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| October 13, 2012 News |
| EKN Trackside: Simpson/Seward Score Pole Position for 2012 RoboPong 200 |
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The ninth edition of the RoboPong 200 officially got underway Saturday at the New Castle Motorsports Park. The New Castle, Indiana facility is full of competitors as 50 teams are taking on the 200-lap challenge around the 1-mile circuit, along with 20+ entries in two Yamaha categories, all racing for a $42,000 cash purse on the weekend put up by Mark Dismore and the NCMP facility. $10,000 of that will go to the team who is the quickest and avoids any issues to reach the checkered flag first, and have their names etched on the Dan Wheldon Cup.
Rain threatened all day, and finally came as the Yamaha Sportsman ran their Prefinal, but overall, the day was full of teams and Yamaha competitors busy in their pits preparing for the qualifying and prefinal events. Timed practice ran in the middle of the day with the Seward/Simpson Racing squad at the top of the charts aboard their DR Kart/Leopard, jumping over the ZF Racing duo of Daniel Formal and Jose Zanella (Tony Kart/Rotax). Rotax filled out the third spot in the two sessions, driven by Jesus Rios Jr. and former pole winner Zach Beard in their MRP Motorsport Birel.
Once the track opened up for qualifying, groups of 10 were sent out based on their practice time. The third group was when people starting taking notice as the Jacob Knueven/Tommy Andersen (Arrow/Leopard) duo posted the provisional pole position lap with a 1:05.788, improving their top practice time by roughly seven tenths. The following group they were trumped by ‘NIJA’ Mike team of Adam Crepin and Mike Nesbitt (Merlin/Leopard), jumping to the top of the time sheets with a 1:05.292, a full second faster than practice.
 | Simpson - Seward will pace the 2012 RoboPong 200 field
(Photo: DavidLeePhoto.com) |
As they did in practice, Simpson/Seward went to the pole position with a 1:05.241-lap with Simpson behind the wheel. ‘NIJA Mike’ dropped to second with Arrow AMR 2 entry of Sam Beasley and Brandon Jones (Arrow/Rotax) in third. The MRP team was fourth with Hyorc Top Kart MKP entry (Top Kart/Leopard) piloted by Nick Neri in fifth. Overall, twenty-four teams are within a one second of the pole position time, showing just how competitive the field is this season.
The Yamaha categories ran their qualifying and prefinal events toward the two $5,000 payday’s tomorrow morning. Local drivers led the way in Yamaha Junior with Kyle Tilley (Arrow) and Sam Cate (Tony Kart) showing the way in qualifying. The field however was unable to work through the opening corner, as Tilley was spun around in the first turn and the 21-kart field was sent scattering around. Camden Speth (Arrow) was able to take advantage and established a sizable lead in the first circuit. A group of drivers formed a train to reel back in Speth, but he was too consistent and drove to a three-second win. Joel Jens (Tony Kart), who started dead last after a DQ in qualifying for a loose muffler, knifed his way through the opening skirmish to move up to seventh by the end of the first lap. He drove up to second followed by a charging Ashley Rogero (Tony Kart) ahead of Derek Dignan (Arrow) and Matt Solarcyzk (Birel).
The Yamaha Sportsman grouped showed the older drivers how to navigate the opening corner, working through the first few turns cleanly. Anthony Gangi Jr. (Tony Kart) led the way after qualifying on the pole position with a lap of 1:15.397. Brandon Lemke (Merlin) lined up outside pole position, and the two broke away from the field. By lap six however the skies finally opened up with precipitation and ended the 15-lap early. Lemke was leading at the time and was awarded the win. Gangi was second with Neil Verhagen (Haase) jumping up from seventh to third. JP Southern Jr. (PCR) was fourth with Alex Verhagen (Haase) in fifth.
Below, you will see the starting lineup for the 2012 RoboPong 200. Tomorrow, racing continues at 9:45am for the Yamaha categories to run their 30-lap main events, with the RoboPong 200 set to start at 1pm. Updates will be published in the Official Discussion Thread throughout the day, along with the Facebook and Twitter accounts. Those wishing to hear and watch the action live are asked to tune into the track’s website -http://www.newcastlemotorsportspark.com - along with live timing provided by RaceMonitor.
2012 RoboPong 200 Photo Grid - courtesy of DavidLeePhoto.com
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