A record turnout of 104 drivers showed up for Race #2 of the Sanzaru Games Karting Championship. This was the first race of the year for the Kid Kart class which had a great field of 11 karts. Two TaG classes were added to accommodate 28 drivers who were at Race #2 in preparation for the upcoming SKUSA Spring Nationals. The featured 80 Masters class again had a guest driver take the win. The TaG Mini/Micro Swift, Junior Rotax and Senior TaG classes provided the closest racing for the wins in the Main with great 3 kart battles. Jacob Gulick won an TaG driver raffle at the end of the day and took home a Molecule driver suit cleaning kit.

Featured Class – 80 Masters

The fastest of the 80 Masters class took to the track with Charles Hastings taking the poll in Qualifying ahead of Roger Cornwall and series promotor Steve Cameron, who was invited to hop in Geoff Provo’s second kart. In the first Pre-Main, Hastings got away and led the field through the first turn with Steve Cameron right behind. Cornwall had problems and didn’t complete a lap. 2016 Champ Dave Holstein led Allen Miller and Geoff Provo. Hastings came home the winner followed by Cameron, Holstein, Miller and Provo. In the second Pre-Main, Hastings got off the line poorly and with Cornwall and Miller getting by and battling up front with Hastings working his way by Holstein to take over 3rd. In the end, Cornwall edged out Miller to take the win, Hastings 3rd, Holstein 4th and Cameron 5th. In the Main, Cameron had a rocket start and got by Hastings before turn one. Holstein spun forcing Cornwall and Hastings to spin too. Hastings and Cornwall got back into the race, but Holstein was out. Cameron led a determined Miller the entire way with Provo 3rd and Stephan Gaudreau 4th. Hastings worked his way past Gaudreau, but as he got behind Provo to set up a pass, he bumped Provo and Provo spun. Hastings would finish 3rd but was placed behind Provo in the final results for the bump. Cameron did not miss a beat and took the win, Miller came home a fine 2nd, Gaudreau 3rd, Cornwall 4th and Provo 5th. Honda Bucks of $60/$40/$20 were awarded to the top three drivers.

Honda/HPD Kid Karts

This was the first Kid Kart race of the year. This was also the start of the first Championship chase for Kid Karts in the history of the Series. 11 drivers showed up to compete, all using the Honda GHX50 4 cycle engine. The Kid Kart program was run as part of the Saturday practice day. In Qualifying Jack Iliffe took the pole ahead of Christian Cameron, Mason Garwood, Casey Moyer and Gage Brockway. In the Pre-Main, Jack, Cameron and Mason lead the field with Andrew Freire working his way into 4th ahead of Casey Moyer and that is how they all finished. In the Main, Christian worked his way into the lead early and pulled away from Jack with Casey, Mason and Gage behind. Near the end of the race, Christian and Jack were both going to have to lap slower drivers. Christian had a sizable lead and came up on 3 slower drivers. Christian got by one driver then as he was trying to go under the other two drivers, one of the other drivers moved into Christian and they all slowed to a halt in the middle of the track. Before Christian could get rolling again, Jack swept by and took over the lead. Jack went on to take the win, Christian 2nd, Casey 3rd, Mason 4th and Gage 5th. The top 3 drivers earned Honda Bucks of $30/$20/$10.

Molecule Rotax Masters

Another strong turnout in Rotax Masters, this time with 11 drivers. In Qualifying, Josh Buttafoco took pole ahead of John Breidinger and Kelly Heil. In the first Pre-Main, Josh took the early lead followed by Kelly, John and Billy Cleavelin and Ron Jenkins. These five pulled away from the rest of the field. Billy got by John for the only change of position among these five drivers at the end of the race. In the second Pre-Main, Josh again took the early lead and the same five drivers battled for the top positions. In the end, Josh took the win just in front of Kelly, John 3rd, Ron 4th and Billy 5th. In the Main, Josh again took the early lead and then started to pull away. Kelly had problems on the out lap and had to pull into the pits. Billy then had problems on lap 8 and pulled off. It was Josh with a sizable lead, Ron and John battling for 2nd and a group of three drivers battling for 3rd. In the end, Josh took a convincing win, Ron a well-earned 2nd, John 3rd, Bob Olson 4th and Kevin Moore 5th.

