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| October 31, 2004 News |
| EKN Trackside - SuperNats 8 - ICC Prefinal |
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 | Ron White
(Photo: Bill Kistler) |
If you had the chance to look at the stacked grid for the SKUSA SuperNationals ICC class in our pre-race preview last week, you knew right away that the racing in Las Vegas was going to be tight at the pointy end of the pack. In today’s Prefinals, this was most definitely the case from P2 on back to the tail, as the racing was hard-fought.
In the first ICC Prefinal, which was comprised of the odd-number qualifiers, Energy pilot Tad Funakoshi broke away early and drove to a dominating victory. The former Formula S1 SuperNationals winner is in Vegas with a privateer effort that has Tad and his father Bud tuning the kart and a new SwedeTech Pavesi powerplant. Funakoshi basically flew in under the radar, taking a surprise pole of the lead dog to give the rest of the field a new target.
Debuting the new Trackmagic FTR, Kyle Martin was slow off the line in the first heat, forcing Brett Buckwalter (Reynard) to take evasive action to avoid the Texan as the field streamed into turn one. Buckwalter slotted into second early although he eventually slipped to fourth.
Also running strong in the early going was Phil Carlson (CRG) as he moved aggressively across Martin’s bow on the opening lap. As the heat wore on, attrition began taking its toll and perhaps the biggest name in the DNF column was last year’s SuperPro winner Wesley Boswell. Just past the halfway point, Boswell rolled his Birel into the pits with a stuck SRA TM.
Funakoshi was cruising and crossed the line first, capping off a nearly perfect two days at Sam Boyd Stadium. Jason Bowles (Tony Kart) broke the stripe in second, holding the Comport banner high after he and his team had learned the horrible news this morning that their team boss Ron Huber had succumbed to the massive injuries he sustained in a scooter accident Thursday. In was a tough day for the Comport / TonyKart USA team although the entire squad handled themselves with poise.
Martin was third in the opening heat with Buckwalter in fourth ahead of Alan Sciuto (Birel) in fifth.
 | Brett Buckwalter
(Photo: Bill Kistler) |
It wasn’t all positive, however, as Funakoshi’s perfect weekend came crashing to a halt when he crossed the scales underweight. Multiple attempts on the scale pad were unsuccessful and the young Californian was disqualified, moving Bowles to P1 on the day.
While Funakoshi was learning his fate, the second ICC group was on-track with Ron White (CRG) on the point looking to score his second SuperNationals win. Early in the race, White drove away from the chase group of Italian Motors’ teammates David Jurca and Jordy Vorrath and True North’s Lorenzo Mandarino.
Normally well-disciplined on the track, the Italian Motors’ drivers duked it out early between themselves, allowing White to power away. At one point, Vorrath dove hard under Jurca at the end of the long straight. Unimpressed, Jurca laid the wood to Vorrath on the very next lap. The action on track led both drivers to be summoned to the IM trailer after the race for a meeting with the (team) principal.
White rolled to the win with Jurca, Vorrath and Mandarino in tow. Missing from the action was SSC Racing’s Darren Elliott who, while fast early, had to pull into the pits when the exhaust springs holding the pipe to the motor snapped.
With a number of drivers being relegated to the LCQ, things will be interesting tomorrow as a number of top drivers were forced to run in this final qualifier. We’ll be back tomorrow morning with complete results from the LCQ as well as our ICC predictions from the SKI Team on the final results of the ICC main on SuperSunday.
