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| July 01, 2004 News |
| K.A.R.T. 2004 Sprint National Championships |
| Article by: Rhonda Mims-Brown |
Racing action for K.A.R.T’s Triad was heated but rewarding for many
 | | Under the lights at NTK |
The Karters of America Racing Triad (K.A.R.T.) Sprint National Championships were held June 23-26 at North Texas Kartway just north of Denton, Texas under the lights for some dramatic night racing action. Approximately 200 entries of top level racers from Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas as well as other top drivers outside of the region took to the half-mile NTK circuit to contest in 27 sprint classes over the three-day event. The racers at the event and K.A.R.T. officials wish to give special thanks to all individual class sponsors as indicated below and to Briggs and Stratton Motorsports who sponsored Triads for all 4-Cycle classes and to Grand Products who sponsored the national championship caps.
Putting together such an event is a big and often thankless job for volunteers and many have praised the hosting club North Texas Karters for doing a great job with the event. Among one of the finest tracks in the southwest, coupled with a great staff including Jon Anderson as Race Director and Tom Harris, Tom Settles and John Sefcik in tech with much help from various members, the race was well planned. With the exception of a few controversial calls, the majority of the event went over well. As always, the NTK diva Tammy Heslor was consistently behind the scenes putting her sharp feminine touch to many tasks of the show and overseeing the daunting task of scoring. Special thanks go out as well to Karla Raburn from the KART offices in Missouri for her assistance in this event.
 | Adam Johnson dominated with five wins
(Photo-Bill Heck)
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Shining brightest at the event were brothers Adam and Johnny Johnson from Marshalltown, Iowa who mastered seven class wins - a perfect score for the Johnson's in each of their classes entered. The well-known Cecil's Cafe sponsored duo has been storming the karting scene for many years and brought with them an arsenal of Birels packaged with a multitude of engines in their quest for domination. Adam scored victories in Yamaha Heavy, 80/85cc Senior Gearbox, Briggs and Stratton Animal Medium and Heavy, plus TAG Senior. Johnny finished second to Adam in the Briggs classes and took his wins in Yamaha Light and Senior Sportsman.
Local hot shoe, Devin Mauk was impressive in the younger Yamaha classes and took double wins in 2-Cycle Junior 1 Light and Heavy. Dallas Patterson also secured double wins on his home-town track in the 125cc Shifter categories of Formula 125 Stock Light and Heavy. The third of five double class winners was local racer Ansel Gaddy who won Rotax Max Junior and moved up to take the win in Junior Super Sportsman after a post race controversial DQ of Paulie Harraka who posted approximately a 5 second margin at race end. The fourth double class winner was junior racer Justin Jennings who received the Triad national trophy in Jr. 1 Super Briggs and 4-Cycle Jr. 1 Heavy. Skylar James was the final double Triad winner in 4-Cycle Junior 2 Light and in 4-Cycle Junior 2 Briggs Unlimited.
The junior class 2-cycle field was full of rising stars that unfortunately got lost in the focus over a series of technical dramas in post race tech that many hope will work its way back to a focus on the kids who participated with sportsmanship, maturity and skill throughout. Among those was Harraka who did grab a win in Junior Sportsman after the Ansel brothers who had a commanding lead, fell victim to a post race DQ. Harraka, a multi-time WKA National Champion who came all the way from New Jersey to test the Texas waters, took the overall class win.
Local talent Brandy Edwards finished second to Harraka in Junior Sportsman, two-tenths off Harraka at the end. She was quite proud of the way she battled out the last four laps with a high caliber driver, often swapping without a scratch. She also started outside Harraka in Junior Super Sportsman, hung in for second until dropping a wheel in turn three. She rejoined the field at the back of the pack and Edwards had the spectators in awe has she charged back through the 10 kart pack to finish sixth. Needless to say, she was glowing with pride at the scales.
 | Devin Mauk heads up Junior 1 2-Cycle Light on Saturday
(Photo-RMB) |
There were a slew of excellent runs for position in Jr. Super Sportsman but about four drivers contesting for third through fifth ended up in an off track excursion just out of the turn two sweeper. Missouri’s Tommy Nigro, who had been a hard charger among this group but one of the drivers out of the contest displayed exceptional sportsmanship at the scales despite his disappointment.
Rotax Junior ace, Justin Melton, who’s been doing some time in Sprint Cars at Cowtown Speedway this season, moved up officially to the International Class and took the win over his Egyptian World Finals teammate, Nathan Mauel, both on hometown turf. D.J. Ortiz mastered the Masters class. Rotax National Champion, Jordon Musser didn’t have his best of times at his hometown track suffering from a broken chain in the first heat that put him to the back but eventually situated his Hearn Avanti in fifth on the starting line up for the main. Another controversy ensued in this final heat as well where we heard through the grapevine he was a DQ for driving infractions; however, this is unconfirmed and not indicated in the material supplied to us.
Other winners included Andrew Martz who took the win in 80/85cc Junior Gearbox, Steve Murray in Super Stock Heavy and was a lone racer thus winner in Super Stock Light. Pierce Baldus, the adorable son of enduro ace Bernie Baldus took a win in 4-Cycle Junior 1 Light, and Jon Boldt in 4-Cycle Jr. 2 Heavy was also single class winner.
