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| May 21, 2005 News |
| EKN Trackside: Stars of Karting – New Castle – Saturday Report |
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The mile of asphalt at New Castle Motorsport Park provided the venue for an exciting day of racing as the second round of the Stars of Karting Eastern Division schedule put six winners in the history books. Racing was tight and heated as the divisional championship is now off and running.
ICC
The ICC class presented yet another epic battle for supremacy with awesome racing all day. Qualifying was wild and a little surprising. In Group A, RC20/Team Top Kart manager Ron White jumped to the pole on his out-lap until Wesley Boswell (Birel) moved into the top spot. Nine minutes into the session, White came around showing the ‘number one’ sign to brother Joe, his tuner for the weekend, as he knew that he had clocked the quickest lap of the session, a smoking 1:02.244. White continued on, pulling in and out of the pits for the remainder of the session, making adjustments for the Prefinal while the rest of the top five went back to the paddock. Western Division championship leader Jason Bowles (Tony Kart) and yesterday’s quick driver Troy Hottmann (Merlin) ripped off their quickest laps just as the session ended, as both have been steadily improving throughout the weekend. Bowles moved up from the eighth to fourth while Hottmann moved into the provisional top ten into the sixth starting spot.
In Group B, Jan Valez improved on his 13th position during yesterday’s practice and surprised many when he put his PSL CRG package on the pole, moving White to the outside of row one. Valez posted his quickest time on the third lap with a 1:02.136.
Off the line to start the Prefinal, White dropped the hammer and checked out from the field. Meanwhile, Boswell bogged badly and within a couple hundred meters dropped from third to 41st. Philippe Gelinas (Sodi Kart) slotted into second with Daniel Morad (First Kart) third. With White out to a big lead, several positions were being swapped behind him. A mistake mid-race by Bowles dropped him from fourth back to ninth. He would work his way back to sixth by the end.
 | PSL driver Jan Velez was impressive en route to his first pro win at New Castle
(Photo: Super Kart Illustrated) |
With two laps to go, Boswell had moved up to 25th but there was no catching White, whose winning margin was upwards of two seconds with Gelinas in second and Valez in third. Wiegand ran much of the latter part of the race alone in fourth while Morad came home fifth.
The 45 ICC drivers lined up along the North straight at New Castle for the start of the Final. Gelinas got the holeshot with White slotting into second and Wiegand in third. It’s been five years since Top Kart has scored a major win in shifter competition and White was hoping end the draught. Within three laps, however, White was falling back, allowing Valez to jump into the mix. A failing spindle bearing was the primary culprit for his lack of pace.
With 12 laps to go, the three leaders, Gelinas, Valez and Wiegand were running nose-to-tail when Valez pulled the trigger and took the lead. By that point, White had fallen to eighth, ending any real hope of the win. The three leaders stayed clear of the secondary group for the rest of the race as they fought it out among themselves. Wiegand was the fastest car on the track but it wasn’t until the final lap that he was able to get past Gelinas for second place. Gelinas was quick in the right places and told SKI’s Rob Howden on the podium that he’d be gunning for the win tomorrow.
Scoring his first pro win, Valez gave PSL Karting their first Stars win since Charlotte last year when ’04 SKI Rising Star recipient Kevin LaCroix was victorious in the ICC main. Wiegand was second at the stripe while Gelinas gave Sodi Kart their best national ICC finish in several years. Rounding out the top five were Bowles and rookie Keith Spicer, both running Tony Kart chassis.
ICA
British driver Michael Ryall was able to keep his Swiss Hutless machine atop the charts, just as he did at the end of practice on Friday. In qualifying, he was the man to beat and earned the ICA pole with a 1:04.097 pace. Less than two minutes in the session, Joel Miller (Tony Kart) moved into the outside pole position ahead of Phillip Giebler (Intrepid).
There was a lot of action right from the start of the ICA Prefinal with Miller taking the lead ahead of Ryall and Giebler, who slotted into second and third. Moran double winner Giacomo Patrono (Biesse) was pushed off the track on the opening lap and after restarting his ATK powerplant, was well behind the field in last place. Setting several fast laps, Patrono carved through the field and finished an impressive 13th. Steve Welk (Merlin) was another driver on the move, advancing strongly from 35th to 12th after he had problems in qualifying.
At the front, Miller, Ryall and Giebler all battled with Ryall and Giebler tag-teaming Miller, demoting his Tony Kart to third. With just a few laps to go, Miller pulled to the side of the track and slowed, his Vortex motor giving way and ending his day. Ryall held off Veloce driver Damiano Chiesa for second, while Giebler took third.
 | Italian Damiano Chiesa scored an impressive ICA win
(Photo: Super Kart Illustrated) |
After a clean start in the Final, last year’s Eastern Division champion Mike Giessen took the early lead with Giebler and Chiesa taking up the chase. Moving into the fight was Patrono, who was the hard charger of the Prefinal. Also coming to the front in a big way was Miller. After losing the bottom end in the Prefinal, CompCor’s newest driver was looking recreate his drive in Orlando last year when he moved from last to third.
