|
 |
|
 |
| September 09, 2005 News |
| EKN Trackside: Stars of Karting – Infineon – Friday Report |
| |
 | | Needing a good weekend to stay in the hunt for the ICC National Championship, Alex Speed (Birel) kicked things off leading both Friday practice sessions. (Photo: Todd McCall - otp.ca) |
Day one of Bay Area MINI Dealers Grand Prix ran under cloudy skies but the first time nearly all year, no rain fell on the drivers of the Snap-on Stars of Karting Presented by the IRL Western Division. Run at the Infineon Raceway Karting Center, the last round of the Western Championship will settle the titles in four of the five classes. Heading into this weekend, only Cory Pollack, who runs the Easykart class has things wrapped up.
As always, the day ended with two full rounds of practice where drivers were required to run their transponders. This allows us to get a look at who does and who doesn’t have things figured out heading into the first day of competition tomorrow.
Needing to take maximum points out of the weekend if he is to have a chance at repeating his ICC National Championship, Alex Speed (Birel) has established himself at the pointy end of the grid by setting the quick time in the first timed practice session running a lap of 46.618 seconds. Speed’s lap was just 0.2 seconds off of the track record set by Ron White last year. Running second in the session was David Jurca (Italkart) who is pulling double duty this weekend in both ICC and ICA. Trackmagic’s lone warrior Gary Carlton was third quick while Speed’s teammate Ryan Phinny (Birel) was fourth. The fifth fastest in the session was Dane Cameron (Italkart). Current point leader Jason Bowles (Tony Kart) was back in 11th place.
In session two, Speed was quick again as many drivers were looking to really drop the hammer. Of the entire field, ten rolled to the grid on new Bridgestone tires including Speed. Carlton slid up one spot to second in the session while Cameron was third. MBA’s Jon Allen was fourth and Ron White (Top Kart) was fifth. In all, four of the top five started on new tires.
 | | Continuing to impress in the ICA class, Cole Whitt (Italkart) sat on top of the time sheets Friday afternoon. (Photo: Todd McCall - otp.ca) |
If the first timed practice session of the ICA class is any indication of things to come – and it likely isn’t – this weekend could be very interesting on track. Reno winner Cole Whitt (Italkart) was the fastest in the session clocking a 49.020 second lap that was nearly .3-seconds clear of the second place runner Jess Peterson (Alpha). The first of the championship contenders, Phil Giebler (Intrepid) was sixth fastest. Giebler is sporting Converse footwear this weekend, having left his driving boots at home. Current point leader Kevin Glover (CRG) was back in tenth, over 0.6-seconds off the pace. Chilliwack double winner David Jurca (Italkart) tried a different carburetor set-up but after ending the session ninth, they deemed the experiment less than successful.
After the second session, Whitt established himself as the favorite running the fast time once again this afternoon. Running second was another Italkart driven by Landon Yee who is running out of the Cameron Karting stable this weekend. Making it an Italkart clean sweep was Tyler Dueck. In fourth was last year’s JICA National Champion Nicholas Johnston who has struggled this season. Peterson was fifth. Glover struggled again this session with the 12th fastest time.
PIT NOTES
Good Turnouts for Last Race
When Stars’ President Paul Zalud set the 2005 schedule, he moved the Infineon race to the end of the season in an effort to boost the entry numbers for the last race of the year. Historically, this event is the lowest attended of the season as many seem to feel that with no hope of the title, there is no sense in racing. Last year, the final race of the season at Chilliwack barely attracted over 70 entries. For this year, entry levels are strong with 120 for the race. The two pro classes – ICC and ICA have good turnouts with 29 in ICC and 20 in ICA. For this race, ICC is the largest class.
Missing Helmut
Missing from the action is SKI’s top-ranked ICA driver Helmut Sanden (Mach 1). Reports from the paddock say that he had planned to come and even had his mechanic come to the United States for the race only to pull out at the last minute when he made the switch to CRG for the upcoming World Championships.
Pfau and Bowles Team Up
Western Division points’ leader Jason Bowles has teamed up with veteran tuner Ryan Pfau for this weekend. Pfau was recently released from his position with Trackmagic and was able to secure the deal with CompCor for the weekend. Bowles has worked with several tuners this season include last year’s SKI Tuner of the Year Kimball Williams. While most of the time having a stable driver/tuner relationship is best, Bowles has proven an ability to be fast with several men behind the wrenches.
MINI Back
The popular MINI Cooper is back with the Stars of Karting as the title sponsor for the newly crowned “Bay Area MINI Grand Prix.” This is the second time that Stars has been able to land a sponsorship deal from the BMW-owned MINI. Like at Reno, a part of the deal consists of having cars on site to test during down times on track. |
|
|
Go Top
|
|
|
|
|
