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| May 20, 2005 News |
| EKN Trackside: Stars of Karting - New Castle – Friday Report |
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The weekend is underway at the very impressive New Castle Motorsports Park as the second Eastern Division round of the Snap-on Stars of Karting Presented by the IRL hit the track. After a rough day on Thursday that saw the area get hammered by thunderstorms, the weather was a little better today. Heavy clouds still hang over the region but, thankfully, there was no rain on any of the radar screen.
The paddock area is packed this weekend as all the big teams from the east are in town, including Canada’s PSL Karting and First Kart.com and U.S. squads like DL Racing, Champion Racing and MRP. With a total of 160 entries actually at the track, the largest class is ICC with a strong grid of 45 drivers. All the top guns from the Eastern Division are on hand with Wesley Boswell (Birel), Josh Schreiber (Biesse) and Kyle Wiegand (GP) prepped to take a run at the top of the podium. There are also a few big-name Western Division interlopers here as well as Moran winner Jason Bowles (Tony Kart) is being joined by Ron White (Top Kart) and Lorenzo Mandarino (CRG). Mandarino is using this event as a “make-up” for his missed race at Moran. He and several other Stars regulars were forced to miss the second round of the Western Division due to a scheduling conflict with Skip Barber National Championship series. The second largest class in New Castle is the JICA category with 39 drivers on hand this weekend.
Early reports from the paddock are that the track is coming in very nicely. After the heavy rains earlier in the week, the asphalt was very green this morning. Joel Miller, here driving making his debut with the CompCor/Tony Kart team, told Super Kart Illustrated Editor Tim Blaney that the track was ‘like a street course’ thanks to the lack of grip. However, later in the day, the grip had improved and Intrepid ICA driver Phil Giebler, for example, had dropped his quick time by over three seconds.
 | Troy Hottmann topped the ICC charts at the end of day
(Photo: Super Kart Illustrated) |
As is tradition with the Stars program, the day ended with two timed sessions for all the classes. These runs serve a dual purpose as they allow everyone to see who’s fast and they also allow Stars Timing and Scoring chief Meagan Williams to confirm that everything is kosher with the AMB system.
In the ICC class, Boswell set the standard for the rest of the field in the first timed session as he clocked off the fastest lap of Group A with a time of 1:02.195 seconds. Canadian Daniel Morad (First Kart) looked good in second, ahead of Lorenzo Mandarino (CRG) on the timing chart. Jan Valez-Walter (CRG) was the fastest in Group B, setting the second quickest lap overall.
In the second session, a number of new drivers stepped up with C-G Racing leader Troy Hottmann (Merlin) running the quickest time of 1:02.235. Several drivers saved their best for late in the session as the fast time changed hands many times after the checkered flag had flown. White finished up second at 1:02.400 while Ryan Kinnear (Birel) was third, 0.016 seconds behind White. CompCor’s Bowles continued to push and by the end of the final session, he was back in seventh, a half-second off Hottmann’s pace. The “B” Group was clearly slower today as Valez set the fast lap at 1:03.091 – a run that would be 14th when the groups were combined. Making her return to Stars competition is Canadian Juliana Chiovitti. The Birel driver was second in her group with a time of 1:03.209. With the track coming in and better weather on the way, the track record set last year is definitely in danger.
Before being sent off track at the opening round in Norman back in March, Johnny Johnson (Kosmic) was quick in ICA final and he hasn’t backed down since that departure. Johnson went out and set the fastest lap time (1:04.761) of the first ICA session to put himself ahead of Moran double winner Giacomo Patrono (Biesse) and Michael Ryall (Swiss Hutless). In the last session for the ICA drivers, Ryall dropped the hammer for the top spot with a smoking 1:04.590. The British driver was followed by Giebler and Patrono in the final order.
In Easykart, Guillermo Freile led the charge in the first session with a 1:05.810 to sit over three tenths clear of Florida’s Ryan Fowler and New York’s Paul Harraka. In session two, Harraka stepped to the forefront to pace the 16-kart grid over Andre Villarreal and Dominic Sheer.
 | British driver Michael Ryall ripped off the quickest ICA lap time
(Photo: Super Kart Illustrated) |
The JICA class is impressive with 39 entries and in the opening run, Jacob Neal (CRG) continued the momentum from his Moran win to post the fastest time with a 1:07.858. First Kart’s Zach Schiff finished up second in his JICA debut while PSL’s Cody Jolly (CRG) was third ahead of Gustavo Yacaman (First) and Brett Smrz (Intrepid). In the final session of the day, Yacaman lowered the category’s mark to a 1:07.559 to edge Norman winner Xavier Coupal (Tony Kart) for the top of the chart. Steven Arens (Intrepid) was third ahead of Richard Benitez (Kosmic) and Schiff.
After a light showing in Moran, the 80 Junior class made a bit of a comeback with 21 drivers making the show in New Castle. Leading the way today was Canadian Lucas Smith (First Kart) with a very impressive 1:05.389 second run. RC20/Team Topkart’s Levi Roberts battled back after his flip in Moran to put himself in the hunt this weekend, turning the second quickest time at 1:05.663. The class looks closely matched with 10 drivers within one second of Smith.
Despite the fact that the Cadet category was the biggest field in Moran, a shorter grid of 19 young drivers are on hand this weekend. Leading the way was Steve Nemeth (Nevoso), clocking a 1:16.740 lap with Cody Robinson (Topkart) right on his heels, just 0.003 seconds back. Sebastien Ordonez (Nevoso) rounded out the top three with a 1:16.911.
The first official day of competition begins in the morning (Saturday) and we’ll be back tomorrow evening with a complete report. The trackside wireless Internet hook-up at the track went down today and should it get repaired for tomorrow, we’ll post update on the EKN Forum under the ‘Official Stars New Castle’ thread. |
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