Excellent Racing for Round #4

Race #4 of the 2009 Northern California Rotax Challenge dawned to a great day of sunshine and warm temperatures and some competitive kart racing at the Jim Russell International Karting Center at Infineon Raceway. We have been joined by a couple of classes from the Sunday Jim Russell Series so we had some extra competitors who also enjoyed the day.

Rotax Micro-Max

Another solid field of 7 Micro-Max karts turned out along with one Gazelle engine TaG kart. In Qualifing, Michael Mitchoff took the pole ahead of Nicky Hays and Wilson Skjerven. At the start of the Pre-Main, Mitchoff took the lead ahead of Hays, Skjerven and Toni Breidinger with the Gazelle of Tommy McCarthy starting last and working his way through the field. Toni B. and Wilson tangle early on and this allows Toni's sister Annie to get by and take over 3rd. Shortly thereafter, McCarthy continues his passing through the field and takes over 3rd, then gets by Hays and near the end of the race gets safely passes Mitchoff to go on to a 2 second win followed by Mitchoff, Hays and Annie Breidinger.

For the Main, McCarthy started from the rear again to work on his passing skills, thus it was Mitchoff leading the field into turn one from the poll. Hays had another slow start and lost contact rather soon. Annie showed that her Pre-Main performance was not a fluke and pulled away from Skjerven. McCarthy again carved his way through the field and was up to second when he dropped a wheel and spun, eventually rejoining the field in 7th. Mitchoff continued to increase his lead on Hays and took the checkered just over 4 seconds ahead. Annie pulled away from Skjerven to finish in her best position of the year with a solid 3rd, followed by McCarthy (Gazelle) and Wilson Skjerven, who was 5th, 4th in class.

Rotax Masters and Masters Light

The combined Rotax Masters and Masters Light classes again turned out a large field with 10 Masters karts and 8 Masters Light karts. In the Qualifing, the front row went to a couple of Masters Lights drivers, Joe Karratt and 3 time winner Andrea Delfanti. Donald Durbin was the top Masters in 3rd followed by Mert Solis (Lights), David Harwin (Masters) and Mary Beth Wilson (Lights). In the Pre-Main, Karratt lead the field into turn one and pulled away easily to take an uncontested 5 second win. The real racing fun was for 2nd where Durbin and Delfanti went back and forth the entire way with Durbin finishing just ahead of the Lights driver. Harwin was another 5 seconds back then there was a gap to a group of 4 karts that battled the entire way. Mert Solis led this group to the checkered flag followed by Wilson, Doloras Mosqueda (Lights) and Jack Arluck (Masters).

In the Main, some bumping just after the green flag caused Mert Solis to crash out. Karratt again took the early lead and he went on to a comfortable 7 second win to take the race and 1st place in the Lights class. Durbin and Delfanti battled back and forth again for the second overall spot with Durbin finally taking control of 2nd and also the win in the Masters class. Delfanti was 3rd, 2nd in Lights. Two time Masters winner David Harwin just did not have the fast setup today and had to settle for a 4th overall and 2nd in the Masters class. David Oroshnik came up and challenged Mary Beth Wilson for 5th overall at mid-race, but he spun while attempting a pass under hard braking and that ended his day. Jack Arluck then pressured Wilson and took over 5th at the end of the race, 3rd in Masters. Wilson (Lights) was 6th just head of hubby Jerry Pretti (Masters) in 7th, Ron Jenkins (Masters) in 8th, Dolores Mosqueda (Lights) in 9th and Andre Eriksen (Masters) recovering from a lap one spin to come home 10th.

Rotax DD2

Eight of the 2 speed Rotax karts took to the track with everyone expecting another run away from 3 time winner Troy Castenada, but Troy would end up with a day to forget. As the field was preparing to go out for Qualifing, Troy's starter motor failed, thus he got no time. David Arnstein took the poll by over a half second ahead of Kyle Gimple followed by January Grove, Bronson Eggert and David Palic. In the Pre-Main, Arnstein took the early lead ahead of Gimple. Castenada quickly carved his way through the field and got right behind Arnstein and looking to make the pass. But as Troy pulled out to make a pass, he clipped Arnstein's rear bumper and David went a spinning. David recovered and was running in 4th. Troy was now in the lead, but it did not last long as something went wrong with the kart and it stopped on track. Gimple went on to the win followed by Grove, Arnstein and Eggert.

