Race #7 Report

The Jim Russell Northern California Rotax Challenge returned to action at the famed Infineon Raceway in what was a picture perfect autumn day. With temperatures hovering around 90 degrees, the warm day was perfectly matched for the hot action on track.

Junior Rotax and Mini Max
The first race of the day was a combined race group of Junior Rotax, Mini Max and HPV-1 drivers. In qualifying, the top two times were set by Junior Rotax drivers Brody Zink and Niki Luna followed by Mini Max drivers Drew Setzer, JR Raczko, Harrison Mills and Cole Davis with HPV-1 driver Michael Avansino rounding out the field.

In the pre-main, Zink took the lead and went virtually uncontested as Luna's kart had an engine problem from the outset. Setzer took over second place followed by Raczko as Luna soldiered on to take fourth overall followed by Mills, Davis and Avansino.

In the main, Luna had his engine corrected and he was poised to do battle again starting from the front row. Luna took the lead into turn one and held off a hard charging Zink through the first couple of laps. The pressure couldn't be held as Zink made a clean pass on lap three and went on to a sixteen second win. Setzer took the lead in the Mini Max class at the green flag and was never challenged the entire race. Raczko held second followed by Cole Davis who got past Mills early on during the Main.

Senior Rotax
With five winners in the first 6 races, the Senior Rotax class has been the most tightly contested race series in the Northern California. All five winners were present to take the green for round seven. Qualifying saw Wes Phillips take the pole ahead of Nic LeDuc, Matthew Powers, Jordan Jadallah and Nikola Radosavljevich.

The twelve lap pre-main kicked off with Phillips in the lead followed closely by Powers and LeDuc. The field kept in line for the duration with Phillips crossing the line first followed by LeDuc, Powers, Radosavlievich and David Harwin in fifth.

At the start of the main, Phillips, Powers and LeDuc started to pull away from the pack, swapping the lead several times during the first half of the race. Powers took the lead on lap five and looked like he may be the sixth different race winner of 2009, but disaster struck on lap eight when he threw a chain in the middle of the tic-tac-toe.

LeDuc took the lead with Phillips right behind, exchanging the lead several times for the remainder of the eighteen lap main event. Behind the lead duo, the racing was hot, as Radosavlievich, Jake Mottaz and Harwin battled for third place. Mottaz took control of third spot, but was slightly hampered by a missing nose piece. Series regular and Jim Russell FJR-50 competitor, Gregory Liefooghe, started the main in eighth and worked his way up through the field, eventually getting by Mottaz for third place. A great battle for fifth place raged for the last half of the race between Harwin, Matthew Weiss and Carlos Calderon.

At the end of the all the close action, Phillips took the win just 1.4 seconds ahead of LeDuc, Liefooghe and Mottaz in fourth. Mottaz did not make weight when he was weighed without the nose of his kart, promoting Harwin into fourth with Weiss rounding out the top five.

Micro Max/Junior 1 Comer
Nicky Hays took the pole ahead of the lone Comer of Michael Avansino followed by Michael Michoff and Toni Breidinger. At the start of the Pre-Main, Hays, Avansino and Michoff started a back and forth battle that would last all day. Action was tight in the dwindling laps of the pre-main as Michoff and Hays came together in turn one, causing both to spin. Going on to recover, the duo were still able to finish second and third respectively with Avansino picking up the win.

The main saw a continuation of the fight with the top three drivers exchanging positions throughout the run. Michoff was able to work by Avansino and pulled out a short lead. Hays was also able to make a move by the Comer driver, setting his sights on leader Michoff. In the end, Michoff's lead was too much as he took the win by just over a second ahead of Hays, Avansino in third in the Comer followed by Toni Breidinger, Annie Breidinger and Sarah Setzer.

80 Shifters
The 80 Shifter field saw nine drivers line up for what was some great on track action. Steve Peterson took the pole ahead of Marc Stanley and Gerry Williams in the qualifying session. At the start of the pre-main, Peterson got off to a poor start and fell back a few spots. Stanley sprung into the lead by turn one and went unchallenged to cross the line first. Williams settled into second position, finishing just ahead of Tom Nelson and Cody McKinney.

