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| September 11, 2012 News |
| Race Report: IKF Region 7 Sprint Championship - Grangé Motor Circuit |
| Article by: Sean Buur - Go Racing Magazine |
 | Royal McKee - Jr 2 PRD winner
(Photo: Sean Buur - Go Racing Magazine) |
On Labor Day weekend, the IKF Region 7 Sprint Championship Series headed to Southern California's high desert for Round #5 at Grangé Motor Circuit. Grangé was probably the most interesting event of the year so far. It might have been the full moon or maybe the clean desert air, but either way there was something in the water, as it was crazy all weekend long. The Region 7 series decided to run the circuit backwards this weekend and as always, racing was fantastic. Grangé is one of the few tracks that races nearly as well backwards as it does in its normal clockwise direction. Weather was a little on the hot side, but compared to down the hill where most of the other series tracks are located, it was not too bad. As always Chappy was on the mic and after two heat races, the main events started around 3pm. Saturday and Sunday's programs went off without too many glitches. There was a rare red flag on Saturday in the juniors that slowed the event down a bit but Christian Brooks was ok and took to the track a few classes later unscathed.
Noah Grey was the first pole sitter of the weekend in Junior 2 PRD Controlled, running a time of 57.188. Grey was in a class of his own in heat 1, finishing over four seconds ahead of Chance Skaufel and Christian Brooks. Heat 2 was a lot closer with Skylar Estrada and Hannah Grisham not far behind, but Grey still scored the win. The 20 lap main event was anything but typical. All bets were on Grey to take the win, but Royal McKee had other plans. McKee, who just had pins removed from his hand before the event started shotgun on the field. Grey took off at the drop of the green with Estrada, Grisham and Skaufel in tow. The lead quartette quickly distanced themselves from the chance group behind. Coming down the hill Grisham moved into second place, getting around Estrada. Grey was inching out a slight advantage as McKee was moving through the field. By lap 8, McKee was in second and gaining ground on the leader Grey. By lap 16, McKee was up front and went on to take the win. Grey finished in second place with Estrada getting back up into third.
 | TaG winner Travis Lowe
(Photo: Sean Buur - Go Racing Magazine) |
TAG Sr. was the T-Lowe show with Travis Lowe leading the way in qualifying. Lowe bested everyone by over a half second in qualifying as Mike Herda, Alejo Fernandez and Trevor Sumner were all pretty evenly matched. Lowe won both heats without an issue and backed it up with an easy run to the checkered flag in the final. Teammate Fernandez finished in second with Herda in third.
Myles ‘The Machine’ Farhan was the pole sitter in PRD Junior 1 Controlled with a time of 59.770, the only one able to break the minute mark in qualifying. Ryan Schartau qualified P2 followed by Anthony Sawyer, Hunter Corbitt and Jake Drew. Corbitt handily won both heat races and started the final from the pole. Corbitt led the opening circuits before being overtaken by Drew. After leading a handful of laps, Corbitt regained the top position. Sawyer and Schartau were right in the mix with Farhan's day ending early. All hell broke loose in the last laps but Drew was able to bring it home for the win. Sawyer came away in second with Schartau in third.
Christian Brooks scored the pole over Colton Herta in KPV 2 qualifying with a time of 58.006. The duo of Brooks and Herta were the clear favorites throughout the heat races and into the main event. Herta challenged Brooks early in the final, leading a lap or two before having to give way to the dominate Brooks. Noah Grey gets a shout out for starting just the KPV final. He ran PRD earlier in the day and changed motors to run this final on the same chassis. He started in back and ran as high as third, but came up light at scales ruining a great drive. Justice Lepe was the benefactor after performing well all day. He got the position bump and finished in third. Brooks really was the class of the field on the day and had things figured out. Herta was fast too but just a tenth or so slower and settled for second place.
 | Jake Drew won two features on the weekend
(Photo: Sean Buur - Go Racing Magazine) |
Kid Kart Saturday saw Tanner Hudspeth sweep the day's events starting with the pole in qualifying. Hudspeth hammered the field in qualifying, besting his rivals by over a second. Colin Queen qualified P2 with Rylee Martinez and Kaden Vermillion making up row two. Hudspeth continued his dominating performance in heat one and followed it up with a much closer victory in heat two. The main event saw Hudspeth lead every lap, Vermillion run second on every lap and Arien Bakhshi finish in third after running there all day long.
The final class of the day was worth the wait. KPV1 was one of the best races all weekend long. Hunter Corbitt won the pole with a time of 1:01.382. Jonathan Shone was second quick with a lap of 1:01.626. Jagger Jones, Jackson Logsdon and Anthony Sawyer completed the fast five. Corbitt and Shone remained the top two in heat one, but Jake Drew moved up into third place. Drew gained one more position in heat two, finishing second on track to Corbitt. The sixteen kart field took the green flag with Corbitt and Drew side by side heading up the hill in to turn one. What we got was 20 laps of awesome as Corbitt, Drew, Shone, and Jones all went toe to toe for the entire contest. Drew and Corbitt were the only two drivers to lead laps, but that stat doesn't do the race justice. The final lap saw Drew attack Corbitt only to have Jones sneak inside him and steal the position. It was a three-wide drag race to the line with four karts all looking for the glory. Corbitt got the win by only a few feet. Jones had his best finish of the weekend and just inched out Drew for second place. Shone had a great run to finish fourth. Trey Brown also had a very good performance and finished in fifth just about on the pace of the lead group.
