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| November 14, 2004 News |
| EKN Trackside: Stars Finale |
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 | Alex Speed flew under the radar
to clinch the Stars ICC title
(Photo: SKI) |
The 2004 karting season came to a conclusion it grand fashion at Walt Disney World as Alex Speed (Birel) pulled off a dominating win in the ICC class at the Snap-on.com Stars of Karting Presented by the IRL Finale. Speed, who basically flew under the radar all weekend, was blindingly quick when it counted most – in today’s 26-lap Final. With the victor’s points added to his season total, Speed also claimed the ICC national championship and the #1 plate for the ’05 campaign.
Off the green flag, newly-crowned ICA champion Jordy Vorrath (Italkart) led the proceedings with Kyle Wiegand (GP), Darren Elliott (CRG), Speed and Bobby Wilson (First Kart) closely in tow. Vorrath was fast early, but as was the case in Las Vegas, his kart faded as the race ran down allowing the others to sneak through. The Canadian fought valiantly, but succumbed to the challenges of the lead pack. Speed was the first man to pull the trigger, overtaking Vorrath after systematically working his way into the runner-up position.
Once past Vorrath, Speed streaked away from the chase group, laying down some very quick laps. Elliott was the first to follow Speed’s lead past Vorrath and the veteran then mounted a late charge at the lead, although he was never able to make a serious dent in Speed’s margin.
Wiegand had the pace but was not able to drop the hammer and make the big move and after spending a number of laps behind Vorrath, his tires were all but used up after getting past the Canadian and he had nothing left for Elliott. Wiegand would go on to finish up third ahead of Bobby Wilson, who posted the fastest lap en route to a strong top five result in front of Alan Sciuto (Birel).
 | Michael Valiante congratulated
Jordy Vorrath on his ICA crown (Photo: SKI) |
In the ICA class, Vorrath ran away with the race by laying down a dominating performance that showed a 7.872-second cushion at the checker. The big story, however, was the admirable charge of young Joel Miller (Birel). Starting from the pole after a solid Prefinal win, Miller led the field from the line but a first corner fiasco dropped him all the way back to 34th place. Vorrath teamed with Italian Motors stablemate Colby Jenn to push through on the outside but it was Helmut Sanden’s aggressive inside move that caused a three-wide spread through the apex of the corner. Contact with another unidentified driver put Miller in the marbles and his engine well below the powerband. Despite working the carb needles to revive the revs, he watched as the entire field streamed by. Miller would begin his charge from 34th.
Taking over the lead for the first couple circuits was Sanden (Mach 1), before Vorrath grabbed control for good. While Vorrath was streaking away, Miller was working his way to the front, blasting by many drivers under braking into the track’s tight corners.
By the time the checkers flew, Miller had moved himself into third position with Sanden holding second after a ferocious mid-race battle with Orlado Racing teammate Lorenzo Mandarino (Mach 1). The team drivers had much different set-ups and Sanden was much stronger at the finish. With the fight going on behind him, Vorrath put an exclamation point on the ICA championship with a 7.872 second win.
Reigning SKI Young Driver of the Year Cole Whitt dominated the JICA class. Driving the new Top Kart 102 chassis, Whitt bolted to an early lead and went on to win by 6.131 seconds. Nicholas Johnston (CRG) was second and secured the JICA championship in the process. Thomas Hartsenveld Jr. (VanSpeed) was third.
 | Keith Spicer leads Daniel Morad
and Cole Whitt (Photo: SKI) |
Keith Spicer scored a big 80cc Junior win for the DL Racing Tony Kart squad after a spirited fight with Whitt. The two diced throughout the race along with Eastern Division champion Daniel Morad (Birel) and the Canadian looked to be in contention for the win early before his Birel began to suffer massive understeer problems. Morad settled for third on the podium while Whitt, running second, clinched his second major championship of the season.
The Easykart category ended up with its championship decision being made not on the racetrack, but rather in the tech shed. Johnny Johnson powered his way through the field early after battling with Carlos Duenas for a time. As his kart began to fade, Duenas’ only hope was to make the battle for the lead a three-way fight between himself, Johnson and Michael Giessen, who was coming from third. Johnson finally made it past Duenas and then checked out to cross the line first with Duenas and Giessen behind. The on-track result gave the title to Johnson as well as the $15,000 championship prize. Things went awry in the tech shed, however, when Johnson was bounced for having too short an exhaust flex pipe. As a result, Duenas was declared the winner and the champion, pocketing a $15k check from Easykart. Darin Marcus was third in the official tally after rolling consistently through the field.
 | | Carlos Duenas thinks he's won the Easykart title, and after a tech issue with the initial winner, it turns out he did (Photo: SKI) |
Starting the race day was the Cadet class and they put on what was quite possibly the best show of the day. Young Brendan Phinny (Emmick) led early but soon found himself under attack from Sergio Pena (CRG) and host of other drivers. Pena led much of the race, letting the others save their equipment for the closing laps. With two to go, action got wild with passes happening early and often. In the end, there were probably a dozen unofficial lead changes on the closing circuits but Pena led when it counted most – the end of lap 16. Will Tenney (CRG) was second while Evan Kalogiannis (Birel) came home third.
It was a solid weekend for the Stars crew at their temporary circuit in Walt Disney World with no major on-track incidents. The weekend schedule ran perfectly and each day ended on time, adding to the growing reputation of the organization’s event team.
At the end of the day, Stars officials handed out two special awards. The Jim Trueman Scholarship, a $25,000 award to be used in a car racing program, went to ICA champion Jordy Vorrath. Speed Secrets also awarded a three-day driver development program to ICC star Ron White.
All in all, the Stars crew scored a big win on the weekend. The new venue offers a great deal of potential for the series and the track, while drawing negative feedback out of the box, proved to supply ample racing room and loads of overtaking opportunities. The Stars staff is hard at work on the 2005 program and will be announcing the new schedule in the coming weeks. Watch EKN for updates as soon as they become available. |
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