TaG Mini/Micro Swift

The Mini/Micro Swift provided a very competitive race with an exciting finish. In Qualifying, Dustin Salaverria took the pole ahead of Jonathon Portz and Nikita Johnson. In the first Pre-Main, Dustin took the early lead and opened up a small gap to second. Jonathon had a poor start and fell all the way to back of the field and had to work his way through the field. Josh Pierson also had to work his way through the field from his 9th place starting position. Josh and Jonathon were clearly the two fastest karts in the race, but they both had given up too much track positon to Dustin and they came up short by the end of the race. Dustin went on to take the win, Josh 2nd, Jonathon 3rd and Nikita 4th. In the second Pre-Main, Jonathon challenged Dustin for the lead early and went into the lead with Nikita and Josh both working their way past Dustin. Nikita put lots of pressure on Jonathon but was not able to make a pass by race end. Jonathon took the win, Nikita 2nd, Josh 3rd and Dustin having to settle for 4th. In the Main, Josh, Dustin and Nikita started pulling away from the field early on and battled for the lead the entire 15 laps. Jonathon’s race ended on the 11th lap when he pulled off. The tight lead trio battled right to the last turn with Dustin in the lead but a strong pass by Josh had him coming out of the last turn in the lead with Dustin sprinting down the inside to make the finish very close. Josh took the win by a mere 12 thousandths of a second, Dustin 2nd, Nikita 3rd one tenth of second back, Mateo Rubio-Luengo 4th and Piers Aspiras 5th.

Molecule Senior Rotax

In Qualifying Dominic Giansiracusa took the pole ahead of Brendan Fabular and Alejandro Marquez. In the first Pre-Main Dominic led the field through turn one with Brendan staying close but at the end of the 8 lap race Dominic took a two second win, Brendan took 2nd, Alejandro 3rd, and Eric Huang 4th. In the second Pre-Main, Dominic again led the field early but was challenged all the way by Brendan, with Alejandro and Billy Crane battling for 3rd place. In the end, Brendan could not find the way by thus Dominic took the win, Brendan 2nd, Billy made the pass to take 3rd and Alejandro 4th. In the Main Dominic took the early lead with Brendan and Alejandro battling for second. Alejandro got by Brendan and took over 2nd but on lap 13 Brendan attempted and pass for 2nd that resulted in hard contact that left Alejandro’s kart crashed out of the race. For the hard contact, Brendan was blacked flagged. Dominic went on to an easy win, Billy Crane took over the 2nd place spot and Eric Huang came home 3rd. This was Billy and Eric first podium finishes in the Sanzaru Series.

Molecule Junior Rotax

For a second month in a row, 15 drivers made up the Junior Rotax field. Aiden O’Neill took the pole ahead of William Ferguson and Grant Langon. Right from the start of the first Pre-Main, things got all mixed up with karts spinning everywhere as the field entered turn one with the top three qualifiers all involved due to pushing from behind. In the end, Bryson Lew took the win followed by Nick Persing, Clayton Williams and Eric Moore. The second Pre-Main had a clean start and the fast drivers all battled for the entire 8 laps with the win going to Grant, Aiden 2nd, Nick 3rd and William 4th. The Main began with the last three karts in the field tangling right after taking the green and all three were out of the race. Clayton also had problems on lap one and had to pull off. The racing was fast and furious at the front with a three kart dual for the front spot. In the chase to the last turn, the three battled hard through the corner but they showed great skill in getting through the corner without any incident. In the end, Aiden O’Neill took the win, his first Junior Rotax Main win, Nick Persing was 2nd, backing up his win from last month, Grant Langon 3rd, William Ferguson a strong showing in 4th and Brennen Stammer came home 5th.

Honda/HPD Pro Stock Honda and Honda/HPD Stock Honda Masters

A good sized field of 13 drivers, 6 Pro Stock and 7 Honda Masters, took to the track. In Qualifying, Hunter Pickett took the pole in Pro Stock followed by Kyle Wick and Kyle Loh. In Masters, Kevin Woods took the pole ahead of teammate Patrick O’Neill and Nick Major. In the first Pre-Main, Hunter led the field away from the green and opened up a quick lead and drove onto a 4 second win with Wick 2nd, Loh 3rd and Zach Pettinicchi 4th. In Masters Woods and O’Neill battled up front with O’Neill taking the win by less than a quarter second, Woods 2nd, Major 3rd and Reni Martinelli 4th. In the second Pre-Main, Pickett again took the early lead and drove onto a 2 second win over Wick. A good 3 kart battle over 3rd place with Kol Bailey coming out 3rd, Zach 4th and Loh 5th. In the Masters race, Woods led the early portion of the race with O’Neill and Major right on his rear bumper. In the end Woods took the win, Major 2nd, O’Neill 3rd an Jim Kidd 4th. In the Main, Pickett took the early lead again in Pro Stock and opened it up to come home 7 seconds in front of Wick with Loh 3rd and Bailey 4th. In the Masters race, Woods controlled the front of the field again and came home 7 seconds in front of Major with Victor Jimenez 3rd and Kidd 4th. O’Neill had the fastest lap in the Masters class but had problems in the race and dropped back to 6h. The top 3 in each class were awarded Honda Bucks of $75/$50/$30.