Stanley again took the lead as the green flag signaled the start of the main. As Stanley checked out on the field, the action continued amongst the drivers behind him. Williams looked like he was going to have a comfortable drive to second, but midway through the eighteen lap race, his engine started losing power and was passed by Nelson, McKinney, Ben Fisher and Steve Peterson. The engine issues proved fatal for Williams, as he had to retire along with McKinney. Stanley cruised to an uneventful win, with Nelson scoring

valuable points coming home second and maintaining his championship lead. Fisher was able to score the third place spot with David Mendez coming home fourth overall and first in the Masters class.

Rotax DD2
Seven DD2 karts took the track in what turned out to be the most highly contested race of the year. In qualifying, David Arnstein got the best of Troy Castaneda to take the pole followed by Kyle Gimple and Bronson Eggert. Arnstein took the lead into turn one of the pre-main with Castaneda and Gimple in close tow. On lap two, Arnstein and Castaneda couldn't stay out of each other's way, and contact ended both of their races. Gimple moved into the lead followed closely by Eggert and January Grove. Fighting a bent spindle after clipping the wreckage of Arnstein and Castaneda, Gimple made it through to take the win.

With all the crash damage repaired, the main was set for a charge as the fastest drivers were forced to start from the rear. Eggert took the lead off the green followed by Gimple, Arnstein, Grove, Castaneda, David Palic and Dave Moody. The top five drivers ran in a tight pack as the drivers were passing each other several times a lap. A break through came as Arnstein took the point with Castaneda and Gimple right behind. In what was setting up to be a repeat of contact from the pre-main, Castaneda made a strong but clean pass over Arnstein to take the lead late in the run with Gimple also slipping by. Castaneda, returning from his runner-up finish at the Rotax Grand Nationals, pulled away to take a five second lead to the checkered flag, while Gimple pressed hard to stay ahead of Arnstein at the line.

Rotax Masters and Masters Light
Nine karts, five Masters and four Lights, took the track for this combined race group. Normally competing in the shifter ranks, Steve Cameron came out for one of his rare kart racing appearances strapped with fresh Rotax power. It did not take long for the experienced Cameron (Lights) to get the hang of the power difference, putting his kart on pole just ahead of David Harwin (Masters). Andrea Delfanti (Lights) settled for the third position followed by Mary Beth Wilson (Lights).

Cameron took the lead at the green flag in the pre-main and was never challenged. Harwin and Delfanti battled for most of the race with Delfanti getting by near the end to take second. Jack Arluck (Masters) worked his way up to fourth with Andre Eriksen (Masters) in fifth just ahead of Wilson.

Delfanti was able to take the fight to Cameron in the Main as the two Lights drivers battled the entire eighteen laps. Delfanti did all he could to find a way by, but had to settle for second spot at the line.

The racing action continued behind the lead pack as Harwin controlled the third spot and with it, the Masters class lead. Engine problems hit the class points leading Harwin and who fell back to eighth place by the end of
the race. Arluck took over the third position and was able to cruise home to his first Masters class win. Eriksen came home fourth with his best drive of the year, however it wasn't easy as Jerry Pretti maintained pressure on him throughout the run.

Race #8 of the Jim Russell Northern California Rotax Challenge will be run on Sunday, October 11th, at the Kinsmen Kart Club in Dixon, California. The series returns to the Jim Russell International Karting Center on Saturday, October 24th for race #9 with the season finale race #10 back at Kinsmen Kart Club on Sunday, November 8th.

Full race results including MyLaps data posted on series website at http://results.norcalrotax.com.

Snapshots of the event have been posted at http://www.norcalrotax.com/multimedia/.

Official Series photographer Ed broberg prefessional shots available for order shortly.

2009 National points tables can be found at www.usrmaxnrd.com.

Thank you to all our series sponsors. Please give your business to these businesses that support you.