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| June 30, 2005 News |
| EKN Trackside: Stars of Karting - Jacksonville Preview |
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 | Kyle Wiegand
(Photo: Super Kart Illustrated) |
The Eastern Division of the Snap-on Stars of Karting Presented by the IRL gets back into action this weekend at the 103rd Street Sports Complex in Jacksonville, Florida. After several weeks off following the New Castle event in mid-May, the series' drivers will be looking to advance their positions in the championship battle as the season hits the halfway mark.
Two things stick out as we prepare for the weekend’s racing. The first point is the high speed nature of Jacksonville. With the flat-out banked “Monza” leading onto the long 1000' back straight, horsepower and set-up are going to be more important than ever this weekend. If you can’t run flat through the long left-hander, you’re a sitting duck at the end of the straight. The second variable is going to be the heat. When the sport's major organizations put Jacksonville on the schedule, they usually try to work it into the early part of the year when the Florida heat and humidity isn’t as big of an issue. This weekend’s forecast calls for hot, humid weather with temperatures predicted to be near ninety degrees. With this in mind, the drivers who are physically fit will have the upper hand, especially on Sunday when the effects of Saturday’s action will hit the hardest.
In the headline ICC class, there has yet to be one driver to step up and take the field under their control. Over in the West, Alex Speed and Jason Bowles are clearly the class of the field although in the East, it’s a different story as a number of drivers have shown flashes of brilliance, but not dominance. The question marks for the weekend will be PSL Karting’s Jan Velez (CRG) and DL Racing’s rookie Keith Spicer (Tony Kart). The two drivers each won a main event race at New Castle and were quick throughout the weekend. If they can back up those performances, they just might take hold of the division. Howeve, the always fast Kyle Wiegand is in the hunt as well. He wasn’t flashy at New Castle, but he brought his GP home with good point finishes both days and was definitely one of the fast guys all weekend. Looking to rebound will be Josh Schreiber, who recently announced he was switching his race package. Schreiber has opted for the Kosmic/Vortex combination in place of the Biesse/SRA TM with which he began the season. If the change of scenery is to his liking, Schreiber could find himself up front as Jacksonville is a track he knows very well.
 | Mike Giessen
(Photo: Super Kart Illustrated) |
Over on the ICA side, the championship is in much the same condition as ICC. No one seems prepared to take the lead and dominate the class. In New Castle, a pair of overseas drivers – Italian Damiano Chiesa (Veloce) and Brit Michael Ryall (Swiss Hutless) - were the winners and neither is on the provisional entry list for this weekend. Leading the points battle is last year’s divisional champion Mike Giessen, who isn’t on the entry list either, but given his history of late entry, he is likely to be at the track with the MRP team. A good weekend from either Chris Wehrheim (PCR) or Steve Welk (Merlin) will send them to the head of the class. Also on the list is Reno winner Phil Giebler. The Intrepid driver's performance might be a bit up in the air as the very bumpy temporary track in Reno left him bruised and battered. The team is hoping a couple weeks R&R will mend the injuries.
With the teams in place, the EKN coverage team of Rob Howden and Tim Blaney are headed to northern Florida to provide all the information right from the track. They’ll be on site as of Friday morning with the first updates scheduled for later that day. An official event discussion thread will be started in the Forums today for those who wish to talk about the event.
ICC Line-up - as of Wednesday, June 28
| No. | Driver | Team | Chassis/Engine| 08E | Ryan Kinnear | Speedwerx | Birel/TM | | 14F | Tom Cadieux | PSL Karting | CRG/PSL Maxter | | 15E | Keith Spicer | DL Racing | Tony Kart/Vortex | | 15W | Alexis Fenton | PSL Karting | CRG/DDR TM | | 16E | Alexander Rose | Speedwerx | Birel/SwedeTech Pavesi | | 19E | Jordan Dick | JD Racing | Birel/SwedeTech Pavesi | | 21F | Matt Pritiko | Sodi Kart | Sodi Kart/TM | | 23E | Logan Gomez | MRP Motorsport | Birel/SRA TM | | 27E | Josh Schrieber | J3 Competition | Kosmic/Vortex | | 28F | Rene Silva | Firstkart.com | First Kart/SRA TM | | 30E | Sean Meier | SSC/Kimiball Williams Racing | CRG/TM | | 32E | Tim Hollowell | Motorama Kart Parts | Birel/TM | | 33E | Collin Lynn | Speedlab | Birel/SwedeTech Pavesi | | 35E | Mark Jensen | NA | NA/NA | | 35F | Miguel Pajon | NA | NA/NA | | 37E | Jeff Carter | Champion Racing | Intrepid/Champion TM | | 37F | Juliana Chiovitti | 3-S Go-Karts | Birel/TM | | 40E | Stuart Marsell | NA | NA/NA | | 42F | Jan Velez-Walter | PSL Karting | CRG/PSL Maxter | | 45F | Nick Maddison | Firstkart.com | First Kart/Pavesi | | 48E | Alex Tollefsen | NA | NA | | 57E | Sean Noonan | C-G Racing | Top Kart/C-G Pavesi | | 60E | Shane Terrel | Champion Racing | Intrepid/Champion TM | | 70E | Chance Terrel | Champion Racing | Intrepid/Champion TM | | 70F | Daniel Morad | Firstkart.com | First Kart/SRA TM | | 80E | Paul Draper | NA | NA/NA | | 82E | Troy Hottmann | C-G Racing | Merlin/C-G Pavesi | | 84W | Wesley Boswell | MRP Motorsport | Birel/SRA TM | | 85E | Christopher Miller | PSL Karting | CRG/PSL Maxter | | 86E | Kyle Weigand | KLs Racing | GP/SwedeTech Pavesi | | 87F | Marc Flood | PSL Karting | CRG/PSL Maxter | | 98E | Reed Froehlich | Champion Racing | Intrepid/Champion TM | | 99E | Chris Kuenning | MCM Racing | Birel/TM | | Kyle Lawrence | NA | NA/NA | |
ICA Line-up - as of Wednesday, June 28
| No. | Driver | Team | Chassis/Engine| 7E | Chris Stage | Prime Motorsports | Gillard/Parilla | | 10E | Chris Chidgey | DL Racing | Tony Kart/Vortex | | 11E | Chris Keller | J&J Racing | Biesse/ATK | | 11F | Antoine Genest | Tecno Kart | Tecno/Maxter | | 12E | Caleb Loniewski | NA | Margay/TM | | 16E | Garrett Napier | Nevoso Kart | Birel/TM | | 22E | Kevin Kopp | TS Racing | Veloce/Sonik | | 26W | Philip Giebler | Champion Racing | Intrepid/Champion TM | | 27E | Chris Livengood | J&J Racing | Biesse/ATK | | 28E | Drew Cattell | DL Racing | Tony Kart/Parilla | | 29E | Joey King | Margay | Margay/Cook Parilla | | 2E | Johnny Johnson | J3 Competition | Kosmic/Vortex | | 36E | Thomas Hartensveld | Nevoso Kart | Maranello/Maxter | | 43E | Richard Campollo | NA | NA/NA | | 44F | Joseph Genest | Tecno Kart | Tecno/TM | | 46E | Eric Molin | NA | NA/NA | | 57E | Steve Welk | C-G Racing | Merlin/C-G ATK | | 66E | Ariel Castro | PCR of America | PCR/PCR | | 97E | Mark Vielgut | TCT | Haase/TCT PCR | | Chris Friel | NA | NA/NA | |
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