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BKC Goes To Blackhawk Farms
Badger Kart Club Results
Sat & Sunday, July 12-13
Blackhawk Farms
For only the second time in the last 30 years, the Badger Kart Club members
packed up and headed to another track for a Bridgestone Tire BKC Championship
points race. This time, the club headed to Illinois to do battle on the
newly repaved Blackhawk Farms racetrack. The main topic of discussion
was gear ratios as the 1.8 mile circuit is completely opposite of Badger's .5
mile tight twisting home track. By race time though, most had it figured
out and were ready to go.
The 2-day event was put on in conjunction with GEM Promotions/CES Championship
Enduro series and Badger Kart Club. On Saturday, the day comprised of
practice in the morning and enduro-style races in the afternoon. On
Sunday, practice again was held in the morning with a mixture of enduro and
Badger races in the afternoon.
On Saturday, Badger's own Travis Kosik jumped out to an early lead on a great
start in the Novice race. Kosik's best time was 4.5 seconds better than
the 2nd place Eric Sutcliff's. Kosik went on to win handedly for his
first enduro road course victory.
In the Briggs Sr. Animal race, Regan Vehring and Vince Bartolotta hooked up
and pulled away from the field. From there, Vehring managed to pull away
even from Bartolotta and went on to win by over 24 seconds. In Briggs
Sr., "Bad" Brad Richards covered the field by lapping them once and
half the field twice. Richard's time averaged 8 seconds a lap faster
than anyone else in his class.
Saturday's 125cc Shifter race saw an exciting race. Lance Lane bolted
out into the lead on the start with Brian Julien in tow. The two stayed
nose-to-tail and turned it into a 2 kart race. Lap after lap they
crossed the start-finish line literally connected. On the last lap,
Julien took a run at Lane but at the line came up .100 seconds short for a
truly exciting conclusion!
Other Saturday winners included Tom Colson in Briggs Jr. 4-cycle, Dave
Gemignani in Jr. Yamaha Can, Zack Emmons in HPV Jr., Jesse Schwabe in HPV Sr.,
Jarrett Schwaz in Sprint Yamaha Can, Matt Sriver in Sprint Yamaha Sit-up Pipe,
Ryan Premo in Jr. Yamaha Can and John LaRue in Enduro Yamaha Can.
On Sunday, Travis Kosik made it 2 in a row, besting the 2-cycle Jr. Sportsman
field, but not without a struggle. TJ Koyen ran a great race and at the
line, missed the victory by .009 seconds! Tommy Anderson showed he can
win on both the short and long tracks by taking the Briggs Jr. Sportsman win
by almost half a track over Lina Baker.
In Briggs Animal Sr., Saturday's domination by Regan Vehring came to a
screeching halt when he was leading the field by quite a distance and he was
forced to drop from the race. This cleared the way for Badger's David
Koeferl to take his first big-track road race win with Erick Heling coming in
only 2 seconds behind. Derek Crane bested Joe Graf and the rest of the
Jr. Briggs field by almost 50 seconds and Brian Weber won Briggs Lite by
almost half a minute. Tom Schroeder took the win in Briggs Heavy over
David Smith as the rest of the field either didn't finish or didn't pass tech
inspection.
In the Jr. Can and Jr. SSX Can race, Jessica Brannam not only bested her Jr.
Can field, but passed the SSX can leader and won the race outright! SSX
winner Cassidy Bigsby won easily over Joe Brenner, putting an end to his
winning streak this season. Spencer Polacek ran a great race holding 2nd
for most of it. But at the end, he just couldn't hold off Brenner who's
kart finally came to him in the final laps.
In Sprint Yamaha Can, Ron Brannan did exactly what his grand daughter Jessica
did earlier by not only winning his class, but winning the race over the
faster classes. Brannan actually had mechanical trouble in the beginning
and couldn't fire his can motor. With a 15 second deficit, he managed to
run the field down by lap 4 and take the overall lead around lap 6. Kyle
Glaser held the lead before that, but slowly faded as the race wore on.
Dale Gemignani ran him down and on the last lap, made his move in turn
6. Glaser made a valiant attempt to regain second but come up .130
seconds short.
The largest field of the weekend occurred in the final race as Badger had four
Yamaha classes on the track at the same time. Zack Emmons and Jesse
Schwabe both cruised their 2nd wins of the weekend by winning HPV Jr. and Sr.
respectively. Matt Cota won Yamaha Lite by 12 seconds over Erin Cechal.
But the two lapped the entire field, hooking up with karts from faster classes
to draft with. Mike Fuchs continued his domination of Yamaha Heavy by
winning on the big track with Randy Pyka taking a well-deserved 2nd.
Scott Lardin grabbed the top honors in Sr. Sportsman Lite by besting Scott
Adler by just under a second. Bob Ropke used Saturday's experience to
propel him to a great win on Sunday, besting the Sr. Sportsman Heavy class by
almost half a minute over 2nd place Brian James.
Great weather and just one red flag with no serious injuries made for an
incredible weekend of racing and fun. The newly repaved track made it
nice for karts. With no suspensions to damper the shocks, the old track
became unsuitable for karts. But the new pavement and great track are
once again a karter's dream. Ironically, a large black hawk swept over
the front stretch near the end of Sunday's races to put the perfect ending on
a perfect weekend.
RESULTS
2 Cycle Jr. Sport
1 Travis Kosik
2 TJ Koyen
3 Joey Adler
Yamaha Heavy
1 Mike Fuchs
2 Randy Pyka
3 Terry Thomas
Briggs Heavy
1 Tom Schroeder
2 David J. Smith
3 Jerry Smith
Briggs Jr. Sport
1 Tommy Anderson
2 Lina Baker
3 Kodiak Wirtz
Briggs Lite
1 Brian Weber
2 Steve Ross
3 Charley Eckstein
Jr Can
1 Jessica Brannam
2 Nic Johnsrud
3 Jared Kalnins
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Yamaha Lite
1 Matt Cota
2 Erin Cechal
3 Glenn Meyer
Briggs Animal Jr.
1 Chris Faestel
2 Kelsey Bauer
3 Catlin Tannis
HPV Sr.
1 Jesse Schwabe
2 Jon Ellingham
3 D. Smith
HPV Jr.
1 Zack Emmons (TR)
2 TJ Nevels
3 Ryan Graham
Jr. SSX Can
1 Cassidy Bigsby
2 Joe Brenner
3 Spencer Polacek
80cc Shifter Jr.
1 Ronny Graham
2 Josh Lane
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Briggs Animal Sr.
1 David Koeferl
2 Erick Heling
3 D. Smith
125cc Shifter
1 Brian Julien
2 Scott Rubenzer
3 Matt Mercier
Sr. Sportsman Lite
1 Scott Lardin
2 Scott Adler
3 Mark Jung
Sr. Sportsman Heavy
1 Bob Ropke
2 Brian James
3 Jim Bennett
Jr. Briggs
1 Derek Crane
2 Joe Graff
3 Tom Colson
* = Fast Time for 2003
TR = Track Record |
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