Phil Gordon to race in RM1/DD2 Grand Nationals

[Rick]

Phil Gordon will be racing in the Rotax RM1/DD2 Grand Nationals this weekend and I'd like to wish him the best of luck! I hope he makes into the coveted top 3 and earns a full ride to the world championships!

[rct25]

Phil,
Good luck at Road America! :4:

Here at the results from Thursday:

http://www.ekartingnews.com/news_info.php?n=6873

Roberto

[Rick]

EKN Trackside: Champ Car Rotax Kart Challenge Grand Nationals - Friday Report

Friday in Wisconsin dawned cloudy, dark and rainy, just as it had been predicted. This meant that a challenging day was in store for the drivers and crews running at the Champ Car-Rotax Challenge Grand Nationals at Road America's Briggs & Stratton Motorplex. Up until this morning, the weather has been perfect at the HardRadio.com presented event. However, it takes more than rain to dampen the spirit of these competitive drivers and many were looking forward to competing on a slick track.

The day's events got underway with short warm-up sessions for all five classes before qualifying. During these sessions, the Champ Cars took to the Road America track and the sight of karts competing alongside the Champ Cars was quite impressive. This is the first time that all rungs of the Champ Car ladder have run together at the same venue and the effect on the drivers is quite inspiring. This should be ! especially true for a handful of drivers competing this weekend for a test in a Walker Racing Formula BMW. To determine just who will get this opportunity, members of the Aussie Vineyards/Walker Racing team were on hand throughout the day observing the young drivers on their list.

Mini Max qualifying was first up and Gabriel Chaves proved to be the best in the wet by setting pole with a 57.371-second lap. This was quite an impressive run by the Floridian, who posted multiple laps that would have put him on pole. Second in Mini Max qualifying was Nick Neri with a lap of 57.946 to be the only other Mini max under 58 seconds. In third, 0.689 seconds behind Neri, was Californian Vinny Maestas on a Birel. Dakota Dickerson and Alex Karabourniotis rounded out the top five with a 58.650 and 58.888-second laps, respectively.

Next to qualify was the Rotax Junior class. The 33-strong field was topped by Ft. Lauderdale, Florida's Timothy Stewart, who turned a 56.359 abo! ard his Merlin chassis. Utah driver Michael Self put his Arrow/Rotax c ombination in second with a best lap of 56.567. Jose Zanella showed his skill in the rain by steering his CRG to a fine third place with a 56.643. Joining Zanella on the outside of the second row will be Austin Issac in his Arrow. Rounding out the top five in Junior qualifying was Washington driver Nick Satter with a lap at 56.903.

David Odenthal picked up where he left of at South Bend last year by leading Masters qualifying with an impressive 56.090 lap time. Waqar Meyer joins Odenthal on the front row in his Birel. Meyer's lap of 56.221 trailed Odenthal's pole time by just .131 seconds. The second row of the Masters field is will be made up of Michael Mautner and John Brown. Mautner's 56.819 beat Brown's 56.839 by a scant 0.020 seconds. Rounding out the top five to head up row three will be former Rotax Masters National champion Andy Seesemann, who ran a best lap of 56.912.


Jordan Musser held off a hard charging Mackenzie Johnson to take the DD2 Prefinal win
(Photo: Ken Johnson)

By the time the DD2 class was set to run, the rain had stopped falling and, although still damp, the track was noticeably less wet. This change in track conditions really helped the DD2 runners to show their performance advantage over the field. Former Rotax Senior Champion Jordon Musser and Mackenzie Johnson, a Junior participant last year in Langkawi, Malaysia, both took advantage of the change in track conditions and put down some scorching fast times. In the end, Jordon ended up on pole with a best lap of 53.689, a full 0.472 of a second faster than Mackenzie's 54.161. Row two will be made up of Las Vegas driver Curtis Cooksey (54.904) and Coeur d' Alene, Idaho's Brett Smrz (55.610). Greg Thek turned a 55.625 to slot his CRG into fifth place.

In Rotax Senior qualifying, James Kenned! y became the third former Rotax National Champion to set a pole time by turning a 54.618-second lap in his Sodi Kart. Wilsonville, Oregon's Mike Rolison had his Margay working really well and set a best time of 54.898 to sit outside the front row. Row 2 will be an all-Florida pairing as Ariel Castro's (PCR) lap at 54.989 beat Thiago "Parezinho" Bereira's (CRG) 55.252 by just over a quarter of a second. Rounding out the top five in Rotax Senior is Las Vegas, Nevada's Zach Woodsford (Birel) with a best lap of 55.317.

