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| October 17, 2003 News |
| Jim Russell Karting Series Approaches 2003 Finale |
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Big Prizes on the line at Infineon Raceway this weekend
 | What an awesome shot taken at the Infineon's first Stars of Tomorrow race.
(Photographer Unknown) |
The bulk of $75,000 worth of series prizes will be determined Oct 19 at Infineon Raceway as the 2003 Jim Russell Championship Karting Series prepares for it’s last event of the year. Nine Race Driver School courses will be awarded this weekend and another eight school seats will be awarded in a lottery to be held November 23. In addition, 14 classes will crown their champions this weekend with additional sponsor payouts from $200 to $500 in good-as-cash gift certificates for each of the class winners.
Class Previews
KLS Racing ICC Pro: Alex Speed may be the 2003 SKUSA ICC Pro ProMoto Champion, but he has a real battle on his hand in his attempt to add the Russell Championship to his list of successes. Speed holds a slim lead over veteran Brett Buckwalter and these two outstanding talents are expected to put on a real show this weekend. The Russell ICC Pro class has been a tough go for all the series drivers with five different winners in six races this year. The only double winner of the year has been Speed who won the first two races of the season. In the next four races, there were four different winners including Buckwalter, Clayton Snow, Eddie Caballero and last month’s Main event winner, Tom Dyer. Eddie Caballero sits third in points and is leading the Marin Karting ICC Pro Rookie award.
Racing Karts of North America ICC Masters: Craig Corwin goes into this last race with a bit of breathing room since both of his chief rivals, Ethan Wilson and Mark Buren went out of the last race in a first lap incident. But ICC Masters is expected to field its normal grid of 20 karts, thus providing no end of great racing action that has been characteristic to this class all season.
Marin Karting Junior Sportsman: 12 year old Alexander Rossi holds a comfortable lead in this classic Junior class, but the battle on the track will be for 2nd through 5th between Brad Lloyd, Matt Hauff, Nic LeDuc and Palmer Sanderson.
Kart Connection TaG Light and TaG Heavy: Tag Light has been the real battle royal all year amongst the best young up-and-coming clutch kart racers. Racing luck has bit all of the top runners at least once this year in TaG Light, thus there is no position safe going into this premier non-shifter class. Garret Peterson has a moderate but uneasy lead over three race winner Oreste Gonella. Jaime Belliveau holds a slim lead over Jimmie Johnson for third. But the real battle will be for 5th in the championship and thus a shot at a TRC Racing School seat between Terry Havey, Damion Shanoian and Anthony Snow.
Mach 1 125 Moto Masters: The tightest points battle will come in 125 Moto Masters with Rob Soares holding a paper thin lead over George Traveres.
Mach I Junior 80: Dane Cameron also holds the slimmest of leads over first year shifter driver JR Hildebrand with the Championship going to which driver beats the other to finish line first. Andy Gillespie has made it a three driver affair all year long, but he is in need of some bad luck with the 2 leaders if he is to walk off with the championship at the end of the day.
California KartWorld ICC Amateur: Jon Allen has locked up this class and will be making his first start ICC Pro this weekend. This leaves the door wide open for a new winner this weekend. JD Daniels holds a slim lead for the second spot over Mike Agustus and Casey Scherer. The final podium position still is to be determined between Matt Alcorn and Diego Valverde.
G-Force Motorsports 80 Limited/80 Masters: Nelson Richardson has been the class of the 80 Masters field ever since Craig Corwin moved up to ICC Masters. But the real battle this weekend will be for 2nd overall in the championship between JP Cadoux, Larry Fraser and Steve Petersen. 80 Limited points leader Juan Pitta has to avoid a disaster to earn the championship this weekend in 80 Limited. But the real battle will be for second overall between Andrew Green, Jeff Smith, Bryon Colomb and Brandon Rugg.
LeMans Karting Rotax International/Rotax Masters: After a slow start in the number of entries at the beginning of the year, numbers have been coming back slowly over the last couple of races and with it the return of some competitive racing. Eric Gigliotti has the Rotax International class all tied up, but expect some strong race pressure from January Grove and Tante Aguinaldo. Frank Hsieh has also clinched the Rotax Masters Class, but mid season newcomer Mark Vecchirelli wants to make it two wins in a row and finish the season strong.
Practice, by groups, is all day Saturday with qualifying, 10 lap Pre-final and 15 lap Main all on Sunday. Contact Ric Shaw at rshaw@jimrussellusa.com or call (707) 829-9366.
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