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| June 16, 2006 News |
| Race Report: Gatorz Karting Cup - Willow |
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 | Rotax Junior winner Mike Self
(Photo: Sean Buur - GoRacing Magazine) |
With the Rotax Max Challenge Western Regional in the not-too-distant future, the peaceful balance of what would have been a typical Gatorz Eyewear Golden State Karting Cup event was upset drastically with an influx of out of area interlopers, cherry-picking the event to seek a competitive advantage for the aforementioned Regional. As a result, the number of entries swelled to 78. With the Willow Springs kart track boasting only 0.625-mile of asphalt, there would be a large number of karts on a small amount of track. At least it wasn’t hot.
Upping the ante a bit was series sponsor Gatorz Eyewear, who awarded all the pole winners with a Gatorz hat, while class winners were given a certificate for their choice of a pair of Gatorz sunglasses.
Leading off was the Rotax Max Junior class, which featured a posse of drivers who trekked down from Utah to take on the Gatorz bunch. Michael Self upheld the shop’s honor by grabbing pole, with Gatorz regular Connor DiMond second and Ariel Jimenez third.
DiMond got the jump on Self at the start of the heat race, as did Jimenez and Self was relegated to third. Jimenez would fall to fifth on the next lap, however, giving Self a direct shot at DiMond. Lap nine would see the interloper work past DiMond, who then lost another spot to Castle, who was charging from his fifth place starting position. The race would end with Self at the head, chased by Castle and fourth place starter Austin Isaac, who picked off DiMond four laps from the end.
Starts in California must be harder than in Utah, as Self was dropped to third again at the beginning of the Rotax Max Junior final. Castle jumped ahead from the outside pole, with Isaac following through into second place. It took but two laps for Self to get past Isaac, but Isaac wasn’t done with his comrade from Utah, and reclaimed the spot four laps later. Feeling braver, he made a move on leader Castle the next lap and took the top spot for himself. The eighteenth lap saw Self make a move to get past Castle, and he went to work on the leader Isaac. It took him six laps to get the job done, and he squeaked out almost two seconds on Isaac at the end. Castle rounded out the podium, having dropped a further two seconds from second place Isaac.
 | Mini Max winner Vinnie Maestas
(Photo: Sean Buur - GoRacing Magazine) |
Next on the agenda would be the pint-size IKF Region 7 Mini-Max class. Vinnie Maestas grabbed pole, but only just, over Clay Ackerman and Al Simpson. The Longest Haul award would go to sixth place starter Hannah Baker, who made the trip from her native Texas to race against the Gatorz Mini-Maxers.
Maestas converted his pole into the early lead, as Nicholas Loro-Silva jumped up from his fourth place qualifying spot to take second place by the end of the first lap. Baker made good on her trip from Texas by advancing to the third spot…and that is how they ran to the end. Outside polesitter Ackerman fell to sixth and finished the race in fifth spot.
Maestas and Loro-Silva held station at the start of the final, while Misty Balser snuck by Baker. Loro-Silva would sit on Maestas’ bumper until the fourteenth lap, when he made his bid for the lead and got by. Fifth starter Ackerman worked by Balser for third on the sixth lap, but his race would not go further than the twelfth lap, allowing Balser back into third. Five laps later, Maestas retook the lead from Loro-Silva, and the three held station to the end, with Maestas just ahead of Loro-Silva at the line, and Balser roughly six seconds in arrears.
Twenty-seven karters would answer the bell for Mike Manning Karting Rotax Max International qualifying, in what can only be described as a mad scramble for all involved to get a clear lap in. Joey Collins snagged pole over Troy Castaneda, who was twenty-one thousandths in arrears. James Kennedy wound up third, in a session in which the top twenty karters were separated by one second.
 | Rotax International winner Joey Collins
(Photo: Sean Buur - GoRacing Magazine) |
The start of the heat race, however, would see fourth-place starter Chris Wesson jump into second, giving chase to Collins. He would come under attack from Castaneda, however, who worked on him all race and finally got the pass done on their fourteenth tour. It would take a further three laps for Kennedy to work by the fast-starting Collins, and the four would finish as they started.
