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| August 12, 2005 News |
| Race Report: Blackhawk Farms CES Race Draws Big Numbers |
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 | Champion Racing Intrepid Kart Pro Shifter podium - Owen Wharton(left), Eric Freiberg(center), Clayton Prater(right)
(Photo: Joe Brittin) |
Story by Joe Brittin
The Russell Karting/Dunlop Tires Championship Enduro Series traveled to Blackhawk Farms Raceway for the fifth race of the six race series on a beautiful August 5-7 weekend. Nearly 550 entries came out to participate including members from the Badger Kart Club who were holding a club points race on Sunday. Many of the weekend’s races had over 50 entries lineup on the starting grid with the largest one having 58 entries in the final race on Sunday. The biggest class on hand was the Saturday CIK 125 Sprint shifter class that had 31 entries starting.
The 1.95 mile Blackhawk Farms road course, built in 1967, is located just north of Rockford, IL and is a short drive from the Chicago and Milwaukee area kart clubs. The facility has a lot of character with its densely wooded sections and the two old farm silos which are still standing. The heavily wooded areas make this track a popular camping destination among the race participants. A grass airstrip located near the track’s front gate was busy this weekend with several small airplanes buzzing the track on their approach to landing. The track surface, which was repaved two years ago, is holding up well with only a few minor bumps emerging in the corners. The track is still a pleasure to drive on when compared to the rough surface that existed before and many drivers now rank Blackhawk Farms as one of their favorite tracks.
The River Valley Kart Club, Badger Kart Club and GEM Promotions co-hosted this event. With their many years of experience in staging road racing events, they were able to smoothly register all of the drivers and complete six rounds of practice on Friday before the 4:30 pm noise curfew. Saturday would bring two more rounds of practice before the scheduled eight races. Only one race was red flagged on Saturday in race two when Ron Boyer did a slow roll coming out of turn five. He was uninjured and able to restart the race.
 | Saturday's TaG Sprint lead pack with #23 Hugo Carreras leading eventual winner #97 Andy Finke
(Photo: Joe Brittin) |
Lance Lane dominated the CIK 125 Sprint shifter kart races on both days. With his many years of experience racing at Blackhawk, he was able to pull out to a five second lead in the Saturday race turning laps in the high 1:13s. On Sunday, Lance hooked up with his son, Josh Lane, and the duo were able to pull away from Larry Nagy, Owen Wharton and Eric Freiberg. Wharton and Freiberg turned in the quickest laps of the weekend at 1:13.2.
The final race of the day on Saturday, the Champion Racing Intrepid Kart Pro Shifter Series race saw some great shifter kart action with 11 entries battling for the cash purse. A six kart pack battled through the first half of the race until Eric Freiberg, Owen Wharton and Clayton Prater were able to break away and battle for the win. Tim Barnard and Bryce Bjerke rounded out the top five. The traditional champagne spraying ceremony for the top three was briefly interrupted by a jet powered kart demonstration on the track which initially failed to start. After the Pro Shifter podium ceremony, the jet powered kart was able to complete about a half lap before running out of fuel.
On Sunday, only seven races were held as the two 45-minute enduro races were combined into one race. The sprint classes were all big due to the Badger Kart Club entries. Even the Novice class race had 31 entries and this class got to race an extra five minutes with the addition of the two Junior classes from Badger Kart Club. In race three on Sunday, the red flag came out when Jerry Revely hit a spinning TaG kart on lap two. Jerry broke his ankle and was transported to a hospital where he would later have surgery to insert three screws to repair his shattered ankle.
He was released from the hospital on Tuesday and will have to go through some rehab before returning to the driver’s seat. He is hoping to return to competition for the final event at the Milwaukee Mile Road Course.
Picking up two wins each over the weekend were Stephanie Schumacher, Tommy Anderson, Scott Grenier, Dale Clark, Eric Larue, Lance Lane, Zach Emmons, Jessica Brannam, Ryan Vehring, Donnie Day, Jon Boldt, Aaron Snyder, Aaron Tellitz and Nara Nelson.
The final event in 2005 for the Championship Enduro Series will be held at the Milwaukee Mile Road Course on September 23-25. Look for this event to be another well attended race as the KART road racing series will also be competing. |
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