Day two kicked off with Sr. PRD taking to the track. T-Lowe was at it again as Travis landed the pole with a time of 57.068 seconds. Lowe won both heat races with Brandon Reed, Mike Herda, or Lloyd Mack giving chase. Lowe didn't get a great start to begin the final, dropping to third as Herda went to the front for a lap. Mack was quick to make a move on Herda and led the charge for another half dozen laps or so. Herda briefly lost a little ground to Mack, but was able to crawl his way back up to and pass the race leader. Reed too was on the move as Mack dropped another position. Once out front again Herda was able to gain just a slight advantage over the field and score the win. Mack came back to pass Reed with only a few laps remaining, scoring a solid second place finish. Reed finished in third with pole sitter Lowe coming home in fourth.
 | KPV1 winner Hunter Corbitt
(Photo: Sean Buur - Go Racing Magazine) |
Tanner Hudspeth was at it again on Sunday scoring his second pole of the weekend, this time in Kid Kart Heavy. Heat one didn't go well for the pole sitter who didn't complete a lap. Kaden Vermillion was the heat one winner with Aden Dodge finding some speed for second place. The leader board was turned upside down again in heat two with Rylee Martinez gapping the field by 14 seconds. Jacob Yesnick led the pack home for second place. The ten lap main event started with Martinez still in the lead with Vermillion and Hudspeth in tow. Vermillion took a turn out front in the middle section of the race, but it was short lived as he fell out on lap 4. Martinez once again went to the front and brought it home for the race win just ahead of Hudspeth.
Trey Brown put the pedal down in KPV 1 Heavy qualifying just nipping the pole from Jake Drew and Anthony Sawyer. Drew took top honors in heat one followed by Sawyer and Corbitt. Heat one had a lot of attrition with five drivers not making it to the finish. Corbitt landed the win in heat #2 followed closely by Drew. So once again, it was Corbitt and Drew starting together on the front row, and once again it was a battle right down to the finish. Drew got the hole shot to begin the 20-lap final but Corbitt was quick to pounce on the lead. Sawyer followed suit, but only could hold the lead for a couple of laps. Corbitt was back out front again until ‘Flyin’ Ryan Schartau made his move in turn two. Schartau continued to pace the field but Drew just lay in wait. With the white flag flying Drew struck out and made the race winning pass. Schartau followed closely to the finish for second place. Corbitt and Sawyer finished right on the winner's pace in third and fourth. Jackson Logsdon led the pack to the checkered flag for fifth.
KPV 4 Heavy saw a slight bump in participation this weekend with five drivers taking the green for the main event. Matt Kimball once again reigned supreme from the wave of the first green flag. Kimball killed it in qualifying, backed it up easily in the heat races and led every lap in the final. Stephen Huelsman and Roger Swizer were second and third.
 | Colton Herta - KPV 2 Heavy
(Photo: Sean Buur - Go Racing Magazine) |
KPV 2 Heavy took to the track for qualifying with Quick Nick Ramirez securing the top starting position with a time of 57.761. Hollywood Christian Brooks was just .002 back for the P2 position with Noah Grey and Colton Herta making up row two. Ramirez and Brooks stayed up front in Heat 1, but Herta bounced to the top of the charts in heat 2. The final was another one of those exciting junior races that are a pleasure to watch. Ramirez led the opening circuit before giving way to Herta. Quickly gapping the field by a little over a second, Herta ran at the point for a number of laps. Herta looked like he had this thing locked up but Royal McKee and Christian Brooks had other plans. The Brooks/McKee duo ran down the #26 driven by Herta and passed him with only three laps remaining. Herta seemed done as Brooks and McKee already had a slight advantage. The final circuit started with McKee stealing the lead from Brooks, but with only two corners remaining the leaders got together. Herta slipped right by and grabbed a fantastic win. McKee held on for second place and Brooks finished a close third. Noah Grey led the pack home some eight seconds back of the leaders for fourth, while Nathan Seagrist finished in fifth.
Jagger Jones stepped up his game in the final class of the weekend, snagging the Rookie Comer pole over Ryan Schartau. ‘Flyin’ Ryan Schartau showed great speed in the heat races beating Jagger Jones in heat one and Jagger and Jace Jones in heat two. The final started off with eight karts all in the hunt for the lead. Both Jones boys, Schartau, Dezel West, Anthony Willis, Myles the machine Farhan, Trey Brown and Kanyon Vermillion all ran nose to tail. Before halfway things came together in the front group, breaking the field into chunks. Schartau had a massive lead over Brown and Jagger Jones but the white flag didn't come quick enough. Jones closed the gap and made the pass on the final lap. With hands in the air Jagger Jones scored the win with Schartau crossing the line in second. Results were then adjusted for a driving infraction and the finishing order show Jones as the winner, Brown second, Farhan in third, Jace Jones fourth and Schartau fifth.
Grangé provided action on track that was second to none. Racing was great all weekend and even the forest fire off in the distance wasn't as hot as Region 7's race weekend. Buttonwillow Raceway Park is the next venue to heat up the series, coming up October 6-7. Online registration will be open soon and as always visit http://www.ikfkarting-r7.com for everything Region 7. |
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