Jason Birdsell. Now a Margay Racing Products lead technician, Birdsell was a long-time driver for the company alongside his father and karting legend Mike Birdsell. The 1998 RIGP event was the place that Jason put his name into the record books when he earned five feature wins during one extra-special Sunday afternoon.
Birdsell, with the help of his father, uncle and fellow karter Jason Knuteson, contested in nine different classes on the weekend aboard four different karts. During that time at the Rock Island GP, the ‘flat-head’ 4-Cycle and 2-Cycle ‘pipe’ divisions had three different weight categories - Light, Medium and Heavy - and Birdsell competed in all six, including a kart for the 2-Cycle Senior Sportsman and 2-Cycle Super Sportsman and a ride in 2-Cycle Controlled Super Stock.
“I hardly ever had a chance to go back to the pits,” Birdsell recalled when speaking with EKN. “I would get off of the scale and walk up to the grid for my next race, hoping a kart would be there! I remember I crashed my pipe kart kind of bad (bent steering wheel and steering shaft, nerf bars, tie rods, etc.) pretty early in the day and when that class came around again I didn’t even know if they had gotten it fixed. My mechanic, Jason Knuteson (former WKA Triple Crown winner and F500 SCCA Runoffs champion in 2008), was on the grid waiting for me and told me how he had been thrashing to get it back together. He didn’t look too pleased, but I went out and won that class. I kept my dad, my uncle, and Jason busy all day. I had the easy part!”
Win number one came in the 2-Cycle Controlled Super Stock where he established a solid lead early on to take the victory over fellow Rock veteran Scott Evans. Birdsell then went on to win four in a row. The Stock Medium main saw possibly the best race of the event as Birdsell edged Matt Riggs at the line for the win. Later, he would again outrun Riggs in the Stock Light category. He then beat Mike Welsh for the Senior Sportsman victory and went on to lead the last 11 laps for the Super Sportsman win.
In total, he earned five wins, a third, an eighth, two DNFs due to incidents, five pole positions and four fast lap honors. The five wins gave Birdsell a total of seven RIGP victories on his career, one more than Eric Jones at that time, who will be seen later on the Top-15 list.
Birdsell would go on to bring his total up to 11 (second overall entering 2009) with his last two wins coming in 2001. The St. Joseph, IL native last competed at the Rock in 2007, having contested every RIGP until last year. Birdsell sits third in the top money winner standings with $11,400 earned, which is an outstanding number considering that fact that he has never contested a headline class.
12 - Scott Speed Wins King of the Streets - 2002
13 - Nelson Philippe Wins 125cc Semi Pro - 2002
14 - Alan Rudolph Bids Farewell to RBI with King of the Streets Win - 2006
15 - Loniewski Comes from Nowhere to Win TaG Senior in the Wet - 2005 |
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