7-2-10 Come see what all the buzz is about. LAKC Round 5

Los Angeles Kart Club June 13, 2010, Race 5 of 9

Race #5 of the LAKC season kicked off under perfect weather conditions. With a Gulf of Mexico feeling in the air the unusually long driver's meeting took place. The previous months winners were recognized for their win, or wins as was the case for Jake Craig and Jake drew, hey what’s with the Jake name? After last month's event where a plethora of penalties were handed out drivers were reminded of the rules once more in case they forgot. “We are a family fun competitive kart racing series, let’s not lose sight of that.....peace”, said the little Mexican race director David Jimenez who  pulled double duty as Guy Kesee had to miss this event. Bayan Salehi was the lucky winner of a free entry for July's LAKC race after Gatorz  MC, Chappy drew the winning safety test from over 70 completed tests.

Racers soon took to the track for the day's action running the CalSpeed Kart Track Nuevo configuration in the clockwise direction. Following a flawless two practice sessions qualifying led to the heats, and the heats were just a prelude to the mains.

Heat Race Highlights:

Heat one for the Junior 1 class was maybe the best race of the day with the top 5 trading the lead until Justice Lepe edged out a celebrating Christian Brooks for the win. Then a red flag in masters as coming onto the front stretch #84 Bradley Anstis had a slow roll over. The ambulance would stay putt as he was ok. Dzurilla made it boring and Jarrod Bradley fought for a second. Hayden Wagner took the kid kart heat, Jesse Huaman and Dane LaTorre had nothing for Jake Craig. KPV-1 saw a good fight for the win with Brooks on top, for now. Chanler Campbell started 8^th in her first Rotax Senior race, but it was Zeen all the way.

2pm main events:

Short handed because a miscommunication with the flagging team left LAKC short handed, but their fine members stepped up to share the duties until the official corner workers arrived just in time for the mains.

Jr. 1 – Justice Lepe (in a new BA-1 chassis) led the first two circuits of the final followed closely by Christian Brooks and Chase McDaniel. Brooks slid by on lap three to grab the lead but it was short lived as Jake Drew took over the point a few laps later. Drew's time out front didn't last long as Lepe regained the top spot. The running order of Lepe, Drew, Brooks, McDaniel and Cooper Whitbread remained unchanged for a few laps, but soon the villagers became restless again. McDaniel started picking off positions one by one as Drew fell back with Brooks. In the end we saw a fabulous photo finish with McDaniel inching out Lepe for the win by a scant .040. Brooks was right there only 2 tenths back to finish 3^rd. Whitbread came away with a solid 4^th and a strong performance by Ian Wesolowsky earned him 5^th.

Masters Rotax – If DW (announcer Dave Williams) was in attendance he would have said it was a snoozer for everyone but Steve Dzurrilla. The mighty Dzurrilla went flag to flag taking yet another win. Larry Hayashigawa picked up a few positions to finish in 2^nd place while poor Bradley, who started up front got dropped back to 10^th. Dave Rivera too turned in a solid run finishing 3^rd.

Kid Karts – Justin Hodge led the first lap of the final before handing the reigns over to Hayden Wagner. Wagner was on fire and easily bested the field by an impressive six seconds. The challenge for 2^nd place between Myles Farhan and Anthony Willis early was exciting to see. Willis who hails all the way from Arizona went home with the 2^nd place trophy. Farhan maintained 3^rd place while Brandon Eshom had a good showing for 4^th. Damon Bustamante back from a little hiatus rounded out the podium with a pleasant 5^th.

KPV2- Once again Jake Craig was the man to beat in this challenging class, and once again he took the green, took the white and cruised to the checkered flag. Jesse Huaman was best in class, solidly running to a 2^nd place finish and well ahead of the dynamic battle for 3^rd place. Alec Karas, Willem Elsdon, Cory Davidson and Dane LaTorre all vied for the position with Davidson eventually winning out over the others. Elsdon finished 4^th and LaTorre rebounded from losing a battle with a curb to finish in 5^th.

