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| September 02, 2006 News |
| EKN Trackside: Rock Island GP – Saturday Report |
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The 12th annual Rock Island Grand Prix got underway today with two rounds of practice in the morning and a full slate of afternoon qualifying. In the Superkarts! USA King of the Streets event – the headline class – Florida’s Brandon Marsell took the pole position in his BTK Motorsports Arrow, posting a 32.044-second lap that was just a hair off the track record of 32.020, set last year by winner Kyle Wiegand (Top Kart). Not a bad for a guy who’s be out of the seat for a year.
Wiegand was second the time sheet, right there as usual, and he will start alongside Marsell on row one, when the King of the Streets kicks things off tomorrow at 12:30 pm. Veteran RIGP pilot Alan Rudolph, making his final start for the now-defunct RBI Racing operation, was third in the order with a 32.107. Canadian Lorenzo Mandarino is making his debut at The Rock and was fourth in the order in his KLS Racing GP, further developing his position as one of the best in the business.
In the full field of TaG Seniors, England’s Martin Pierce took the pole position for tomorrow’s main event with a 33.381, the former Rotax World Final podium finisher running over three tenths faster than Jordon Musser’s top time last year. Top Stars of Karting driver Adam Johnson was able to put his TopKart outside row one with Kyle Erdmann and Jamie Ferrell set on the second row. The Arrow karts of Michael Johnson and Ben Searcy will fill row three. The top 25 drivers in the session tansferred automatically into tomorrow’s main and they were separated by less then a second. Twenty-seven drivers will fight for the final five spots to the Final tomorrow morning after the warm-up sessions.
Mandarino set the fast lap in the opening session of ICC with a 32.199, but the second group would see Rudolph steal the show in posting a new track record of 31.768, just edging Wiegand by 0.011 for the pole. Stuart Marsell was third ahead of Brandon Marsell. Mandarino would end up fifth overall.
This year’s RIGP is shaping up to be one of the best with awesome racing set to go in shifter, TaG, Yamaha and four-cycle action.
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