Chiesa would eventually check out while Giebler and Patrono began fighting for second. The pair swapped the position on several occasions until, on the back section of the course, Patrono dove under Giebler, sending them off course. This contact allowed Ryall to get by both of them into the second spot as Chiesa stretched out his lead. Things continued to change as, when receiving the white flag, Ryall began to slow as worked through the final lap, eventually stopping in the back part of the track as the bottom end of his powerplant expired. This departure handed the second step on the podium to Patrono with Giebler in third. Chris Keller (Biesse) kept his fourth starting position as Welk moved up to round out the top five. After starting 25th, Miller worked his way through the field to finish a very impressive sixth.
JICA
Norman winner Xavier Coupal (Tony Kart) looked to have secured the pole in JICA qualifying with less than a minute left in session after turning a quick 1:07.082, that is, until J3 Competition’s Richard Benitez (Kosmic) dropped the hammer, putting it all together on the final lap to steal the top spot on the final lap.
It took two attempts to get the Prefinal underway. The inside line of the first corner after the start line was clearly quicker but flying into the turn was Conor Daly (Margay), and he was unable to hold his line and made contact with Cody Jolly (CRG). With the melee behind him, Benitez took the early lead and dominated for the entire nine laps of the race. Sabastian Saavedra (VanSpeed) ran an easy second while Zach Schiff (First Kart) ran from 24th to third.
A wild wreck at the start of the JICA final brought out the red flag and the mandatory 30-minute period that allows teams to make repairs. When the event got back underway, Benitez flexed his muscles and powered away to an eight-second victory over Gustavo Yacaman (First Kart) and Ricky Taylor (Kart Mini), the son of Daytona Prototype driver Wayne Taylor. Yacaman and Taylor needed to battle their way through a large pack of drivers fighting for the final podium position as while Benitez enjoyed a comfortable gap, the fight for second was very heated. Yacaman slowing worked his way forward, taking one position at a time with precision accuracy, while Taylor followed suit, scoring his first Stars of Karting podium.
80 JUNIOR
Lucas Smith (First Kart) grabbed the pole four minutes into the 80 Junior qualifying session, but not a minute later, Levi Roberts (Top Kart) stole the position from the Canadian, dropping Smith down to the second spot. Chip Challis (Tony Kart) slid into the third starting position toward the end of the 10-minute session to secure a spot on the inside of the second row.
The future of the First Kart program came to the front of the 80 Junior grid during the Prefinal. After a rough start that saw Challis bog and drop from third to 17th, Roberts took the lead as the First Kart contingent mounted their challenge. Coming up strongly were Zach Schiff, Smith and David Ostella, all from the Firstkart.com team. The trio worked to the front to assume the top three spots and then started racing more aggressively with two laps to go. An ill-advised move by Ostella on the last lap dropped him to fourth as he tried to slip past Smith on the final lap. Schiff took the win followed by Smith and Roberts. There was surely a team meeting in the First Kart paddock afterwards, likely centered on battling against teammates in final laps of the Prefinal.
In the Final, it was Smith and Schiff who played run-and-hide from the rest of the field. The teammates checked out with Smith leading Schiff early as Roberts ran alone back in third. Just past the halfway point, Schiff made his move and took the point, holding on to win. Smith and Roberts joined him on the podium.
EASYKART
The quickest laps were turned early in during Easykart qualifying with Andre Villarreal clocking the quickest lap of 1:05.770. Paul Harraka edged out Dominic Scheer for the second spot and this would begin a battle between the two OVRP-based drivers.
 | French Canadian Philippe Gelinas brought Sodi Kart its best finish in several years in the U.S.
(Photo: Super Kart Illustrated) |
After several drivers ran into problems in tech, including polesitter Villarreal, Harraka started on pole with Juliana Chiovitti beside him. Off the green, Sean Burstyn was able to advance quickly and take the lead with Scheer, Harraka and Chiovitti in tow. As the race rolled on, Scheer and Harraka took control while Villarreal was coming to the front after being disqualified for flex length. A loose chain guard ended his day, however, as he was presented the meatball flag. Scheer and Harraka battled until the end with Harraka holding onto the win.
Harraka and Scheer resumed their battle in the Final. The duo broke away from the rest of the pack and settled in to go after the win. Late in the race, Harraka had built a solid lead but Scheer began chipping away as the laps closed. Taking the white flag, Scheer was still closing fast and he looked like he might have a shot in the final corner as he capitalized on the draft. He would come up just short at the line. Harraka won his first Stars Easykart race with Scheer in second and Villarreal in third, having recovered from all his problems to take the final podium step.
CADET
Michigan pilot Steve Nemeth came out the box quickly in Cadet qualifying, peeling off a 1:15.865 lap time to secure the pole ahead of Sebastian Ordonez, making for a all-Nevoso front row with Cody Robinson’s Top Kart starting from the third position.
In the Prefinal, Ordonez and Robinson broke away from the start and ran together throughout the race. Coming into the final corner, Ordonez took a defensive line down the inside, which forced him wide on exit. Robinson took a late apex and got under Ordonez to challenge at the line but he came up just a bit short. Ordonez took the win with Robinson in second and Sage Karam (Birel) in third.
In the final, Ordonez was able to pull clear of the field to take a two-second win over Karam and Nemeth, who completed the race with some excitement. Will Tenney had been in the in the hunt for a podium finish and sat second heading down the backshute for the last time. Tenney held a low defensive line to the inside heading to the final turn and Karam capitalized by passing him on the outside to take over second. Tenney’s tight line compromised his exit speed and Nemeth got a great run through the corner to nip him at the line for third. |
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