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| April 28, 2010 News |
| Haws, Pappa and Schilling Race to Two Wins in WKA Pavement Series Opener |
| Article by: WKA PitBoard |
The WKA Vega Speedway Pavement Series opened its 2010 season last weekend with the Spring Nationals at North Carolina's OCR Action Sports Park. The event attracted racers from all over the east coast to the 0.700-mile OCR oval, a popular asphalt venue located about 15 miles north of Durham in Rougemont, N.C.
Three junior drivers wheeled their karts to a pair of national victories at OCR. Brayton Haws continued his reign over the Sportsman 1 ranks in WKA oval-track national competition. Haws won Briggs Sportsman 1 Lite and Heavy at OCR - two weeks after the North Carolina driver won three Sportsman 1 mains at the WKA Speedway Dirt Series national at Hurricane (Ga.) Raceway. Five national wins in two weeks is quite a resume builder for the young 10-year-old shoe.
New York's Matthew Pappa, a Pavement Series regular who raced on the dirt at Daytona Int'l Speedway in December, captured Briggs Sportsman 2 Lite and Heavy for his first national wins of the season. Pappa won over Brandon McGough in both features. The Spring Nationals marked McGough's first WKA race in the Sportsman 2 ranks.
David Schilling, another New Yorker, drove to victory in Briggs Jr Heavy and Briggs Jr Champ Raptor Final 1. Schilling, who also raced in the Dirt Series opener at Daytona, drove his sleek 1-800-GOT-JUNK?-sponsored karts to the pair of victories.
Tyler Gauthier won the 13-kart Briggs Medium main, which was the largest class of the weekend. Gauthier beat out Russell Moore and Hank Branham for the win to start off his Briggs Medium championship defense in fine fashion.
Moore won Briggs Lite over Justin Fulmer. James Hayden raced to the win in Briggs Heavy over Moore and Ryan Breithoff. The weekend marked Hayden's and Breithoff's first national in the senior category.
Cameron Lovejoy traveled to North Carolina from Kennebunk, Maine, and took the win in Saturday's Briggs Sportsman 1 Champ Lite. Dutch Burkhead, out of Jay, Fla., denied Haws of a third win when he won the Sportsman 1 Champ Heavy 20-lapper by just 0.262 seconds over Haws.
Tommy Stilphen and John Hawley split the Sportsman 2 Champ features. Stilphen won Saturday's Briggs Sportsman 2 Champ Lite while Hawley bested Pappa by only 0.101 seconds to win Sunday's Sportsman 2 Champ Heavy.
Michael Nolan got the win in Briggs Champ Lite over Tyler Robertson and Chris Sorrell. Austin Banker dropped out on lap 1 of the Champ Lite main but returned Sunday to win Champ Heavy over T. Robertson and Gavin Soraghan.
Tyler Robertson did get a win on the weekend. The New York racer was victorious in the first Champ Heavy Money Race, tagged the Friday Night Shootout. T. Robertson won by two-tenths of a second over Breithoff.
Kenneth Jones won the weekend's other money race, the Box Stock 20-lapper for the Clone-powered karts. Ten karts started the competitive main, and Jones crossed the stripe a mere 0.010 seconds ahead of Moore. Kyle Long finished third.
Chris Hammett won Briggs Jr Lite over Brandon Weed. WKA Pavement and Gold Cup racer Chase Dowling bagged his first national win of the season in Briggs Jr Champ Lite. Patrick Robertson got the win in Jr Champ Heavy by a tenth of a second over Dowling.
Zack Switzer drove to the victory over P. Robertson in Briggs Jr Champ Raptor Final 2. The Jr Champ Raptor divisions are the only flathead classes remaining on the Pavement tour in 2010.
A new class on the tour this year is Briggs Masters Champ for champ-kart racers 35 years old and older. David Hardman won Masters Champ Final 1 while David Mumaw beat out Hardman to win Sunday's Masters Champ Final 2 affair.
A thank you goes out to all the Vega Pavement Series teams, officials, family and fans who came out to OCR for the 2010 series opener. The Pavement Series returns to the track June 25-27 for Round 2 of the five-race tour. The 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Nationals will mark the first national at Carolina Motorsports Park's asphalt tri-oval. The tour will then hit the northern half of the country for events at Chapel Hill, N.Y., New Castle, Ind., and Wampum, Pa.
WKA Manufacturer's Cup Round 2 this weekend at MRP
The WKA George Kugler / Bridgestone Manufacturer's Cup Series driven by Mazda returns to the track this weekend for the highly anticipated MKP Nationals at Michiana Raceway Park in North Liberty, Ind. The weekend marks the first Manufacturer's Cup event since Daytona KartWeek in the final days of 2009. WKA's 2-cycle sprint racers, many who have been busy competing in winter tours and the opening rounds of 2010 WKA divisional series, will be eager to get back to national competition at the demanding 11-turn course in northern Indiana.
The MKP Nationals should be another fine event for the Manufacturer's Cup Series. Over 300 pre-entries from all over the U.S. have been received, which nearly matches last year's pre-entry count for the MRP national. The 2009 MKP Nationals saw a total of 538 entries, the best turnout of the '09 season besides Daytona.
The track is open Thursday from 8 a.m. till 8 p.m. for pit pass sales and parking. Pre-entry pickup is available from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday.
The track opens at 7 a.m. for the duration of the weekend. Registration opens at 7 a.m. Friday while the on-track action gets under way at 9 a.m. when official practice commences.
Saturday and Sunday each feature a full slate of national competition. Ten classes will go off each day after morning practice. Qualifying, pre-finals and finals will follow. New Jersey Sprint Series Kid Kart exhibitions will run during breaks throughout the weekend.
For MRP directions, area accommodations and other information, visit http://www.michianaracewaypark.com
For the weekend schedule and other information on this weekend's MKP Nationals, go to http://www.worldkarting.com/downloads/eb-2010/0430_mrp_mc.pdf |
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