In between qualifying and the Pre-Final, the teams kept very busy working on race preparation, making everything just right. Meanwhile, many took the opportunity to watch action on the "other" track as both the Champ Cars and the Formula Atlantics were running their own practice sessions.

When it came time for the Mini Max drivers to run their 15-lap Pre-Final, Floridian Gabriel Chaves demonstrated to all his wet track skills by streaking to an im! pressive 4.103-second win over Nick Neri. Both Chaves (Kart Mini) and Neri (Shockwave) ran away from the pack and seemed to be lapping back-markers quite early and worked their way through traffic that belied their young age. Alex Karabaurniotis (Swiss Hutless), Steven Kowalski (Birel) and Bobby Ross (Shockwave) took third through fifth, respectively. It was interesting to note that the top-seven finishers in the Mini Max class all came from the Florida Club Mini Max Region.


Mike Rolison took a 8-plus second victory in the Senior Prefinal to start tomorrow's main event from the pole
(Photo: Ken Johnson)

Following the theme of Florida domination in Mini Max, the Junior Max Pre-Final was won by Miami's Jose Zanella. Jose put in a strong 20-lap run in his CRG to finish 3.905 seconds to the good over Park City, Utah's Michael Self in an Arrow. Just over four seconds behind Self was third place David Holland (Birel) from Lubbock, Texas. David was really flying as he moved up to third all the way from an 11th place starting spot. Fourth place in the Junior Pre-Final was Melrose Park, Illinois' Timmy Megenbier (Birel) who's pulling double duty this weekend by not just running the Champ Bar-Rotax nationals, but also the Skip Barber Formula Dodge event on the big track. Starting fifth and finishing fifth was Nick Satter (CRG) from Bremerton, Washington.

In the Masters Pr! e-Final, Odenthal and Waqar Meyer started first and second, and finished first and second, but not without a great battle along the way. At the start of the race, Odenthal pulled out to a small lead but Meyer gradually reeled him in and with a few laps to go the battle was truly on. At the checkered, Odenthal was just able to hold Meyer off by 0.606 seconds to take the win. Behind the Odenthal/Meyer duel, Tampa, Florida's Rene Martinelli brought his CRG home in third (up from seventh starting spot) two seconds ahead of fellow Floridian John Brown (Birel). Fifth in Masters was Mautner in his number 12 CRG.

The penultimate race of the day featured the best lead battle as Jordon Musser and Mackenzie Johnson had a good old-fashioned 'throw-down' for top DD2 honors. In the beginning, Jordon had a slight lead but Mackenzie refused to lay down and die and fought his way back to pass Jordon going into the turn 2/3 chicane with a couple laps to go. Jordon got a great run exi! ting the chicane and was able to re-take the top spot going into turn four at the top of the hill. Mackenzie had a couple more looks down the inside but used discretion as the better part of valor and in the end wound up second, just 0.142 seconds behind Jordon for the closest margin of victory all day. The Musser/Johnson battle was so hot, it took them 11 seconds ahead of third place finisher Cooksey (CRG), who had an additional two seconds in hand over the CRG of Smrz. Austin McCoy moved his PCR up from seventh to fifth. However, in tech it was determined that his rain guard interfered with his airbox which is an infraction of the rules. Fortunately for him, it was a minor infraction and the penalty was to move him back one position to sixth. This left Broken Arrow, Oklahoma driver Nathan Mauel in fifth.


Gabriel Chaves controlled the rain well and will start the Mini Max main event from P1
(Photo: Ken Johnson)

Rotax Senior was the last race of the day and featured some great action throughout the pack. Polesitter Kennedy started up front but leading the first lap was the Las Vegas duo of Woodsford and Herda, both on Birel chassis. As Zach and Mike were trying to break away from the pack, Rolison was working his way back up after getting shuffled back on the start and was soon challenging for the lead.

