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Artificial Heat
October 12, 2003
Dousman, WI
Story by Mike Weaver
Cooler fall temperatures greeted racers for the final week of the Bridgestone
Tire BKC Championship Points series. With the beautiful colors
pronouncing the end of summer, it was up to the racers to bring the
heat. And heat is what they brought!
In 2-cycle Jr. Sportsman, three different karters had the championship within
easy grasp. However, Travis Kosik suffered a mechanical DQ for a broken
nose cone in the first heat and TJ Koyen lost in a chain in the 2nd.
This put both racers near the end of the field for the feature, which left
Ryan Schwister up front to set his own destiny. Although Schwister was
up front most of the race, Eric Suttcliff ran the race of his life and tromped
the field for his first career feature win. Rookie sensation Gage
Schnieder marched through the field for a solid 2nd place finish.
Schwister was relegated to a 3rd place finish and TJ Koyen managed to work his
way back up to fourth which was just good enough to claim the championship by
13 points!
HPV Sr. saw a horrific crash in heat 1 as Jesse Schwabe got tangled with
rookie Paul Stephani on the front stretch. Schwabe, who already had the
class championship won, took a hard hit in the hay bales on lap 1. The
race was immediately red-flagged to verify that both drivers were OK.
Crews made quick repairs to Schwabe’s kart and he re-entered the race at the
rear of the field. Apparently, the crash did nothing more than get his
blood boiling as he ripped through the field to take second in that
heat. Despite mechanical problems in the 2nd heat, Schwabe went on to
win the feature race.
Tom Schroeder and Aron Scalissi put on by far the most exciting feature race
of the day. In the latter half of the race, the two swapped positions at
least a dozen times and ran side-by-side lap after lap. On the final lap
it looked like Schroeder would get the best of Scalissi, but Scalissi put a
big charge on coming down for the checkers. At the line, only the
computer could tell who won, giving Schroeder the win by .021 seconds.
At the scales it was all smiles and handshakes as the two knew they just had
the race of their lives.
Other champions for 2003 included Derek Crane in Jr. Briggs, Tylor Wolfert in
Briggs Lite, Ryan Lemmer in Sr. Sportsman Lite, Steve Mente – Sr. Sportsman
Heavy, Matt Cota – Yamaha Lite, Mike Landeck – Briggs Heavy, Kelsi Bauer
– Animal Jr., Erick Heling - Animal Sr., Brian Julian – 125cc Shifter,
Ronny Graham – 80cc Shifter Jr., Zack Emmons – HPV Jr., Tommy Anderson –
Briggs Jr. Sportsman, Joe Brenner – SSX Can Jr.
PHOTOS by Mike Weaver (Click on Photo for Larger View)
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An interesting crash in Sr. Sportsman Heavy
where
Jeff Selz (19) ended up bridging two other karts, Tim Brannam (41) and Howie Hanisch(92 -
left in the picture). Brian James (90) was also involved.
No one was injured during the incident.
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Eric Sutcliff (67) won his first ever feature event in 2-cycle Jr.
Sportsman. TJ Koyen is in tow (68).
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Aron Scalissi (45) and Tom
Schroeder (8) put
on one of the best races of the year!
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Ryan Lemmer (03) did what he
had to do to win the
Sr. Sportsman Lite
championship over Mark Jung (32).
Nick Orth (8) also finished in the
top 5 this season.
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RESULTS
125cc Shifter
1. Tommy Mayr
2. Brian Julian
3. Eric Suminski
Sr. Sportsman Heavy
1. Jerry Kindler
2. Steve Mente
3. Ted Goad
Briggs Jr. Sportsman
1. Tommy Anderson
2. Geoff Jeche
3. Kodiak Wirtz
Jr. SSX Can
1. Joe Brenner
2. Kyle Gluth
3. Spencer Polacek
Sr. Sportsman Lite
1. Ryan Lemmer
2. Mark Jung
3. Nick Orth
Briggs Lite
1. Heidi Olsen
2. Brian Weber
3. Tylor Wolfert
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Yamaha Lite
1. Matt Cota
2. Mark Heinert
3. Joel Steffen
2-cycle Jr. Sportsman
1. Eric Sutcliff
2. Gage Schnieder
3. Ryan Schwister
Briggs Animal Jr.
1. Kelsey Bauer
2. Caitlin Tannis
3. Tabetha Schroeder
80cc Shifter
1. Nick Gillette
2.
HPV Sr.
1. Jesse Schwabe
2. Scott Kalish
3. Nicole Baier
HPV Jr.
1. Nick Gillette
2. Ryan Graham
3. TJ Nevels
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Yamaha Heavy
1. - bye week -
2.
3.
Jr. Briggs
1. Derek Crane
2. Gavin Hallman
3. Garrett Wescott
Expert
1. Mike Landeck
2. Tommy Mayr
3. Jim Tannis
Briggs Heavy
1. Tom Schroeder
2. Aron Scalissi
3. Tom Weber
Jr. Can –under protest
1. Nic Johnsrud
2. Grant Hoffmeister
3. Derek Crane
Briggs Animal Sr.
1. Erick Heling
2. Dave Koeferl
3. Bryan Schieler
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