The 2002 Track Challenge

By Silvio Roberre
Photos Courtesy of Jacques-O-Lot Photography

The second annual Track Challenge event was held October 5th and 6th at Badger Raceway in Dousman, WI. Drivers who participated in the event were nominated to represent tracks in the Midwest such as Badger Kart Club, Mid-States Kart Club, Sugar River Raceway, and South Bend Raceway Park. There was also participation from two WKA regional series, the Midwest Sprint Series and the Great Lakes Sprint Series.

Points were awarded to each track and series based on the finishing order of their selected drivers to determine the track and series of the year. Meanwhile, the drivers had the added bonus of being awarded a new Bell helmet, a customized letter jacket, a $250 performance check, and a silver cup for first place. Second place was given a G-Force racegear bag while the top five were also awarded silver cups, with the top ten receiving performance checks for their effort.

The first class to take to the 6/10 mile facility was the Briggs Lite division.

Ryan Cassity and Steve Kilsdonk lead the field down to the green flag to kick off the feature events. Cassity lead immediately and never looked back, taking the win by 3.597 sec. from Kilsdonk in second. Joe Hartmann received credit for third place honors while Scott Lohfink edged home in fourth.

HPV Junior provided a little excitement for everyone, as dark skies began to creep into the Dousman area, chilling the track down just in time for the nine-kart field to take to the track. Joe Gynn and Joe King restricted the field to a minimum pace at the start, with King taking the initial lead with Gynn dropping into the second position. Doug Boyer then began to make his way by Gynn when he was forced to cut the track late in the race. It was enough for him to gain ground on King as he was docked one position in the final tally as King was declared the winner with Gynn second, Boyer third, Jacob Little fourth, and Ronny Graham rounding out the top five in fifth.

The Loniewski brothers of Tony and Caleb lead the Yamaha Sr. SSX class down to the green, with Tony getting the jump over the chaos that ensued behind. Kevin Nelson and Troy Hintzsche made contact in turn one, sending Hintzsche into the crash pillows while Nelson continued on. The red flag was immediately pulled and after a restart; the rain began to fall and red flag number two was displayed. Fifteen minutes later, the field came back ready to race in the watery depths, as Tony Loniewski once again checked out, never to be seen again by his competitors. Caleb Loniewski came back from a second lap spin to recover in the second spot while Chuckles Tate finished third. Blake Kilby just managed to hold onto the fourth spot as Mike Dittmer made a charge across the finish line, only to come up short.

Eric Akre stumped the Briggs Jr. Medium class to the checkered, as the fourth place starter stayed out of trouble and declared his “rainmeister” status; taking the win by 1.277 sec. in the damp conditions. B.J. Anderson took second place honors, with Terry McDermott, Adam Brimmer, and Greg Dingess following suit.

The Pre-Final action in the US820 Sr. category saw a tight battle between Lance Hancock and Jacques Dresang, but just the opposite happened in the final, as Dresang spun in “No-Mans” land as he attempted to pass Hancock. From that point forward, it was all Hancock, as the BRM pilot swam through the misty conditions to a 17.083 sec. win over Dresang. Scott Koerner finished third with Matt Cudnohoske and Jeff Sobczyk trudging along through the puddles.

Kyle Rahal worked off his pole position status to take the win in the Yamaha Jr. SSX class as the BRM pilot took the lead from the start and ventured away from the thirteen-kart field. Tim Goettsch took hold of second midway through the race, holding it to the end. Jesse Schwabe finished in third, with Peter Kielar fourth, while Joe King finished in the fifth slot.

Front row starters Ryan Cassity and Mitchell Gibson lead the fifteen-kart Briggs Heavy field down to the green flag to start off the ten lap final event. Cassity got of to an early lead, pulling away slightly in the opening laps. Gibson started to reel in the #53 Coyote pilot towards the end of the race, but Cassity held onto the top spot as he crossed the stripe 0.343 sec. ahead of Gibson. Todd Hayes captured the third position while Brad Richards and Ken Paulsen rounded out the top five.

The elder statesmen in the sport of karting rarely get to test their bodywork against the young guns, but in the Yamaha Medium final, Kevin Nelson used every inch of his Margay to rattle fellow Margay pilot Tony Loniewski. Lap after lap the two went at it in a race of their own, checking out from the field in the process. In the end, Nelson came across the line first, his bodywork battered and bruised, but victorious. Loniewski finished a kart length behind in second, while Nick Wagner crawled up into the fourth spot with Corey Reeves and Jacques Dresang all receiving top five honors.

Zack Emmons was the winner of the US820 Jr. class; as the #1 Gold Kart driver captured the win by 5.307 seconds over MWSS champion Mark Sobczyk. Mike Briener finished in third, while Adam Brimmer and Travis Kosik rounded out the podium.

The HPV Sr. class had a little good, a tad bad, and a dash of ugly to it as Tony Loniewski spun on the parade lap, collecting Martin Keck in the process. Once the green flag fell, pole-sitter Corey Reeves spun in turn one, causing the fifteen karts behind him to take evasive action in all directions. Once the carnage cleared, Chris Weirheim, who traveled all the way from Georgia to compete in this prestigious event; took the lead from Tommy Mayr on the second lap. Weirheim did everything he needed to do to capture the win, as he built up enough of a lead to resist any charges by Mayr who would go proceed on to finish second. Chad Jump leapt up to finish third across the line, just edging out Nick Wagner, as Jayson Eschrich claimed the final cup in the fifth spot.

To end on track activities was the Formula Yamaha Jr. class. Ben Roberts and Tony Jump lead the field down to the green with Roberts getting the jump from the inside lane. Behind Roberts, Doug Boyer spun and was then collected by Darin Marcus, bringing a premature end to both drivers’ afternoon. Roberts was the standout rocketman, as he maneuvered his #88 Margay to a 3.339 sec. win over Jump. Kyle Rahal finished in the third position, while Peter Kielar and Chris Nelson rounded out the final top five of the event.

The 2002 Track Challenge was again deemed a success as the Mid-States Raceway in Springfield, IL was granted enough points to make it the destination for the 2003 race by claiming “Track of the Year” while the Midwest Sprint Series once again claimed the honor of “Series of the Year” for its participation.

Everyone involved walked away with smiles as all the top five finishers flocked to the awards presentation following technical inspection. If you missed this year’s race, make sure you leave the first weekend of October open in 2003. For more information, check out this year’s website at www.kartsltd.com/trackchallenge. 

 

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