South Haven, MI – The first two rounds of the R.A. Adams Enterprises Championship Enduro Series were held at the 1.9 mile 11-turn Gingerman Raceway located near South Haven, MI on a beautiful late May weekend. A total of 16 races were held over the weekend along with a full day of practice on Friday. 220 entries were on hand for the new two-day format that presents the same race schedule each day, allowing competitors to run in the same class on both days. This format will reduce the amount of travel for
the participants by allowing six races to be held over three weekends at three tracks.
Gingerman Raceway was built in 1996 by Dan Schnitta, a successful businessman
from Chicago. His other main business is the Gingerman Tavern located near Wrigley
Field in Chicago. His passion for motor sports and experience in real estate lead to the
development of the first new road course to be built in this area since the 1960s. The
track was designed by Alan Wilson to take advantage of the natural terrain. The track is
paved with a polymerized asphalt material that was designed to stand up to the stresses of racing and Michigan winters. The track design allows for plenty of run-off area with natural sand traps making it one of the safest tracks in the Mid-west.
This event was co-hosted by the River Valley kart Club and GEM Promotions, who have many years of experience in putting on road racing events. Several drivers were able to capture more than one win in the double header program. Taking three wins were Jonathan Evans in the Briggs Sprint Animal 360 class which races twice each day and
Courtney Atkinson in the Piston Port Can Sprint 360 class both days and the Sunday Yamaha Sportsman enduro race. Double winners included Alex Marchese in Jr. Enduro, Scott Grenier in Controlled Limited, Randy Pierson in G-125 Sprint, Ryan O’Connell in Spec Moto, Zachary Silver in 80cc Gearbox and William Rescher in Sprint 4-Cycle Animal Novice.
The sprint shifter race featured some of the best racing of the day Saturday in the CIK 125 Sprint and G-125 Sprint classes with 30 karts qualifying for the race on Saturday. Setting quick time was Owen Wharton who would run in the top three the entire race. Lance Lane was able to take the win by just .161 seconds over Aaron Telitz with Wharton just .210 seconds behind in third. On Sunday, Telitz took the win over Lane by 6.5 seconds. Randy Pierson held off Bryan Blair in the G-125 class on Saturday by just .494 seconds in another close battle.
The Saturday TAG Senior race was dominated by the father-son duo of Jordan and Ty Johnson who were turning lap times almost two seconds a lap quicker than third place Brian Valin. However, Ty Johnson would fail post-race tech handing third to Eric Chappell. The Sunday TAG Senior class was captured by Aaron Snyder followed by Aaron Telitz and Eric Chappell. The TAG Masters classes were won by Jay Spoden on Saturday and Brian Valin on Sunday.
The laydown enduro classes saw increased participation this year in part due to
the chance at winning a ProMaxx Workspace System for the Yamaha Sportsman
and Yamaha Heavy classes. Each class entry in these two classes will go into a
drawing to be held at the final series race at Grattan on August 30 for a chance to win
a ProMaxx Workspace System for their garage. The award will consist of one large
storage cabinet, one cabinet dolly, three wall cabinets, one workbench, one mobile storage cabinet and one mobile tool cabinet. Richie Warren, Scott Henry, Courtney
Atkinson and Steve Pasteiner picked up wins to qualify for the drawing.
The closest finish of the weekend was in the Saturday HPV Senior class in another
father-son battle where Jeff Hoff edged his dad Richard Hoff by just .002 seconds.
The final race of the day on Saturday for the TAG USA Team Race Series also had a
close finish where team Force Racing (Brian Valin and Andrew Chase) edged team NTR Racing (Aaron Telitz and Nevin Nelson) by just .431 seconds. Team Tiger (Jay and Pat
Spoden) finished in third place.
At the conclusion of racing on Saturday, an awards banquet was held at the track’s conference building for the 2008 CES class champions. A grilled chicken dinner was served prior to awarding the 2008 CES class champions. Master of ceremonies and CES
flagman Earl Clement passed out over 100 trophies along with jackets, hats and shirts
for the 2008 class champions. Following the CES awards were the River Valley Kart
Club(RVKC) series awards. RVKC class champions received very unique crystal shaped awards with a clock and laser etched 3-D kart graphics. For the 2009 season, the CES and RVKC have merged to form a single series requiring only one membership fee.
For complete results, visit www.mylaps.com. The next two rounds of the 2009 R.A. Adams Enterprises CES season will be held at Blackhawk Farms Raceway. For more information visit www.championshipenduro.com. |
