Team News

May 28, 2010 Sonoma, California
Red Line Oil Karting Championship Race Report #3

Sunny skies and a breezy day greeted sixty-three racers to Race #3 of the Red Line Oil Karting Championship at the Jim Russell International Karting Center at Infineon Raceway. This was the first race using a new format with the combined results of two heat races setting the grid for the Main. Strong fields were seen in almost every class. 80 Shifter was the GoPro featured class with Tom Nelson taking home a GoPro Hero Camera. Eric Sterner was the Molecule "Dirty Driver" this race and was awarded Molecule suit cleaning products. The "Rolf by Design" chassis repair award went to Dave Moody who tweaked his DD2 chassis during the race. Café Andiamo provided meals to the pole winners in Micro Max, Rotax DD2, Junior Rotax and Senior Rotax.

GoPro 80 Shifter

80 Shifter was selected as the GoPro featured class for Race #3 with the winner taking home the GoPro Hero Camera. Five Masters and one Formula 80 driver took the track. Veteran Tom Nelson took the pole ahead of Formula 80 Justin Gald and Masters Greg Richter. In the first eight lap Heat, Nelson controlled the race and took an eight second win over Richter with John Buddenbaum coming home third. In the second Heat, Nelson again took the win, but was less than two seconds in front of Gald with Richter finishing third. In the Main, Richter took the lead after turn one and held the lead for one lap, but Nelson went by on the straightaway going into lap two and did not look back as he cruised to a nine second win, his second win in a row. With the win, Tom took home the GoPro Hero Camera.

Italian Motors IAME TaG

Nine drivers came to Race #3 for this all Parilla class which uses spec gears to keep the RPMs down and reduce costs. In Qualifying, Jim Zootis took the pole followed by Charlie Postins and Michael Torrano. In the first Heat, Zootis got jumped at the start, lost a few spots and had to settle for fourth. Torrano took the lead early and held on for a two second win over Matt Young and Brad Townley. In the second Heat, Zootis had a much better start and controlled the field to for a three second win followed by Torrano and Young. Postins qualified second, but had DNFs in both heats and had to start the Main from the rear. In the Main, Torrano was on pole followed by Zootis. At the start, Zootis was able to take the early lead with pressure from Torrano, but Postins came through the field to challenge the leaders, first getting by Torrano then passing Zootis near the end of the fifteen lap race. Zootis came home second with Torrano taking third.

Northern California Rotax Challenge

Mini-Max

With the largest Mini Max field to date, nine drivers put on quite a show in thissecond year class in Northern California. In Qualifying, newcomer Scott Huffaker took the pole followed by Michael Avansino, Gino Gigliotti and points leader Cole Davis. In the first Heat, Huffaker dropped back to mid-pack within a couple of turns. There were several lead changes until Cole Davis put the pressure on and made a try for to pass race leader Michael Michoff going into the last turn. Davis and Michoff made contact with both karts slowing to almost a complete stop, which allowed Gigliotti to sneak by and take the win followed by Justin Yanez and Avansino.

In the second Heat, Avansino took the lead early and looked like he was on his way to the win but his chain came off forcing him to park the kart. Cole Davis then took the lead and looked like he was going to win the eight lap race when a brake problem caused him to make contact with Gigliotti in the last turn. As these two tangled briefly, Michoff slipped by to take the win followed by Gigliotti, Huffaker , and Davis. In the Main, Gigliotti was on the pole and controlled the start, but again, several drivers challenged the lead with Michoff taking over by mid-race. Disaster struck Michoff who threw a chain, putting Gigliotti back in the lead. Gigliotti was able to hold on for a slim win over Davis with Huffaker in third and Colin Daley finishing fourth.

Senior Rotax

Eleven drivers came to challenge the fast Reverse National layout. In Qualifying, Carlos Calderon took the pole with Jordan Jadallah, the 2009 champion and Matthew Weiss taking the second and third positions. In the first Heat, Jadallah took the lead off the green flag with Calderon close behind. With about four laps remaining, Calderon out braked Jadallah into turn three to take the lead. On the last lap, Jadallah now made the hard braking pass into the same turn and the two karts rubbed tires as they exited, causing both karts to slow. Jadallah was first to get away with Calderon now being challenged by Weiss. Weiss got by Calderon to takesecond, Donavon Wheelerfinished fourth. In the second Heat, Jadallah took the lead. Wheeler got by Calderon, but withing a few laps, Calderon got by Wheeler and set off after Jadallah. Calderon got right to the champs rear bumper, but had to settle for a very close second with Wheelerfinishing third and Amber Freidberg coming home fourth.

