9-6-10 Red Line Oil Karting Championship Race #7 Recap

Another beautiful sunny day dawned to help make the racing at the RLOKC Series that much better. A strong field of 60 drivers put on a great show of competitive racing with several races ending in dramatic fashion. The National Track configuration at the Jim Russell International Karting Center at Infineon Raceway allowed the karts to really stretch their legs and show what they have. The Molecule "Dirty Driver" suit cleaning award went to Corey Mitchell and the Trapeze Arts "Move of the Race"award went to Barry Lee for his pass at the finish line in Heat #1 to win the race.

Rotax Masters
For the second race in a row, the Rotax Masters and Masters Lights classes ran in separate race groups due to the large entry. The Masters class had eleven drivers, the largest Rotax Masters class entry in series history. In Qualifying, Andre Eriksen took the pole ahead of Jerry Pretti and Barry Lee. In the first Heat, Eriksen took the lead on the started followed by Lee, Pretti and Cameron Evans. Lee hounded Eriksen the whole distance and made a couple of pass attempts at the end of the long straight away. On the last lap, Barry broke out of the slipstream a few yards from the finish line to nip Erikson by less than two-hundredths of a second. Pretti, Evans and Ludovic Racinet came home third, fourth and fifth. In the second Heat, Eriksen pulled away just enough at the start to avoid getting zinged at the finish line. He went on to a slim win over Pretti followed by Lee, Evans and Racinet. In the fifteen lap Main, Eriksen took the lead at the green followed by Lee out of turn one. These two drivers opened up a lead over the rest of the field and then had their own private battle. But Barry didn't have another magic pass in him and had to settle for second followed by Pretti, Evans and Racinet.

Rotax Mini-Max
Michael Avansino took the pole ahead of eight other drivers. Scott Huffaker was second and Michael Michoff third. As it would turn out, these three drivers would spend the rest of the day no more that one foot from each other. In the first Heat, Avansino took the lead at the green with Huffaker and Michoff right on Avansino's tail the entire eight lap race. Gino Gigliotti and Toni Breidinger took fourth and fifth. In the second Heat, Avansino again took the lead ahead of Huffacker and Michoff. The three drivers again raced nose to tail the entire race and Avansino held on to a three-tenths of a second win ahead of Huffaker, Michoff, Gigliotti and Colin Dailey. In the Main, the top three drivers stuck together like glue again with Michoff overtaking Huffacker at the drop of the green. Avansino was under intense pressure from Michoff the entire race with Michoff making a number of tries for the lead. In the end, Avansino just did not leave the door open enough to give Michoff an opening. Avansino held off Michoff by just .092 of a second to take his third Infineon race win in a row. Huffaker played the patience game in case the leaders tangled, but in the end had to settle for third place, just two tenths of second behind the leaders. Annie Breidinger and Colin Dailey got by Gino to take fourth and fifth while Gino taking sixth with some poor brakes. For his win, Avansino took home the giant Sanzaru check and FIFTY dollars in cash.

Rotax Masters Lights and IAME Tag
Four TaG karts joined the ten Masters Light karts to make up the largest race group of the day. In Qualify, Masters Light karts took the first 5 spots on the grid lead by Andrea Delfanti, Mert Solis, Mary Beth Wilsom, Jojo Bayabo and Jerry Pretti. Top TaG kart was Don Rocci in sixth. In the first Heat, Delfanti took the green and never looked back taking a three second victory followed by Solis, Wilson, Pretti and the top TaG of Branson Eggert. In the second Heat, Delfanti again took the point at the drop of the green and was never headed. Solis was third and Michael Torrano taking fourth overall and first in IAME TaG. Both Wilson and Eggert fell down the standings when the two came together near the end of the race. In the Main, Delfanti again took the lead with Solis, Pretti and Wilson next. The TaG fortunes changed a lot in the Main with Victor Sinzig getting his carburetor set right and drove a solid drive to second overall. Eggert also came through the field and drove home 3rd overall in the race followed by Solis, Pretti, and a charging Steve Weiss. Points leader Wilson came home eightoverall, sixth in the Lights class. The top three IAME drivers took home IAME parts certificates of $50 (1st), $25 (2nd) and $15 for (3rd) place.