Group A
| Pos. | No. | Name | Chassis | Motor | Laps | Diff. Time | Best Laptime | In Lap| 1 | 11 | Jason Bowles | Tony Kart | Vortex | 15 | | 00:50.525 | 15 | | 2 | 96o | Kyle Martin | Trackmagic | Hi-Tech Pavesi | 15 | 1.021 | 00:50.407 | 13 | | 3 | 35 | Brett Buckwalter | Reynard | IKTL TM | 15 | 1.743 | 00:50.634 | 9 | | 4 | N1 | Alan Sciuto | Birel | SwedeTech TM | 15 | 5.546 | 00:50.601 | 6 | | 5 | 86j | Kyle Wiegand | GP | SwedeTech Pavesi | 15 | 6.343 | 00:50.637 | 12 | | 6 | 5c | Matt Jaskol | CRG | DDR TM | 15 | 6.456 | 00:50.653 | 8 | | 7 | 9y | Tom Dyer | Intrepid | SRA TM | 15 | 6.952 | 00:50.766 | 7 | | 8 | 11 | Gian Cavaciuti | GP | SwedeTech Pavesi | 15 | 8.683 | 00:50.667 | 6 | | 9 | 3h | Bobby Wilson | First Kart | Hi-Tech Pavesi | 15 | 8.834 | 00:50.644 | 6 | | 10 | 41y | Alex Speed | Birel | SwedeTech Pavesi | 15 | 9.074 | 00:50.702 | 9 | | 11 | 90c | Phil Carlson | CRG | DDR TM | 15 | 9.562 | 00:50.773 | 12 | | 12 | 6j | Darin Marcus | Birel | TM | 15 | 15.954 | 00:51.223 | 15 | | 13 | 18r | Jonathan Fecteau | Tony Kart | SH Vortex | 15 | 16.225 | 00:51.157 | 5 | | 14 | 23j | Logan Gomez | Birel | Rocket TM | 15 | 16.792 | 00:51.315 | 5 | | 15 | 9z | Chris Nixon | Italkart | Italian Motors TM | 15 | 17.44 | 00:51.153 | 8 | | 16 | 25u | Mike Beeny | Tony Kart | Msquared Vortex | 15 | 17.839 | 00:51.150 | 8 | | 17 | 26c | Michael Rossi | Top Kart | Hi-Tech Pavesi | 15 | 18.363 | 00:51.079 | 5 | | 18 | N3 | A.J. Noud | RBI | Hi-Tech Pavesi | 15 | 27.074 | 00:50.954 | 12 | | 19 | 84y | Wesley Boswell | Birel | Hi-Tech Pavesi | 7 | -- 8 laps -- | 00:50.658 | 7 | | 20 | 9o | Chris Jackson | Intrepid | Champion TM | 6 | -- 9 laps -- | 00:50.890 | 5 | | 21 | 18j | Ron Joynt | CRG | SwedeTech Pavesi | 1 | -- 14 laps -- | 00:55.265 | 1 | | DQ | 23y | Tad Funakoshi | Energy | SwedeTech Pavesi | 15 | 11:44.6 | 00:50.401 | 8 | |
Group B
| Pos. | No. | Name | Chassis | Engine | Laps | Diff. Time | Best Laptime | In Lap| 1 | 71y | Ron White | CRG | SwedeTech Pavesi | 15 | | 00:51.022 | 9 | | 2 | 92z | David Jurca | Italkart | Italian Motors TM | 15 | 1.841 | 00:50.546 | 12 | | 3 | 96l | Jordy Vorrath | Italkart | Italian Motors TM | 15 | 2.031 | 00:50.723 | 7 | | 4 | 23l | Lorenzo Mandarino | GP | TM | 15 | 2.324 | 00:50.772 | 7 | | 5 | 29 | Patrick Long | Zanardi | TM | 15 | 3.118 | 00:50.888 | 12 | | 6 | 80y | Ryan Yop | Kosmic | SwedeTech Pavesi | 15 | 4.542 | 00:50.704 | 13 | | 7 | 14y | Nick Green | PTK Tony Kart | SwedeTech TM | 15 | 5.705 | 00:50.769 | 13 | | 8 | 9 | Mathew Sofi | CRG | SRA TM | 15 | 12.02 | 00:50.938 | 6 | | 9 | 43c | John Zartarian | KRT | DDR TM | 15 | 12.284 | 00:51.258 | 6 | | 10 | 22c | Michael Abbate | Tony Kart | Vortex | 15 | 12.53 | 00:51.054 | 14 | | 11 | 8y | Justin Moon | PTK | SwedeTech TM | 15 | 12.664 | 00:50.808 | 14 | | 12 | 17 | Colin Katzakian | CRG | SwedeTech TM | 15 | 14.812 | 00:51.380 | 5 | | 13 | 19l | Jake Thompson | Italkart | Italian Motors TM | 15 | 17.985 | 00:51.042 | 6 | | 14 | 27y | Gary Carlton | Trackmagic | SwedeTech TM | 15 | 23.176 | 00:50.909 | 14 | | 15 | 3c | Ray Robinson | CRG | SRA TM | 15 | 26.395 | 00:51.112 | 9 | | 16 | 7y | Nicholas Halen | Vankart | | 12 | -- 3 laps -- | 00:52.850 | 2 | | 17 | 71c | Darren Elliott | CRG | SRA TM | 5 | -- 10 laps -- | 00:54.499 | 1 | | 18 | 17y | Joe White II | CRG | SwedeTech Pavesi | 2 | -- 13 laps -- | 00:51.282 | 2 | | 19 | N2 | Alan Rudolph | RBI | Hi-Tech Pavesi | 1 | -- 14 laps -- | 00:55.926 | 1 | | 20 | 56r | James Hinchcliffe | First Kart | CRS | 1 | 3.175 | 00:59.743 | 1 | | DNF | 9b | Scott Barnes | Intrepid | SwedeTech TM | 0 | -- 15 laps -- | --:--:--.--- | - | | DNS | 4 | Tomas Scheckter | Tony Kart | Vortex | 0 | -2:31.327 | --:--:--.--- | - | |
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