In Unlimited, it appeared that Murray was well on his way to another win after dominating each heat of this class; however, Murray’s exhaust came loose about five laps from the end and was caught by Jonathan Beason who contested the Unlimited monsters with his new 100cc Maxter ICA/CRG set up. Beason passed Murray, got confused over the flags being shown, and mistakenly took the wrong flags as the checkered and pulled in to the scales. Although he was upset over this confusion and felt the flagman should have displayed the black flag to Murray much earlier, both he and his father Mike handled the loss very professionally and chalked it up to a valuable lesson in the knowledge books – make sure it’s the checkered and when in doubt, keep your foot in it! Third place driver Sean Owens, took the overall win in this class as a result of both Beason and Murray’s misfortune.
Professional photographer Bill Heck has graciously supplied with photos for a special gallery. The gallery can be found by clicking on the “Photos” link on the top navigation bar, once inside the gallery, select “Kart Sprint Nationals.”
Final Results
Advanced Cast Stone - Kids Kart Participants
Ethan Aberg
Noah Nigro
T.J. Michael
Miranda Gaubatz
Caleb Moser
Mason Wolfe
Michael Kaltenbaugh
Christopher Barngrover
Taylor Butgereit
Nolan Ramey
Bailey Ring
Seth Blake
Joey Saldivar
North Texas Kartway - 2-Cycle Junior I Light
1. Devin Mauk
2. Connor Iseli
3. Justin Jennings
4. Cody Humphreys
5. Clay Settles
6. Tyler Thomas
7. Mario Nigro
8. Erin Sims
9. Alex Tartaglia
10. Pierce Baldus
North Texas Kartway - 2 Cycle Junior I Heavy
1. Devin Mauk
2. Clay Settles
3. Tyler Thomas
4. Connor Iseli
5. Jake Mitchell
6. Justin Jennings
7. Nigel Saurino
8. Evan Brown
9. Alex Tartaglia
10. Pierce Baldus
North Texas Kartway - Junior Sportsman
1. Paul Harraka
2. Brandy Edwards
3. Brennen Wears
4. Skylar James
5. Nathan Vaughn
Custom Powder Coating - 80/85cc Junior Gearbox
1. Andrew Martz
2. Colin Snyder
3. Nick Boulle
4. Jon Boldt
R P Motorsports - Yamaha Heavy
1. Adam Johnson
2. Justin Melton
3. Jonathan Beason
4. Rick Walker
5. Travis Hammond
Beason Motorsports - Rotax Max Junior
1. Ansel Gaddy
2. Gabriel Bargas
3. David Holland
4. Renee Tharp
5. Michelle Melton
KAM Karting Supply - Rotax Max International
1. Justin Melton
2. Nathan Mauel
3. Roy Morrison
4. Heinz Meyer
5. Lindsey Adams
North Texas Kartway - Junior Sportsman Super
1. Ansel Gaddy
2. Austin Gaddy
3. Brennen Wears
4. Bobby Morrison
5. Skylar James
6. Brandy Edwards
7. Tommy Nigro
8. Cole Sims
9. James Cypert
10. Kyle Riedel
De Boulle Jewelry - Rotax Max Masters
1. D.J. Ortiz
2. Dave Morrison
3. Ron Brown
4. Dell Cummings
North Texas Kartway - Yamaha Light
1. Johnny Johnson
2. Jonathan Beason
3. Michael Pattison
4. Wes Heslor
North Texas Kartway - Sr. Sportsman
1. Johnny Johnson
2. Adam Johnson
3. Jonathan Beason
4. Michael Pattison
5. Wes Heslor
North Texas Kartway - Super Stock Light
1. Steve Murray
North Texas Kartway - Super Stock Heavy
1. Steve Murray
2. Richard Bryant
3. Len Bara
North Texas Kartway - Unlimited
1. Sean Owens
2. Rusty Mitchell
3. David Blake
4. Jonathan Beason
5. Jared Brim
North Texas Kartway - 80/85cc Sr. Gearbox
1. Adam Johnson
2. Quentin Templeton
3. Craig Templeton
North Texas Kartway - Formula 125 Stock Light
1. Dallas Patterson
2. Jonathan Beason
3. Derek Denman
4. Donavon Schrum
North Texas Kartway - Formula 125 Stock Heavy
1. Dallas Patterson
2. Donavon Schrum
3. Derek Denman
4. John Denman
Land Survey Companies - 4 Cycle Jr. 1 Light
1. Pierce Baldus
2. Jon Werthen, Jr.
Land Survey Companies - 4 Cycle Jr. 1 Heavy
1. Justin Jennings
2. Pierce Baldus
North Texas Kartway - 4 Cycle Jr. 2 Light
1. Skylar James
2. Jon Boldt
3. Haley Cypert
North Texas Kartway - 4 Cycle Jr. 2 Heavy
1. Jon Boldt
2. Skylar James
3. Haley Cypert
North Texas Kartway - Briggs & Stratton Animal Medium Exp.
1. Adam Johnson
2. Johnny Johnson
3. Bernie Baldus
4. Mike VanNoy
North Texas Kartway - Briggs & Stratton Animal Heavy Exp.
1. Adam Johnson
2. Johnny Johnson
3. Robert Downing
4. Bernie Baldus
North Texas Kartway - Jr. 1 Super Briggs
1. Justin Jennings
2. Pierce Baldus
North Texas Kartway - Jr. 2 Super Briggs Unlimited
1. Skylar James
2. Jon Boldt
3. James Cypert
Intrepid / Champion Racing - TAG Senior Exp.
1. Adam Johnson
2. Nathan Mauel
3. Johnny Johnson
4. Lindsey Adams
5. Justin Melton
6. Sean Owens
7. Rusty Mitchell
8. Roy Morrison
9. Noe Chapa
10. Ron Brown
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