Molecule Rotax Micro/Mini Max

In Qualifying, the Mini of Nolan Siegel was the fastest with Tyson Quach the fastest of the Micro class followed by Ayrton Tyler and Ryan Persing. In the first Pre-Main, Nolan led the field through turn one with Ayrton, Ryan and Tyson right behind. Ryan got by Tyson to take over the lead in Micro early on and drove on to the class win, Tyson 2nd, Ayrton 3rd, and Gia Lintz 4th. In the second Pre-Main, again Nolan lead the group out of turn one, Tyson and Ryan battled for the lead in Micro with a three way battle for 3rd place in Micro. In the end, Nolan took the overall win, Ryan came home first in Micro with Tyson 2nd, Adam Freire prevailed in the 3rd spot, Ayrton 4th and Gia 5th. In the Main, Nolan again lead the group out of turn one with Ryan leading the Micro class. Tyson had to pull off on the pace lap, thus ending what looked to be a good day for the young SoCal driver. Ayrton settled in 2nd with Gia and Adam battling for 3rd in class. Going into the last turn of the white flag lap, Adam attempted a pass on Gia but the result was knocking Gia off the track and out of the race. This would result in a penalty for Adam. Thus, Nolan took the overall and Mini class win, Ryan took the Micro class win, Ayrton 2nd, Dante Barrionuevo 3rd, Wyatt Hair 4th and Harrison Marsh 5th.

Junior/Senior/Masters Combined TaG

15 total TaG karts took to the track. In Qualifying, Enzo Prevost in a Rok powered kart took the pole ahead of Colin Mullan and Michael Avansino, all Senior karts. Hannah Greenemeier was the fastest Junior in 8th spot and Ron Jenkins the fastest Masters in 14th position. In the first Pre-Main, Prevost took the early lead and was never headed followed by Avansino and then a battling group of Senior TaG karts. Hannah worked her way up to 4th by the end of the race to be the highest placed Junior. In the end, Prevost took the overall win, Avansino 2nd and the leading TaG Senior, Kellen Ritter 3rd, Hannah 4th and Colby DuBato 5h. In the second Pre-Main, Prevost again took the early lead and went onto a 3 second win. In the TaG battle, Carter Herrera worked his way up to 2nd overall and the TaG Senior win followed by Hannah for the Junior win and 3rd overall, Ritter 4th overall and Jacob Gulick 5th. In the Main, Hannah had an early airplane flight to catch, thus did not run the Main. Prevost again took the overall lead with Ritter, Avansino and Mullan right behind. These 4 battled the entire 15 laps with Prevost taking a narrow win at the checkered. Ritter came home the top X30 kart, Avansino 3rd overall, then Mullan and Herrera. Jarod Korth was the top Junior to finish with Arron Farris the top Masters at the checkered.

EVO Electrics and Honda/HPD CRF 250

In Qualifying, Enzo Prevost (EVO) was the fastest with Jason Toft (250) next followed by Memo Gidley (EVO) and Richard Stock (250). In the first Pre-Main, the 250 karts started in front of the electrics with Toft taking the early lead and driving onto a 6 second win, Stock 2nd and Richard Hilleman 3rd. In the EVO class, Enzo lead Mason Cohen across the checked flag to take the win, Cohen 2nd and Gidley 3rd. In the second Pre-Main, the 250 class was a repeat of the first race with Toft taking the win, Stock 2nd and Hilleman 3rd. In the EVO class, Prevost again controlled the race and took the win, Jimmy Casey working his way into 2nd and Gidley 3rd. In the Main, Toft led the 250 class away from the standing start but Stock spun at turn two and was not able to restart. Thus, Toft drove on to an easy win, Hilleman 2nd. In the EVO class, Prevost took the early lead and controlled the race and came home with the win followed by Cohen and Gidley. The CRF 250 drivers received Honda Bucks of $100/$70/$40 for their efforts.

The next race will be May 21 where the track configuration will be the Sprint Track and the Feature class will be the Micro Max. The Kid Karts will also be running on the Sunday program this race so they get the experience of racing on Sunday Raceday.

All results and points can be seen on the series website at www.sanzarukarting.com.

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