Trouble befell Herda on lap 10 of 20 putting him out in 31st place. Back in the pack, several drivers were making their way to the front as many struggled and fell behind. One such driver was Wes Phillips (Intrepid). Wes made the gamble to start the race on slicks. Though it looked like the right decision at the time, it soon proved to be anything but and the defending Senior Rotax champion soo! n found himself falling further and further behind, eventually having to settle for a 25th place finish, two laps behind. Meanwhile, back at the front, Rolison had taken the lead and was starting to pull away, eventually winning by a healthy 8.546 second margin. Woodsford held on to finish second ahead of Joey Collins (Birel) who put in a fine drive from tenth on the grid to finish third. Brandon Jones from Billings, Missouri had an awesome run from 22nd to fourth in his Arrow and Techahapi, California's Chelsie Jackman put in a fine performance to finish fifth on a Sodi Kart.

Tommorow's schedule calls for short morning warm-ups followed by the Finals. As it looks now, the weather could be very similar to today's, which would make for more great action at the Motorplex. Stay tuned to eKartingNews.com for complete reports of the action.
Ken Johnson

*This press release and all information regarding the CCRKC Grand National can be found at our EVENT PAGE at www.RMaxChallenge.com

[Rick]

EKN Trackside: Champ Car Rotax Kart Challenge Grand Nationals - Saturday Report
Saturday in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin dawned cool and sunny with the promise of beautiful weather for today's championship finals at the Champ Car-Rotax Kart Challenge U.S. National Championships presented by HardRadio.com. At stake was more than just the prestige of being a Rotax champion. Winners and top finishers in three of the five classes would earn spots on America's Team to represent the U.S. at the Rotax Gran Finals (World Championships) in Viana, Portugal in November.

The morning warm-up sessions were run under beautiful blue skies, but by the lunch break, clouds rolled in from the West and it seemed just a matter of time before rain would once again start to fall. At the end of the break, all drivers were assembled for the drivers' parade and group photo. Once all that was done, it was time to race!


Mini Max Grand National Champion - Nick Neri
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Mini Max
The first championship to be determined would be the Mini Max class. This race featured a heavy throw down between Floridians Nick Neri and Gabriel Chaves. Chaves had a convincing victory in the wet pre-final and, after last minute advice from pro-driver "Mad Max" Papis, was set to do the same in the final. Nick Neri had other ideas and wasn't about to let Chaves get away this time. The two youngsters waged an epic battle that saw the lead change hands several times over the first ten laps. It was quite thrilling to watch these two go at it and before long their duel had seen them clear third place by over ten seconds.

Unfortunately, what was shaping up to be a fantastic finish was spoiled just past the halfway mark when Neri and Chaves came up on a pair of back-markers. As is custom in the Rotax challenge,! back-markers are black-flagged to leave the track before getting lapped so as not to impede the leader's progress. It's a system that usually leads to better racing, however, this time it all went wrong. As the two speedsters approached two slower karts, Marshall Martin gave the slower karts the black flag according to procedure. Normally, in a circumstance like this the drivers being black-flagged continue at race speed until they reach the pit lane where they then pull off the track. The problem this time was that the drivers being black-flagged immediately slowed down right as the leaders were coming up on them. Forced with a "change course or crash" situation, Neri went left and Chaves' only option was to go to the right which put him off on the grass in the downhill right-hand sweeper (turn eight). By the time Chaves got back on the black stuff Neri was three seconds up the road and what was a great battle for the lead was now over.

The 13-year-old Chaves was ! understandably upset but, as they say in the south, it's "just one of them racin' deals." Both drivers put in fantastic drives and it looks like we'll be seeing both of them running up front and winning for a long time. In the end Neri took the win by two seconds over Chaves. 17 seconds behind Neri was another tight battle between Bobby Ross and Nicholas Daza over third place. At the checkered it was Ross by just 0.055 of a second. Rounding out the top five was Alex Karabaurniotis making it a Florida Club Mini max sweep of the top five positions.


Junior Grand National Champion - Timmy Megenbier
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Junior
After winning the Junior Rotax pre-final, Jose Zanella was looking to become Florida's first ever Junior Rotax National Champion. At the start things were going to plan as he led into turn one. But, this time there would be no break-away as a five-kart battle ensued at the front of the pack for Junior supremacy. Along with Zanella, Austin Issac, Michael Self, Timmy Megenbier and David Holland were all in with a shot at the win.