It was frantic first lap of the Final saw Castaneda jump ahead of Collins for the lead with Wesson getting the better of Kennedy. Wesson then leapt ahead of both for the lead on the second lap, with Collins remaining in second and Castaneda dropping to third. Collins, however, was utterly uninterested in disputing the lead – a position he had held since qualifying – and dispatched Wesson on the third lap to take a lead he would never relinquish. Repeating his form in the heat race, Castaneda made his way past Wesson after four laps behind. Wesson held third until fifth-place starting Zach Woodsford made his way past, finishing the jostling for position at the sharp end of the field. Collins built up a four second advantage by the end over Castaneda, with Woodsford another four second behind in third, just ahead of Kennedy.
It was then time for the slightly bigger boys, the Dave’s Performance Rotax Max Masters, to slug it out. Qualifying would see Mike Mautner, who can be found at Full Throttle Karting taunting the owner most days, take the pole, less than a tenth of a second up on Robert Whitley, who in turn just beat out Waqar Meyer, Travis Irving, and eighteen other Masters drivers.
An eventful heat race would see Gatorz Cup czar Andy Seesemann jump from his fifth starting spot to third, as Irving made a real mess of the start, dropping to eighth in his borrowed CRG. It took Seesemann three laps to get past Whitley; all the while, Mautner held his lead to around a half second over Seesemann at the end, with Whitley finishing third. Irving worked his way back to fourth in a scant three laps and held the position until the end.
 | Rotax Masters winner Travis Irving
(Photo: Sean Buur - GoRacing Magazine) |
Seesemann jumped Mautner at the start of the Final, with Irving pulling off a similar move on Whitley to move to third. Irving then made short work of Mautner, who fell to third, his worst position of the weekend. It took Irving three laps of sitting on Seesemann to pull off the pass for the lead, which he did on the fifth go-round. He simply sailed off into the distance, but Seesemann fell back into the clutches of Mautner, who was no doubt taunting him under his helmet. Mautner got by Seesemann on the thirteenth lap, but Seesemann was not out of the woods yet, coming under heavy pressure from Whitley. He would succumb to Whitley with five laps remaining in the race, promoting Whitley to the final step of the podium. Irving finished the race five seconds ahead of the battle for second, with Mautner, Whitley, and Seesemann finishing in that order.
The final race of the day would see the Fleming Racing Engines TAG Senior, TNR Kartsports TAG Sr. Heavy, and Full Throttle Karting Rotax RM-1 classes run together. As the only person running in RM-1, Mackenzie Johnson would win the class by default. TAG Senior qualifying was won by Chelsie Jackman, but only just, over Borise Cota. Actress and model Maryeve Dufault took time out of her busy schedule to race in TAG Senior, but was dq’d after qualifying. TAG Heavy qualifying was won by Wayne La Vassar, who was three thousandths of a second over Robert Whitley, who was no doubt feeling the strain of running two classes in the same day. Tommy Hernandez was third.
Johnson, LaVassar, and Whitley were no-shows for the heat race. As the only TAG Heavy person to make the start, Hernandez automatically won the class – or would have had he made it past three laps. Chelsie Jackman led the race overall until the fell off the pace after two laps, leaving the overall win and TAG Senior win to Cota. Dufault took second in the class, and the two were the only ones left running at the end.
 | TaG Senior podium
(Photo: Maryeve Dufault - maryeve.com) |
The Final would see everyone make the start, however, and Dufault got the drop on Cota, advancing up to the lead overall and in class. Johnson, in his RM-1, marched towards the front, and a lap after Cota retook the point from Dufault, Johnson took the lead and never looked back. Cota remained in second, with Dufault third, until she suffered a mechanical problem and was off the track by the twelfth lap. In TAG Heavy, Lavassar moved past Hernandez on the first lap. The two swapped positions until Lavassar’s kart gave up on the ninth lap and was unable to keep chasing Hernandez. RM-1 was won by Johnson, while TAG Senior was Cota’s after Dufault’s challenge ended, and TAG Heavy was an easy cruise home for Hernandez.
The series will make the next leg of "Willow Summer" by spending July 1st at Streets of Willow. The Streets is a 1.8 mile road course that is an overwhelming favorite of GATORZ drivers. |
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