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| June 03, 2006 News |
| EKN Trackside: Stars of Karting - West #3 - Saturday Report |
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 | Jordy Vorrath extends his win streak to three of today's ICC victory
(Photo: SKI) |
When the 2006 national championship season began, the June date on the Stars of Karting schedule was set to put the Western Division drivers on the streets of Henderson, Nevada. When the event’s planning group required the re-scheduling of the event to a new venue, Stars officials went on the search for a suitable location. The venue at the Buffalo Bills Resort and Casino fit the bill nicely, allowing the teams to keep their existing travel plans. The quality of today’s racing was a compliment to the track layout as the day rolled on without to many issues.
What transpired was the continued establishment of a new powerhouse in the ICC category as Jordy Vorrath scored his third straight ICC win aboard his Champion Racing/Leading Edge Motorsport Intrepid TM. Joel Miller was as impressive in ICA, putting his name at the top of the title hunt with another victory.
ICC
Matt Jaskol (TopKart) took the provisional Gatorz Pole Qualifying in the early portion of the 15-minute ICC session until his Team OVRP.com teammate Kyle Wiegand (TopKart) overtook the spot, with both dropping below the 40-second barrier. On his second lap, about halfway through the session, Trackmagic’s Gary Carlton moved to P1 and then sprinted directly into the pit lane, waiting to see if his time would stand up. Vorrath looked like he had what it took to knock Carlton off the top spot, but he came up just 0.056 seconds short of Carlton’s pole-winning 39.538-second lap time. Based on their times, Wiegand and Jaskol would start the Prefinal from the second row with Tad Funakoshi (Italkart) and David Jurca (Tony Kart) taking off from row three.
Vorrath got the jump at the drop of the green flag of the Prefinal as Carlton, Jaskol, Wiegand, and Funakoshi tucked into line to begin the fight. Carlton would eventually find his way by Vorrath to grab the lead, but it would be short-lived as he would break a chain, putting him on the sidelines on lap six. Vorrath would re-assume the lead with Funakoshi in second. The quickest driver on the track was Mandarino, as he posted the fastest time of the race while advancing from 17th to fifth.
In the main, Vorrath grabbed the holeshot and simply walked away to a 2.150-second victory over Funakoshi. Early race action saw Jaskol and Funakoshi get together on lap two, battling for position, and the contact stacked up the field and sent Jurca over Jaskol after he was hit by Mandarino. This put both Jurca and Jaskol out of the action.
Other than Vorrath’s impressive performance, the best drive was put in by Carlton, as he stormed through the field from 22nd to fight for a top five position early. The retirement of RBI’s Alan Rudolph (chain) from fourth on lap 17 bumped Carlton into the top five and began an attack forward that would see him end up in third behind Funakoshi. Mandarino would end up fourth ahead of Wiegand.
 | Tony Kart USA's Joel Miller is rebounded from Tucson with his second ICA Final victory of the year
(Photo: SKI) |
ICA
The quick times were dropped early in the 15-minute Gatorz Pole Qualifying session for the ICA group. Aaron Neliton (Sodikart) was able to clock in the fastest lap of the session during the first couple minutes of the run with a 40.782-second lap time. Defending Western Division ICA champion Joel Miller (Tony Kart) was off by just 0.077 seconds and could not find any more speed. Yesterday’s fastest driver, Italian Motors’ Colby Jenn (Italkart), would start the Prefinal in third with Tyler Dueck (Intrepid) and Ariel Castro (Tony Kart) timing in fourth and fifth.
Neliton took the lead at the drop of the green for the 16-lap Prefinal but things got ugly early. In turn one, Dueck got shuffled out and made contact with the TechPros, ending his race early. Neliton and Miller pulled away from the field with Miller taking control of the top spot after the halfway mark, cruising to the Prefinal win. Neliton finished second with Jess Peterson (Intrepid) in third and Juan Sanso (CRG) in fourth. The best battle on the track was for fifth with Grant Hebner (TopKart) beating Tucson winner Nicholas Tonkin (Birel) to the line.
In the final, Miller took the early lead to begin a great battle with Neliton as Jess Peterson (Intrepid) sat ready and waiting in third. Neliton was enjoying the best weekend of his Stars career and moved to the lead on lap four, holding the position until he retired on lap 12. This would allow Miller to walk away unchallenged with a 4.903-second triumph. Behind the Tony Kart driver, Peterson came home alone in second while James Kennedy completed the podium in his Sodikart debut, Juan Sanso (CRG) and Garrett Napier (Maranello) rounded out the top five.
 | Eric Gerrits earned his first ever Stars victory in Spec Racer Saturday
(Photo: SKI) |
Spec Racer
The Spec Racer division was the first group to hit the track for Gatorz Pole Qualifying in the early morning with the temperature already hitting 90 degrees. Scribner Plastics driver Chris Scribner (Tony Kart) set the pace for the group with a 42.268-second lap time, besting Devon Sandeen’s (First Kart) fast lap by 0.100 seconds. The times dropped nearly a second from yesterday’s best time set by Eric Gerrits (First Kart), who qualified sixth on this day. Kyle Longmore (GT Kart), Will Martindale (GP) and Taylor Hacquard (Italkart) rounded out the top five.