The start of the Main was a repeat of the second Heat with Jadallah, Wheeler and Calderon exiting turn one in that order. Calderon took a bit longer to dispatch Wheeler, but once he did, he slowly pulled up to the rear bumper of Jadallah and was looking for a way to get by. In the end, Jadallah did not give any opportunities to Calderon to make the pass. Jadallah took his second win of the year with Calderon finishing second, with Wheeler, Friedberg and Weiss rounding out the top five.

Cambrian Go-Karts Junior Rotax

The field was only six karts, but the quality of the driving more than made up for the small field. Kiel Spaulding qualified on pole in his first Nor Cal Rotax appearance of the year. Brody Zink and Bobby Tifft slotted in second and third on the grid. In the first Heat, Spaulding controlled the race taking a six second win with Tifft challenging Zink all the way to the checkered flag. In the second Heat, Spaulding again took the early lead and went on to a five second win. Zink finished second after a race long battle with Sean McDonald and Tifft two seconds behind. In the Main, Spaulding chose to start from the rear of the field. Tifft took the lead at the green followed by JR Raczko and Zink. It did not take long for Spaulding to work his way through the field and was in second after the first lap. Tifft drove a very spirited drive and held off Spaulding for a bit, then Spaulding made the pass and went on to an eleven second win in the fifteen lap race. The real excitement was the battle behind with Zink challenging Razcko for third then Tifft to take over second. McDonald did the same and finished third. Raczko then got by Tifft near the end to finish fourth.

Rotax Masters and Masters Light

The largest field of the day was the combined Masters and Masters Light group with seven Masters and eight Lights. The Reverse National layout favored the Lights class taking the first four positions on the grid. Mary Beth Wilson took the pole in Qualifying followed by Mert Solis and Jojo Bayabo. The top Masters qualifier was Ludovic Racinet in fifth with the second fastest Masters being Gavin Sun in the ninth position. In the first Heat, Solis had trouble from the start and dropped out. Wilson controlled the race unchallenged to take an eight second win with Bayabo in second and Jerry Pretti (Lights)in third. Gavin Sun took the Masters win finishing fifth overall with Peter Breidinger second in Masters and sixth overall.

In the second Heat, Solis came back to challenge Wilson and held on for a slim win, with Wilson in second, and Steve Weiss in third. In the Masters class, Racinet took first in class and sixth overall followed by Gavin Sun in seventh overall. In the Main, Wilson controlled the race from the green flag and took a four second win. Solis started mid-field due to the DNF in the first Heat and went off while making a pass, ending his race early. Eric Sterner (Lights) pressed hard all race and came through to take second place, his best finish in the series. Third went to Pretti, fourth to Bayabo and fifth to the Sun, who was the first Masters finisher. Second in Masters was Racinet who finished ninth overall followed by Peter Breidinger who took third in Masters and tenth overall.

Micro Max

With two of the original six drivers from Race #1 moving to the Mini Max class and one driver absent, it was a three kart field. It turned out to be Wilson Skjerven verus the Breidinger twins. Annie Breidinger took the pole in Qualifying followed by sister Toni Breidinger, then Skjerven. In the first Heat, Annie Breidinger took the lead and was never challenged to take the win with Toni Breidinger less than a second behind. In the second Heat, Annie Breidinger again took the win. Skjerven took the second position at the green flag and held off Toni Breidinger for the early part of the race, but Toni Breidinger made the pass to come home second. In the Main, Annie Breidinger took the lead off the green flag and was chased by Toni Breidinger the entire fifteen laps. Annie Briedinger did not make any mistakes and came home less than a second ahead of Toni Breidinger with Skjerven again finishing third.

Rotax DD2

The fast two-speed DD2 class had four entries with January Grove taking the pole ahead of Dave Moody and David Palic. In the first Heat, Grove took the early lead and was never challenged. Senior Rotax racer Matt Weiss jumped into the class and came home second with Dave Moody in third. In the second Heat, Grove again took the early lead and went unchallenged for the win. Weiss had problems and had to park his kart. Moody and Palic came together in Tic-Tac-Toe on the last lap and both had to be towed in. In the Main, Weiss had problems on the warm up lap and had to pull off. Grove took the lead again at the green and went on to a convincing win over Palic with Moody struggling with an ill-handling kart.

Racers will have five weeks to get ready for Race #4 on Sunday, June 27th at the Jim Russell International Kart Center at Infineon Raceway. The track configuration will be the Reverse Sprint track.