The group of five had a good battle with the young drivers making aggressive but smart moves on each other to swap positions. One thing was clear about the Briggs & Stratton Motorplex, it seemed as though many drivers were able to make passes into the turn 2-3 chicane but would then get re-passed going into turn four at the top of the hill. This was very prevalent in the Junior! race as we saw many passes made and lost in this fashion.

At about the half-way mark, Timmy Megenbier took the lead and pull ever so slightly ahead. About this time David Holland began to fall back from the second place battle leaving Issac, Self and Zanella to fight it out amongst themselves. Once out front, Timmy was able to put in some clean, fast laps to end the race with a 5.656 second margin for his first Rotax Junior National Championship. Behind Timmy, the second place battle saw a good number of position changes over the last few laps but at the flag it was Austin Issac taking second with Michael Self and Jose Zanella in third and fourth respectively. David Holland finished out the top five to once again qualify to go to the World Championships.


Masters Grand National Champion - David Odenthal
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Masters
Masters also featured some great battles. Alas, none of them were for the lead. After sitting on pole and winning the pre-final, David Odenthal showed he was "the man" in masters by running away with the final for his second straight national win. The race started with a bang when a tangle in the first chicane sent eight karts off through the grass and knocked out 2004 Masters National Champion Andy Seeseman. The crash jumbled the order a bit and when everything shook out Odenthal was gone and a tight four-way dice for second between Waqar Meyer, Brad Theys, Rene Martinalli and D.J. Ortiz kept the crowd entertained.

At the half-way mark, Masters competitor Bob Daigle fell out of the race when his chain jumped off the gear. It was a tough break for the first-time Rotax Nationals competitor who just starte! d karting one year ago after attending the Go Faster Racing Kart School. But, Bob is more than just a competitor. He also is also involved with both HardRadio.com and CBO Energy. After getting involved in Rotax competition, Bob was so excited with his new passion that he decided to put his money where his mouth is and stepped up to be the presenting sponsor of the Champ Car-Rotax Kart Challenge. He also helped support the competition by sponsoring eight different karts over the course of the weekend. His involvement went a long way to making the event even better and it's a pleasure to have him around.

With about five laps to go, the four-way battle for second really started to heat up. Rene Martinelly and Brad Theys swapped second and third between themselves while D.J. Ortiz and Waqar Meyer were never more than a few kart lengths behind. At the checkered the order was Martinelli, Theys, Ortiz and Meyer as the four crossed the line with less than four tenths of a s! econd from second to fourth.


DD2 Grand National Champion - Jordan Musser
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DD2
The DD2 class got underway with Jordon Musser on the pole with Mackenzie Johnson off his left shoulder. Unlike in the pre-final when these two pulled away and had their own battle, this time there was an intense six-way battle at the front. At the start it was Johnson taking the lead only to be passed by Musser before he could re-take the lead again on lap three. On lap seven, trouble befell Musser as the cable allowing him to shift the DD2 into second gear pulled out of it's base and he had to manually up change to second. This slowed him down a bit and allowed Johnson, Brett Smrz and Curtis Cooksey to fight for the lead. On the thirteenth lap it looked as if Johnson and Smrz were going to start to pull away with their own battle when, simultaneously Mackenzie was black flagged for a part of his rear bumper falling off ! and Brett pulled off with a broken gearbox.

This left Cooksey in the lead with Jordon right on his tail. With three laps to go Austin McCoy made his bid for the lead going into turn one but Musser slammed the door on him When McCoy checked up it forced those behind him to shuffle positions and Justin Melton emerged in second, three seconds adrift of Musser. Over the last couple laps, Justin closed the gap from two seconds down to a few feet and was looking for a last lap pass. Justin and Jordon are both three-time Rotax National Champions and the only sure thing in this battle was that we'd have a new four-time champion. Even with his gear changing troubles, Jordon was able to just barely hold Justin off at the line by 0.310 seconds for another National Championship.

One second behind Melton, Curtis Cooksey came home in third followed by Greg Thek and Austin McCoy. After the race, a relieved Musser wished to dedicate his win to his friend A.B. who has been h! is tuner at recent Stars races. A.B.'s father recently passed away and Jordon's thoughts were with his buddy.


