February 14th Race Recap
Tri-C Karters Return to Adams Motorsports Park
It was like déjà vu for long time club members as the Tri-C Karters returned to Adams Motorsports Park on Valentines day after an absence of five years. The 2009 season opener was held under sunny skies and warm temperatures, a welcome break after the original forecast of rain.
This season the Kid Kart class, sponsored by
Andrew Murray Motorsports, is a championship class for Tri-C Karters. In this class Luis Ortiz Jr. was the big winner of the day finishing first in both the main event and the second heat race. Hudson Morrow, Hayden Wagner, Brody Thrails, and Justin Hodge rounded out the top five. Justin Hodge ended up the winner of the first heat race.
In the HPV-1 Cadet class, Nick Ramirez made a clean sweep of qualify-heat-and main races. The race for the second spot on the podium was a hotly contested one with Skylar Estrada, Henry Falls-Hand, and Chancellor Tiscareno running nose to tail throughout. Ian Wesolowski ran down the pack to make it a four way battle. In the end, Henry Falls-Hand won the spot followed by Chancellor Tiscareno, Skylar Estrada, and Ian Wesolowski.
Sheila Bukamier-Nash won the HPV 4 Senior class. She was the pole sitter but lost the heat race to Zachary Tobin after spinning out and working her way back to the second spot. In the main event she passed Zachary to take the win. Long time member Kanji Takagi finished third.
Nick Ramirez swept the Junior 1 class, sponsored by
Empire Karts, with Ian Wesolowski coming in second over Chancellor Tiscareno by a mere .214 second margin.
The TAG class was won by Lloyd Mack followed by John Molinare and Brad Bowman. Qualifying was interesting when Brad Bowman stuck his motor and spun off. He was able to run the rest of the event on the down on power unit. Robert Brooks won the TAG Masters class.
The drivers in the newly added World Formula classes, sponsored by Hyper Racing Engines, put on a show. The World Formula class had 10 drivers in the class which is very respectable. In qualifying Tristen O'Rear qualified on point in the junior class with a 48.882, and Chelsea O'Rear qualified on point in the senior class with a 49.830. The pre main showed great signs of racing with Emmanuel Mestre coming from the back of the field to battle with Tristen O'Rear for the lead. With just a few laps to go Emmanuel took the lead from Tristen with a great pass in the little Monza and would go on to win the pre main.
In the senior class Chelsea O'Rear and Gabriella Robles battled back and forth for the first half of the race but Chelsea would have a slight gap at the finish for the pre main win. It was time for main event Emmanuel Mestre would lead the field to the green flag but Tristen O'Rear was the leader coming out of turn one. Emmanuel would regain the lead in a few laps and never looked back, while Chelsea and Gabriella would battle for a few laps in till Chelsea had a spin trying to take the lead from Gabby, and in the back of the field Joe Grable was able to work his way up to finish third and Chelsea with a nice recover from her spin to finish second and Gabriella took the win the Senior class.
World Formula Action - photo Jenny Sarris
Jared Torres won the HPV 2 race coming in first in qualifying, heat and main. Parker Stanway ended up second in the main event in his debut race in Junior 2. Tristan O'Rear finished second in the heat race. Kenton Koch won the HPV 4 junior race.
The motto for the HPV 4 Plus race was "Old Guys Rule". To race this class, sponsored by Oswald & Yap Attorneys, you must be over 35 years old, or weigh more than 190 lbs. Race veteran Brian Phillipsen took the win over a field of 14 drivers. After a DQ in qualifying, Stu Hayner moved through the pack to finish fourth in the heat race and second in the main event. These "old guys" beat out 19 year old Tyler Brooks forcing him to settle for a third place finish. Pole sitter Mike Bowers finished a solid fourth and. Greg Pringle had a good run, rounding out the top five.
HPV 4 Plus- photo Jenny Sarris
Tri-C Karters will return to Adams Motorsports Park again for round 2 on March 21st before going to Grange Motorcircuit for their April, May, and June races. To learn more about Tri-C Karters visit www.tri-ckarters.com.
