7-20-10 Red Line Oil Karting Championship Race #5 Preview
 

Race #5 of the Red Line Oil Karting Championship (RLOKC) on July 25th will mark the mid-season for the Northern California Rotax Challenge (NCRC) and is Race #5 of eight races for the TaG and Shifter classes. Most classes have hotly contested point battles going on and the Sprint Track configuration of the Jim Russell International Karting Center track will challenge the racers and make for some great driver duels. The most exciting classes this year have been the Rotax Mini Max and Rotax Senior. This will also be the second race for the newly added 125 Stock Moto Masters class.

Rotax Mini Max
Cole Davis sits atop the points board but has many fast drivers right behind him. Although he has scored a feature win this year, Michael Michoff is close behind in second. With last month's sweep of Race #4, Michael Avansino boosts himself up to third in points, followed by Gino Gigliotti. With eight to nine karts at each race this year, the Mini Max class should continue to be one of the most competitive classes of the weekend. Mini Max will also be the GoPro featured class with the race winner taking home the GoPro Hero mini camera.

Rotax Senior
Rotax Senior also has a tight point battle with Carlos Calderon sitting in first place, closely followed by Raymund Bustamante, Jr. Improving each race and taking a strong second last month is Amber Friedberg. The veteran lady pilot now holds down third place in points and is looking for a feature win in Race #5. Matt Weiss, fourth place in points, has also been coming on strong. NCRC 2009 champ Jordan Jadallah is fifth in points even though he had to miss two of the first four races.

IAME TaG
This new class has had good entry numbers in the last couple of races and with it, a battle for the top spot in the points is starting to shape up. Having run all four previous races, Casey Monohan has the points lead, but his lead is getting smaller with each race due to strong finishes from Michael Torrano and Jim Zootis. Zootis is looking at making it two feature wins in a row while Torrano will need to bounce back from his fourth place finish last month.

Cambrian Go-Karts Junior Rotax
After his best race in Junior Rotax last month and also competing at the US Rotax Max Challenge Grand National last weekend, Brody Zink looks to be in a position to start pulling away from the field. Sean McDonald is looking to get back into the race groove that took him to the Race #1 win. Bobby Tifft is looking at backing up one of his best drives from last month and if Kiel Spaulding returns, well this could make for a very interesting run for the lead.

Rotax Masters / Masters Light
One of the most improved drivers from 2009 now sits atop the Masters Light class with Mary Beth Wilson holding down the points lead just ahead of hubby Jerry Pretti. Wilson has shown to be consistent in all her starts this year and would like nothing better than to open up the gap. With his return to the NCRC last month, 2009 Masters Light champion Andrea Delfanti dominated, just like did in 2009, but he has already used up his two throw-away races this season and thus has no margin for poor results if he plans to back up his championship.

In the Masters class, Andre Eriksen has been the class of the field so far this year, but if young Barry Lee moves over from Senior into the Masters class, he will give Eriksen a real run for the top spot in this class. Eriksen will be coming off a long weekend of racing at the Rotax Grand National, but be sure he will be ready race.

80 Shifters
After the largest field of the year last month, the 80 Shifters are putting a good challenging race on. Points leader and defending champ Tom Nelson would like a win to put some distance between him and his rivals, but Mark Stanley would like nothing better than to chase Nelson down and close the gap. Rob Mullaney has been consistent all year and looks to continue his steady finishes.

125 Stock Moto Masters/Rotax DD2
Combining these two classes provided some exciting racing last month with DD2 driver January Grove challenging the 125 Moto of Jim Inglebright and getting the best of Brad Shaffer. As the 125 Stock Moto Masters class grows, this could be a very entertaining race group to watch.

Rotax Micro Max
With Annie and Toni Breidinger just getting back into town from the Rotax Grand National, Wilson Skjerven may get the upper hand while the young gals get re-oriented back to their home track. Skjerven showed some new driving speed last month only to have mechanical problems spoil his weekend. He is looking to bounce back.

Saturday Schedule
12 PM - 6 PM Open Practice, Pre-Registration & Pre-Tech

Sunday Schedule
8:30 AM Controlled Practice
9:30 AM Qualifyling
10:45 AM Racing
Race Entry Fee: $100
Pit Passes: $10, kids 11 and under, $5

For more information about the Red Line Oil Karting Championship, go to www.cameronkarting.com, www.norcalrotax.com or contact race director Ric Shaw at racedirector-ric@hotmail.com.

The Red Line Oil Karting Championship is supported with over $20,000 of prizes and awards from the sponsors below.