Senior Grand National Champion - Mike Rolison
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Senior
Rotax Senior was the last class to run and the rain clouds that had been threatening all day finally started to release a few drops of rain on the circuit. It wasn't enough to affect the running of the race, but by the look of things, the rain would steadily increase. At the drop of the green flag, pre-final winner Mike Rolison put his kart in the lead ahead of Joey Collins and Zach Woodsford with Chelsie Jackman just a few kart-lengths behind. At about the 15-minute mark the rain started to fall a little bit heavier and the race was red flagged because of the slippery conditions. As you would expect, Mike Rolison was the last one that wanted to see the red flag come out as he has built up a 4 second lead by that point. But, one had to figure if he could pull out a lead once, he could do it again.

During the red flag, competitors were allowed the option of changing to rain tires but all chose to stay with slicks. After a warm-up lap, the gree! n flag came out and the karts blasted off through turn one from a single-file restart. Rolison again held the lead but Victor Pedrosa briefly took it off him on the run from the chicane to turn four. Then Joey Collins took over second spot and put pressure on Rolison until Rolison started to ease away from the pack for the second time.

On lap 19, Mike's hard-earned lead was erased once again when Gary Gibson smacked the front stretch wall bringing out another red flag. Gibson was able to get out of his kart under his own strength but was a bit dazed and holding his left shoulder. Although his kart was removed quickly, the Pro-Tec barrier needed to be put back in place and that necessitated stopping the race. On the re-start Rolison assumed the lead for the third time bent on taking home his first Rotax National Championship.

On lap 25, as the sprinkles of rain returned, Texan Chuck Jensen got pushed wide coming off the final turn and smacked the Pro-Tec barr! ier a ton bringing out the third and final red flag. When the ambulanc e got to the accident scene Chuck was suffering from neck and chest pain after being hit by a hay bale placed on the tec-Pro barrier in preparation for the AMA motorcycle race set to take place after the karting event. At the time of this writing, no more information is known about either Chuck or Gary's injuries. However, it is believed that neither is serious and that is good news. (Stay tuned to the EKN forum section for further updates)

This time the race was declared over and Rolison could finally celebrate. On the victory podium he was ecstatic about the victory and really pleased to bring a Senior Rotax National Championship win for American chassis manufacturer Margay. Joining Mike on the podium were Joey Collins (2nd) and Ryan Fowler (3rd). Rounding out the to five to qualify to go to Portugal were Thiago "Parezinho" Bereira and Freile Guillermo Jr. Defending Rotax Senior National Champion Wes Phillips finished sixth, right behind Guillermo.

At the p! odium celebration, Mackenzie Johnson, who dropped out of DD2 while leading, received the best news of all as he was awarded the two-day Formula BMW test with Aussie Vineyards/Walker Racing. It goes without saying that this is quite a sought after prize and further proof that Rotax Karting is the best way to get started in racing.

With the completion of the trophy presentations signaling the end of the event, some were looking towards competing in Portugal, some were looking towards preparations for next year and some were just left to ponder what might have been if one thing or another had gone their way. Events like this stress the maximum one can give and that just makes every little victory that much sweeter whether it's an outright win or achieving a personal best. This was the biggest U.S. Rotax finals ever and with the commitment of SSC and sponsors like HardRadio.com, CBO Energy and newly-signed Impact Racing, it looks like it's going to keep getting better i! n the years to come.

*This press release and all information regarding the CCRKC Grand National can be found at our EVENT PAGE at www.RMaxChallenge.com

[Rick]

Congratulations to Timmy for winning a national championship!

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:) :yea:

[MPIGP - Phillip Gordon]

Another one in the books and again I've been denied. Congratulations to Timmy Megenbier for winning the Junior class which was one of the best races of the day.

I struggled with carb issues all weekend and with little on track time, I had to figure it out using the qualifying and pre-final sessions but I finally got it figured out. In the Saturday morning warm up, the kart ran flawlessly so I was pretty confident I could make a run for a top 5. In the finals, I got a great start and picked up 3 positions moving into 8th going into turn one, and picked up another position going into turn 3 moving up to 7th. I was closing on 6th place about a kart length a lap when my shifter broke. This has been one of those years but as they say, there's always next year. I'll be back.

[Rick]

Did you just pull in (DNF)? Roberto gave me a print out of the results and it looked like you only had 8 laps. I thought you got punted when I saw that you only had 8 laps. It's too bad Phil, I was rooting for you to make it in the top 3. :)