Longmore got a great jump from his third starting position to the lead of the 13-lap Prefinal with polesitter Scribner in tow. Longmore stretched out to a 2.5-second lead over Scribner as they pulled away from the rest of the field. Sandeen dropped to third with Nicholas Fairney (First Kart) and Chelsie Jackman (Biesse) winning the battle for the fourth and fifth positions to start the Final.
When the main event went green, Longmore flexed his muscles immediately to pull out a big lead by the crossed halfway flags. Things would change quickly on lap 12, when a broken reed put the leader on the sidelines, handing the lead to Scribner. A three-driver pack consisting of Scriber, Sandeen and Gerrits took control of the race and they would fight it out among themselves. Once settled into the run to the checker, it was Gerrits who would take the reigns, passing Sandeen for second and then Scribner for the lead and the eventual win. The Canadian would hold off his challengers and run to a 0.782-second victory, his first Stars win. Sandeen fought past Scribner for second to complete the First Kart 1-2 while Jackman and Jamie Slone rounded out the top five.
 | After a difficult rookie JICA season last year, Sergio Pena earned his first JICA win
(Photo: SKI) |
JICA
Dropping a full second off his fast time from yesterday, Donny St. Ours (Tony Kart) took his first Gatorz Pole in his debut event running in the Stars JICA division. St. Ours ran a 42.146-second lap time to win the position. Nearly three tenths back to start the Prefinal on the outside pole position was Nicky Freytag (Intrepid). Andrew Zimmer (Italkart), Joey Licata Jr. (Biesse), and Connor DePhillippi (KRT) rounded out the top five.
After three botched start attempts, the JICA Prefinal finally began with polesitter St. Ours getting the bad jump, dropping back to nearly fifth heading into turn two. Freytag took control of the lead before Brendan Langlois (Maranello) made his way up to P1 with Smrz and Licata following closely. Crossing the line at lap seven, there was a miscommunication between the leaders and the flagman when the lead group slowed heading into one. Unfortunately, the second lead group did not slow and caused a wreck, blocking the entire first turn and causing a red flag situation. A 30-minute repair time was offered as the red flag was for the blocked racetrack and after the race order was reverted to the line-up on lap six, they would return to the track after the ICA Prefinal. The JICA pilots received a single-file restart with Langlois up front with Smrz applying pressure. Smrz was able to take the lead for a few laps before Langlois regained the position and was able to hold off the last lap charge for the Prefinal victory. DePhillippi moved up to third with Jacob Neal (CRG) and Licata rounding out the top five.
In the main, a first-lap, first corner wreck collected the PCH crew of Neal and Masters along with frontrunner Langlois. Both Masters and Langlois would continue, going on to finish 13th and 20th respectively, while Neal was parked for the afternoon. Up front, a trio of Smrz, DePhillippi and Sergio Pena (Maranello) separated themselves from the pack to fight it out for the win. During the final laps, Smrz led with Pena pressing aggressively, showing his nose on several occasions. While it looked as though Smrz had control on the final lap, Pena steeped up to close again and pushed his Nevoso Racing entry down the inside of the final corner to win the drag race to the line. For Pena, it was his ascension to the top of the JICA ranks after struggling as a class rookie in 2005 following his Cadet championship in ’04. Smrz maintained second over DePhillippi while Licata took fourth ahead of Hayden Duerson (Italkart).
 | Dylan Nobile won a photo finish over Kolby Araki on a last lap pass
(Photo: SKI) |
Cadet
The always exciting Cadet division shuffled the top spots in the Gatorz Pole Qualifying with Mason Marotta (TopKart) clocking the quickest lap toward the end of the session with a time of 46.540. Camden Geise (TopKart) held the pole position until Marotta ran 0.047 seconds faster. The Nevoso machines of Dylan Nobile and Oscar Tunjo would start on row two with Kolby Araki (TopKart) rounding out the top five.
The top five broke away from the rest of the field at the start of the Cadet Prefinal and in the end, Araki would take the top spot over Marotta. Nobile and Tunjo were third and fourth ahead of reigning champ Sage Karam (Topkart).
In Final, Marotta and Araki led early but Tunjo then took control and paced midway laps. As the race wore on, Nobile joined the fight as Canadian Philip Orcic (WTP) closed in as well over the final five circuits. The last lap was awesome as Araki had passed Tunjo for the lead in turn nine, the last corner. In the final turn shuffle that saw Tunjo go high to get a big run off the apex, it was actually Nobile who was able to capitalize, out-running Araki for the win. There was even more, as Orcic jumped in on the final lap to take third from Tunjo, who finished fourth ahead of Marotta.
A full slate of events is scheduled for tomorrow and we’ll have full results posted to the site soon. |
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