Season ends with a great race
With sunshine and a dry track, what better way to run the final race of the year and bring the 2007 season to an end. But not until some class champions are to be crowned and the final end of year award positions to be determined. With a turn out of 70 drivers, the Rotax Saturday race day continued to be the largest of the three different race days in 2007.
AMD/Marin Karting Rotax DD2
Bring their first year at the Infineon track to a close, eight DD2 karts took the green flag. Michael Ostrowski took the pole ahead of Glen Poy-Wing, newcomer David Arnstein and January Grove. The Prefinal saw the same 4 drivers finish in the same order, but Glen was putting pressure of Ostrowski at the end of the 8 lap Prefinal as was Grove putting pressure on Arnstein. At the start of the Main, Arnstein and Grove hooked wheels prior to turn one and went off in a high speed slide. Arnstein was able to restart and continue, but Grove had to park her kart for the rest of the race. Ostrowski held a slim lead throughout the race over Poy-Wing who just could not get close enough to mount an attack for the lead. In the end, Ostrowski took the win with Glen less than a half second back. Arnstein recovered and drove himself all the way back to third followed by Gary Scharlach and Chris DeBruine. In the Championships, Gregory Liefooghe won both the Jim Russell DD2 and the AMD/Marin Karting Norcal Rotax Cchampionships. Glen Poy-Wing took second and January Grove third in both of the championships.
AMD/Marin Karting Junior Rotax and California Kartworld HPV-2
Both of these new junior classes have shown very good support in 2007, with the Junior Rotax more than tripling over 2006 and HPV-2 having 5 entries per race in their first year at Infineon. The anticipated Junior Rotax Championship shoot out did not materialize as contenders Neil Alberico and Cameron Pringle did not race. Thus points leader Jordan Jadallah had the championship in the bag, as long as he drove a smart race. In the Qualify, Jadallah put his kart on pole a half second faster than Jake Mottaz. The first 5 karts were Rotax, with 6th on the grid being the top HPV-2 kart of Donavon Wheeler. Wheeler had the HPV-2 championship locked up, but wanted to put in a sold race against the Rotax karts to finish the year. In the Prefinal, Jadallah took a 2 second victory over Raymond Bustamante Jr and Kierstin Gee. In HPV-2, Wheeler was took the class win, but was under pressure most of the way from Jarrett Lile and Kathryn Cornell. In the Main, Jadallah got spun around on the start of the Main and had to play catch up for the entire race. Mottaz went to the front for awhile then Bustamante took the lead, then Gee, then Bustamante. Jadallah got into the mix by lap 10 and now it was a 4 kart battle. In the end, Bustamante took his first feature win, Gee second, then Jadallah and Mottaz. In the HPV-2 race, Wheeler picked up the pace and pulled away from the other 3 karts in the class and took a 5 second victory over Lile with Bryson Guzman taking third in his first HPV-2 race of the year. Wheeler won the HPV-2 Championship followed by Lile and Cornell. In the Jim Russell Junior Rotax Championship, it was Jadallah the winner followed by Gee, Bustamante and Mottaz. In the Norcal Rotax Championship (which includes 3 Dixon races), Jadallah also won the championship and with it the AMD Ferrari laptop computer, followed by Jake Mottaz, Mikee Mejia and Cameron Pringle.
AMD/Marin Karting Rotax Masters and Masters Light
For most of the year, the heavier but more seasoned Masters karts have dominated the Rotax Masters/Masters Light races. But not in this last race of the year with the first 4 karts in Qualify being Masters Light karts. Raymond Bustamante Sr took the pole, followed by Bill Brosius and Mert Solis. The top Masters driver was Dan Dollosso in 5th place. In the Prefinal, Brosius took the win over Solis and Jo Montes. Joey Delostrinos was the top Masters driver in 6th followed by Masters Chris DeBruine. Dollosso had problems and fell back to 13th. In the Main, Brosius took the lead and while there was a great battle behind him going on, he just drove fast to take a 9 second victory at the end of the 15 lap race. Dollosso worked his way through the field to take second overall and the Masters class win, followed by Solis (Lights), Vivex Diy (Lights) and David Carlisle (Masters). In the class championships, David Carlisle wins the Jim Russell and Norcal Rotax Championships in Rotax Masters. In the Rotax Lights class, Emmanuel Cellestino wins the Jim Russell Championship, and Raymond Bustamante Sr. wins the Norcal Rotax Championship.
AMD/Marin Karting Senior Rotax
Coming into the last race, 4 drivers had a shot at the Senior Rotax class crowns, so the tensions were high going into the last race of the day. Troy Castaneda returned to the last race of the year and took over Wes Phillip’s kart to take pole, followed by Joe Karrett, Gregory Liefooghe, Michael Ostrowski and Mike Hill. Karrett, Liefooghe and Ostrowski were in contention for the class championship and all had good runs in Qualify. The fourth driver in contention was Clayton Snow, but he was at the Stars race in Las Vegas and would not run in this last race. In the Prefinal, Castaneda took a convincing 4 second win. But the championship trio battled hard to take 2 thru 4, with Liefooghe, Karrett and Ostrowski in that order. At the start of the Main, some bumping through turn one at the start allowed Nikola Radosavljev to take second behind Castaneda with Karrett, Ostowski and Liefooghe close behind. Castaneda again dominated the race and crusied to a 10 second win, but the battle for 2 thru 5 was classic and went right down to the finish line dash on lap 15. About lap 10, Liefooghe and Ostrowski toughed and Liefooghe went off, but recovered to take 8th. Karrett finally got by the surprising newcomer Nikola and in the dash to the finish line Ostrowski also nipped Nikola to take the 3rd spot with Nikola taking 4th. David Arnstein filled out the top 5 with a fifth place finish. In the Championships, the Joe Kareett won the Jim Russell crown by 5 points over Michael Ostrowski, followed by Liefooghe and the absent Clayton Snow and Carlos Calderon. In the Norcal Rotax Championship, Liefooghe takes the crown by 4 points and with it the the AMD Laptop, followed by Karrett, Ostrowski, Snow and Glen Poy-Wing.
The 2007 Rotax Saturday Series in now history. 2007 proved to be a great year for this one day series, with entries up about 40% over 2006, and 4 new classes (Rotax DD2, TaG Masters Light, Junior HPV-2 and Rotax Masters Light) taking hold in 2007 and having promise to expand in 2008.
