Archives - Norcal Karters

Jim Russell Rotax Saturday Race #6, September 15

With all the drivers back from the Rotax Nationals, the entries for this Race #6 was back to normal, a strong 70 karts for the day. The weather was outstanding and the racing was just as outstanding in most classes on the Reverse Sprint track layout.

AMD/Marin Karting Rotax Masters and Rotax Masters Light
With 8 Masters and 8 Masters Lights drivers, this was the second largest class of the day. David Harwin, back from his 6^th place finish at the Rotax Nationals, dominated the day with the pole, Prefinal and Main wins and with it 1^st in Rotax Masters. Mert Solis (Masters Light) gave Harwin a good run in qualify and was 4 seconds back to take 2^nd place in the Prefinal, but Mert throw a chain on the opening lap of the Main was out early. The Prefinal was a wild run with the 2^nd thru 8^th drivers finishing within 6 seconds of each other. Following Solis was Jo Montes (Lights), David Carlisle (Masters), Raymond Bustmante (Lights), Emmanuuel Celestino (Lights), Vivex Diy (Lights) and Dan Dollosso (Masters). In the Main, Harwin pulled away from the pack quickly to take an 18 second victory and the Rotax Masters class win. After Solis dropped out, Jo Montes took over second place but went wide into one of the hairpins and both Bustamante and Carlisle got by. But in his trying to repass Bustamante in the next corner, Montes came into contact with Bustamante who got pushed off the course and lost 5 positions. Montes was docked 3 Lights class positions at the end of the race and finished 4^th in class. Carlisle went into second and held off Masters drivers Jay Brosius and Dan Dollosso to take 2^nd in the race and second in class. Brosius was 3^rd overall and 3^rd in the Masters class and Dollosso took 4 in the Masters class. The first Lights driver was Emmanuel Celestino in 5^th, followed by Vivex Diy (Lights) and Bill Brosius (Lights). Again a tight Main field with 6 seconds separating 2^nd through 10^th place.

TaG Masters Light and Heavy
17 drivers started the race with 11 Heavys and 6 Lights. Joining this fast Masters field were two Masters age Expert drivers Larry Fraser and Mark Drennan, with Drennan qualifying 2^nd and Fraser 3^rd. These two drivers were running for extra practice in preparation for running the TaG Masters class at the SuperNationals and were not counted in the final results. In the Prefinal, Drennan beat Cleland with Fraser 3^rd, Bill McCallister 4^th and a strong drive from Bob Hurst in 5^th. These top 5 drivers were all Master Heavy drivers. The first Masters Lights driver was David Oroshinik in 7^th. In the Main, Fraser took the lead early ahead of Drennan to take an 8 second win over the 3^rd place driver, and they put on quiet a show during the 15 Main. McCallister was 3^rd, Randy Wetmore 4^th and Bob Hurst 5^th, but after dropping Fraser and Drennan, these three drivers were now 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd overall and in the Masters Heavy class. David Oroshinik finished 4^th and 1^st in class. Second in Lights was Dolores Mosqueda (9^th overall) and Grand Heatherington (10^th overall).

AMD/Marin Karting Senior Rotax
10 drivers took the green with Wes Phillips leading the way. The top 5 in this class were all strong with Phillips, Gregory Liefooghe and Joe Karratt taking the top 3 spots in the Qualify session. In the Prefinal, surprising newcomer Nicola Radosavlje finished 2^nd behind Phillips followed by Michael Ostrowski, Liefooghe and Karratt. In the Main, Nicola took the lead at the green flag and held it for all by the last 2 laps. Phillips was having some carb problems and dropped back to 3^rd at one point, but things cleared up and he took the race lead with 2 laps to go to score the win. Nicola held on to take second with Ostrowski 3^rd, Karratt 4^th and Glen Poy-Wing 5^th. Liefooghe had a motor problem while in 4^th and had to pull off at mid race distance.

Junior 1 – Comer
This was one of the top most exciting races of the day. Bobby Tifft took the pole ahead of experienced first time Infineon driver Doug Braddock followed by Grant Erath and Brody Zink. In the Prefinal, Tifft took a 3 second win, but 2^nd thru 5^th were all within 1 second of each other for the whole race. Dain DaVirro in 2^nd, Zink 3^rd, Erath 4^th and Broddock 5^th. In the Main, the top 4 finishers from the Prefinal hooked up together and put on a clinic on fast nose to tail racing. Tifft handled the pressure and took a .1 second win over a strong Brody Zink, followed by Erath, DaVirro who were another 1 second back, and Broddock took 5^th in his First Infineon race.

AMD/Marin Karting Junior Rotax and California Kartworld HPV-2
After Donovan Wheeler’s HPV-2 won the Aug race proving that the HPV-2 can out duel the Jr Rotax karts, the Jr Rotax drivers were determined to not let that happen again. In qualify, Cameron Pringle took the Pole in a Rotax kart, followed by 3 more Rotax karts. Kathryn Cornell was the first HPV-2 in 5^th spot. In the Prefinal, Raymond Bustamante Jr took a one second win over Jake Mottaz and Cameron Pringle and Jordan Jadallah. Jordan had to start the Prefinal in the last position due to qualify problems. Kathryn Cornall was the top HPV-2 in 6^th just ahead of last months HPV-2 winner Donavan Wheeler. In the Main, Mottaz took the lead early and held it to the end of the race, but right on his tail for the entire 15 laps was Bustamante and Jadallah. But the 2^nd and 3^rd place drivers were very close, but could not find a way around and had to settled 2nd and 3^rd less than 1 second behind Mottaz. Wheeler got by Cornell early on in the race to take the HPV-2 class win and a 7^th overall. Cornell faded to third in class, getting past by Jarrett Lile near the end of the race. For Mottaz, this was his first feature win after racing 3 years at Infineon.

AMD/Marin Karting Rotax DD2
4 Rotax Nationals DD2 drivers returned to the Russell Series and lead the 8 kart field. Gregory Liefooghe pulled off the hat trick by taking the pole, Prefinal and Main wins driving a rented kart since his kart was in the shop with engine problems. But it was not as easy as it sounds. In the Qualify, Gregory was only .15 seconds quicker than Glen Poy-Wing. And in the Prefinal, Gregory’s margin of victory was only .3 seconds over Glen, followed by January Grove and Gary Scharlach. In the Main, Gregory opened up a gigantic 2 second lead to take another close race over Poy-Wing to win his 4^th race of the year. Grove, Scharlach and Chris DeBruine were 3^rd thru 5^th.

Next month will be the season’s final race on Oct 20. The track layout will be the Modified National track.