125 Stock Moto and 80 Shifters
The five 125 Motos combined with the five 80 shifters in a split start race that had good action for first place all day long. In Qualifying, Steve Cameron took the 125 pole ahead of Jim Inglebright and Nick Galante while Greg Richter took the 80 pole ahead of Roger Cornwall and Marc Stanley. In the first Heat, Inglebright got past Cameron on the start with Cornwall also getting by Richter to take the 80 lead. Cameron took the lead back a lap later and half way through the eight lap race, Inglebright and Galante touched and both spun as they were exiting turn one. Galante recovered to take third with Brad Shaffer second and Cameron winning. Cornwall held his lead over Richter to take the 80 win with Geoff Provo third. In the second Heat, Cameron took the lead at the green and went on to the win ahead of Galante and Shaffer with Richter taking control of the 80 win followed by Cornwall and Stanley. In the Main, Nick Galante took the lead at the green with Cameron chasing. This duel went on for the whole race with Galante not giving Cameron a good look for a clean pass. Nick held on to take the win and with it the GoPro Hero camera. Steve Cameron came home 2nd followed by a recovered Inglebright. In the 80 portion of the race, Richter again took the lead at the start but was pressured the entire race by Cornwall. In the end, Greg took the win with Roger one second back and Marc Stanley another second back.

Rotax DD2
The DD2 class was a second GoPro feature class with seven drivers entered. Michael Ostrowski took the pole ahead of Bronson Eggert and class points leader January Grove. In the first Heat, Ostrowski took the lead at the green and held a steady but slim lead to win the race over Eggert and Grove. In the second Heat, Michael again took the lead at the start with Grove sneaking by at the start to take second ahead of the young Eggert and that is how they finished the race. In the Main, Ostrowski again took the early lead with Grove very close behind the entire race. Eggert ran third until kart problems sidelined him turning over third place to Andre Eriksen. In the end, Ostrowski took the win, two seconds ahead of Grove with Eriksen third and Adam Fichtelman fourth. For the win, Ostrowski took home the GoPro Hero camera.

Senior and Junior Rotax
Repeating the Dixon race the previous race, the three Junior drivers combined with the six Senior karts for the race. This combination made for some great racing and allowed the Juniors to challenge some of the Senior drivers during the race. In Qualifying, Carlos Calderon took the pole ahead of Dixon winner Raymond Bustamante Jr and Amber Friedberg. Bobby Tifft was the fastest Junior in fourth position with Joshua Feiber starting in the fifth position. In the first Heat, Calderon took the early lead with Friedberg right on his tail. The two points leading drivers went back and forth with Amber getting the upper hand at the end to take the win over Calderon with Bustamante third. Bobby Tifft took fourth and the Junior win with Joshua Feiber coming home seventh ahead of points leader Brody Zink. In the second Heat, again Calderon took the initial lead with Friedberg challenging and again Amber found the way by to take the win ahead of Sean McDonald with Calderon coming home third. Tifft was fifth overall and first in Junior with Feiber coming home seventh overall.

The Main proved to have the most exciting finish of the day. Amber and Carlos fought for the lead early on with Calderon getting back into the lead spot. Amber then took over the lead mid race with Calderon taking the lead back with just a few laps left. Again Amber regained the lead. On the last lap, Calderon and Amber battled coming out of tic-tac-toe with Calderon taking the lead and Sean McDonald also getting by into second. Only three turns later, Carlos dropped a rear wheel and Sean and Amber both sped by. Sean held the point to take a very slim win (by just .017 of a second) to win his first Senior feature. Friedberg came home second, Calderon third and Andrew Colombini fourth. In the Junior race, Tifft fell back at the start but made a few passes to get up to fifth overall with Brody Zink right behind him. With 5 laps left in the race, Tifft was making a pass on Colombini when the two touched and Tifft went spinning. This left Zink in the Junior lead with Feiber right on is tail. Zink went on to win ahead of Joshua.

All results and points can be seen by going to http://www.norcalrotax.com/results/.

There are just 3 more races left in the Red Line Oil Rotax Challenge and two more races left for the Shifter and TaG classes. The next race will be the Rotax Challenge at Dixon on September 19 and then the two final races for all the RLOKC classes at Infineon September 26 and October 24.

For more information on the Red Line Oil Karting Championship and the Northern California Rotax Challenge, go to www.cameronkarting.com  or www.norcalrotax.com