KPV1 – The KPV1 pole went to Jake Drew, just .052 ahead of Chase McDaniel. Christian Brooks kicked it up a notch in the prefinal as he and Drew were able to gain a slight advantage over the rest of the field. Brooks and Justice Lepe traded the lead in the opening laps before having to yield to McDaniel. McDaniel didn't have to chase any more and finished strong with a 3 second buffer and the win. The fight for 2^nd never ceased as Drew fought back and brought it home ahead of Brooks and Lepe. Andrew Murowatz led the field's charge to the line with 5^th place. It was good to see last year's Kid Kart standout Ethan Barrett and Anthony Sawyer running solidly in the field.

Shifters – The Shifter classes sported lower than average turnouts this weekend for some reason. You would think with all the money up for grabs in the KalGard Challenge more people would jump on it, but never the less we saw moments of good racing with Erik “Action” Jackson winning Spec by a mile and Troy Butts winning in the open category. Most importantly Butts was the overall winner, besting all shifter drivers on track. John Chott gave Butts all he had, challenging lap after lap but was unable to make anything stick. Chott had to settle for 2^nd overall and 2^nd in Open.

TaG/ PRD – Jason Bunch and Nick Cole had a dynamic duel in TAG while Devon Lindsey and Elliot Skeer went at it for PRD Sr. supremacy. Qualifying set the tone for the rest of the day with Bunch just edging out Cole for the pole and Skeer doing the same in PRD. The prefinal continued with the same story line except for Lindsey getting the better of his rival and finishing first in PRD. The finals were as close as you can get with Bunch beating Cole to the finish by just .121. Skeer was finally able to drop Lindsey but only after a valiant effort to score his win and 3^rd overall behind the two TAG drivers of Bunch and Cole.

JR Rotax, MiniMax, PRD Jr – At some point Jake Craig has to get tired of running all alone out front, maybe not, and I'm sure all the first place trophies help ease his burden. In the combined PRD Jr, MiniMax, and Rotax Jr. Craig was once again in prime form. Breanna Miscione and Emmanuel Mestre were the ony fellow Rotax Jr. drivers able to even stay remotely close to the #00 of Craig. Once the green flag flew there was little change in the running order and Craig inched his way out to a small lead over Miscione and Mestre. They ran like that for the entire duration of the final with Craig earning another win. Good efforts on the part of his rivals but they are going to have to do some extra credit work to catch up at the next event. Time Desilva and Nova Brown rounded out the top five in Rotax Jr. MiniMax saw Noah Grey led the way and run virtually unchallenged to the checkered flag. Behind him two Nicks, Ramirez and Hays scrimmaged for the runner's up position. The first have Ramirez led the charge against Grey, but eventually Hays was able to get by and secure 2^nd place. Liam Winston, Joey Ritorto and Austin Schrader finished things off.

Rotax Senior – Adam Zeen had some competition this month in the popular Rotax Sr. class. With the pole things looked bright for young Zeen, but hot on his heals were Neil Alberico and John Crow. The top 13 drivers had less than a second separation. The prefinal saw Alberico take an early lead and never give it back. Zeen was right there to pounce, but settled for 2^nd. Michael Graves and Troy McCall got around Crow and set the order to start the final. Alberico once again got another great start and sped off into the lead. Zeen and McCall jumped into his slipstream determined to not let him get away. Alberico pased the field until just past halfway when Zeen made the move for the win. McCall and Brett Sheffer still ran close, but were a few lengths back in 3^rd and 4^th. Zach Woodslord held down fifth on track and was clear of Bayan Salehi and Graves. Zeen brought it home with Alberico waiving tech from 2^nd so he could catch a plane. This bumped everyone up a position so McCall finished 2^nd, Sheffer 3^rd, Woodslord 4^th and Salehi. Steve Novikoff did an outstanding job giving room to the leaders when he got lapped, and although he wasn’t in the hunt for the win he still finished ahead of some top notch competitors in the results like Crow and Morotta.

While other clubs are struggling to get 50 entries LAKC leads the way with a constant 125 plus. With top notch club racing both beginner and pro drivers come to test their skills against the best racers In Southern California. LAKC regularly sees drivers from neighboring states like Nevada and Arizona make the long trip to race with the best.

“Come see what all the buzz is about” and  join LAKC for their July 25^th event at CalSpeed Kart Track in Fontana,CA. Like the saying goes, “rain or shine, you are going to have a good time”. For information on everything LAKC please click on www.lakc.org.