At the start of the Main, Gimple took the lead into turn one followed by Arnstein and Grove. But on lap one, Castenada again was coming up the inside of Eggert to attempt a pass but instead he misjudged it and went over the rear wheel of Eggert and the two karts flew off the track. Eggert's kart was broken but Bronson was OK. Troy's kart continued but had damage and he exited to the pits. There would be a new first time winner of the DD2 class this day with Troy's exit. Gimple is now the leader, but he is being chased by a very tenacious Arnstein. As the race wore on, Arnstein is eating a bit into Gimple's lead each lap until he was just about 5 karts lengths back. With 3 laps to go, Gimple mustarded up all his reserves to put in 3 of his best laps and he increased the lead with each lap and came home a second in front of the 2008 class champ. This was Gimple's first feature win at the Infineon track. In 3rd was January Grove with David Palic putting in his best drive of the year by coming home a strong 4th followed by Dave Moody in 5th.

Junior Rotax and Mini-Max

The Junior Rotax and Mini-Max karts combined for Race #4. The two Junior Rotax karts of Brody Zink and new comer Dominic Cavalli were on the front row with Drew Setzer leading the Mini-Max Qualifing ahead of Harrison Mills and JR Raczko. In the Pre-Main, Brody quickly pulled away from the pack and went on to a convincing win. But the best battle all day was amongst the 3 Mini-Max karts. Early on in the 12 lap Pre-Main, Mills took the lead and held off Setzer and Raczko by the slimmest of margins, less than a half second separating the 3 karts.

In the Main, again Brody Zink pulled away to take the Junior Rotax win. Cavalli also pulled clear of the Mini-Max battle to take 2nd in the Junior class. But the real excitement was again in the Mini-Max class. For 18 laps, the three karts ran nose to tail and exchanged the lead several times. First Harrison controlled the front of the battle for the first 9 laps of the Main, then JR made the pass to take over second then made the same pass to get by Mills to take the lead. But Mills was not going to give up the fight that easy. Mills got a good run on the sweeper going into the infield and took over the lead from JR. With the white flag waving, the 3 karts were still nose to tail with one lap to go. Mills drove a flawless lap and JR could not see a place to make his move. It all came down to the last turn. Harrison set it up to get through quickly, but he left the door open and JR put his kart right on the inside rumble strips and took over the inside line of the curve and rolled around the corner just ahead of Mills with Setzer just behind. All three karts came across the line almost side by side with only .121 of a second separating the three.

Senior Rotax

15 drivers turned out to run what has been the toughest class of the 2009 Rotax season. Even though four regular drivers were back at the Rotax Shootout in Norman, Oklahoma, the depth of the 2009 Rotax field meant that there were lots of strong drivers to compete for the Race #4 win. In Qualifying, two 2008 Junior Rotax graduates took the front row with Jordan Jadallah on pole with Donavon Wheeler right next to Jordan. Nikola Radosavljevich was third followed by a fast improving Carlos Calderon and Mathew Weiss in 5th. In the Pre-Main, Jadallah took the lead through turn one and the race was over after two laps as Jordan started to pull away. Nikola got by Wheeler at the start and controlled 2nd for the entire race. Wheeler challenged Nikola at first but had to spend more time holding off a challenge from Andrew Novich, who got a great start moving up from 7th at the start. Mathew Weiss put in his best drive of the year to come home 5th just ahead of Calderon.

In the Main, Nikola, Novich and Wheeler did not allow Jordan to get away so quickly and battled the 2007/2008 Junior Rotax Champ for the first few laps. Novich got by Jordan on the second lap with Nikola and Wheeler also getting by Jordan. Jadallah did not panic and got back into a fast rhythm and picked off the front three karts one at a time until he was able to pass Novich for the lead. Novich could not hold on and eventually was under attack from Nikola. All the while a great battle was ragging for the 5th through 9th spots with Travis Duhn methodically getting by one kart at a time. Once in 5th, Travis was able to pull away and put pressure on Wheeler who was 4th. Travis and Wheeler battled with Travis getting by near the end of the race. Jadallah held the top position to take the checker flag nearly 3 seconds in front of Nikola with Novich another second back in 3rd followed by Travis Duhn and Donavon Wheeler.

The next round of the Jim Russell Championship Series will be on August 29th and will run for the only time in 2009 the Reverse Sprint configuration. This will start a very busy 2 and ½ months for the Jim Russell Norcal Rotax Challenge Series which will have 6 races plus the Rotax Nationals during this period.

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