Rockton, IL – The PG Racing Championship Enduro Series traveled to Blackhawk Farms Raceway for the fifth race of the seven race series on a hot and rainy August weekend.  Rain would play a factor on both Saturday and Sunday as it halted racing activities toward the end of each day.  The rain stayed away on
Friday and five rounds of practice were held with about 250 karts participating.  On Saturday, three races
were completed before a light rain moved in.  Races four through seven were staged as rain point races with those who chose to participate racing for trophies and all entries received rain points.  The final race
of the day on Saturday for the PG Racing Pro Shifter Series was scratched due to the increasing showers. 
The rain showers held off long enough on Sunday to complete the entire seven race program, although race
seven was red flagged for heavy showers about 16 minutes into the 30 minute race.

The 1.95 mile Blackhawk Farms road course, built in 1967, is located just north of Rockford, IL and is a short drive from the Chicago and Milwaukee karting population.  The facility has a lot of character with its densely wooded sections and the two old farm silos that still stand.  The track is well suited for camping as many teams elect to camp overnight in the pit area and cook out or build camp fires.  The Saturday night
parties were still going strong well after midnight for the camping crowd, even with the rain showers.

The racing surface that was laid down in 2003 has held up well with very few bumps appearing.  Improvements had been made this year to the run-off areas just past the corner exit rumble strips, where extra pavement had been added.  This allowed the karts that over-drove the rumble strips to recover better, often not losing much time at all.  The track manager said that track records were being set this year and the
track was very fast with these improvements.

The River Valley Kart Club and GEM Promotions co-hosted this event.  With their many years of experience in staging road racing events, they were able to smoothly register all of the drivers and complete five rounds of practice on Friday before holding a special charity team race at 4 pm.  This race had about 10 Briggs Animal powered karts battling against 10 Yamaha Can class karts as teams to see who would claim bragging rights.  The raced started with a rolling start so that the Briggs karts would not have
the advantage on the start.  The Yamaha karts lined up on the outside row and the Briggs karts were on the inside row.  Regan Vehring quickly moved to the point with several Briggs karts packed behind him.  The Zirves brothers (Bob and Brian) were heading up the Yamaha group and worked together to run down the lead group of Briggs karts.  Regan Vehring would eventually pull out to about a five second lead.  Bob Zirves finally worked his way into second but Regan was still checking out and claimed the win.  The final tally had six Briggs karts in the top 10 and four Yamahas.  Regan Vehring claimed the traveling winners trophy and bragging rights for the Briggs Animal group.  The money raised for charity was donated to Bart Bartvsiewicz who lost his trailer and most of his karting equipment to a trailer fire while returning from the Road America Super Nationals this year.  Look for this race to become an annual event at Blackhawk Farms.

The Novice classes were the first to take to the track on Saturday and the TAG 60cc Cadet class had a record 15 entries entered.  Sebastian Peters was able to break away from the lead pack for the win.  The
next six karts finish under a blanket about 10 seconds back with second through seventh place only separated by about 1.4 seconds.

The enduro classes were the first to take to the track under wet conditions on Saturday for an abbreviated
20 minute race for trophies.  Only about 10 karts elected to run in the wet and Matt Premo put on the best show in a dual Yamaha powered kart.  Several karts did not make it to the finish including John Larue who
ended up going way off the track into the weeds at the end of the front straightaway.   The next group of sprint karts to race under wet conditions had about half of the entered field competing.   Most were able to go the distance as the track was drying out.  The shifter karts were the next group up to race in wet conditions and about half of the karts entered elected to race.  Josh and Lance Lane moved to the
front of the CIK 125 Sprint class with Josh taking the win over his dad by 1.028 seconds as the rain sprinkles started again.  Ross Kasner took the G-125 Sprint class  win.  The final race of the day for sprint
classes only had about eight karts race in the worsening conditions, with lots of spin-outs taking place.
Darren Peach, John Aams and Al Gierz took home the first place trophies under wet conditions.  The PG Racing Pro Shifter race was rescheduled for Sunday due to the increasing rain.

The Sunday races were able to be completed under mostly dry conditions.  Joe Sturm captured the competitive CIK 125 Sprint class with Josh Lane, Rusty Ferguson and Andy Finke close behind in the lead pack.  The final race of the day was red-flagged after about 16 minutes when a rain storm cut loose.  Everyone scrambled for shelter as a couple of inches of rain came down in about 10 minutes, creating a new stream through the middle of the pit area.  A group of karts who congregated in the scale shelter after the race were forced to evacuate as the area began to flood at the scales.  The heavy rain canceled the rescheduled Pro Shifter race that had been postponed from Saturday for rain. 

Double race winners over the weekend included Travis Sabatka in Sprint 4-Cycle Novice both days and Colin Campbell in Sprint Yamaha Novice both days.  In the TAG Senior classes, Derek Crockett took two
hard fought wins, winning Saturday by just .002 seconds over Aaron Snyder and beating out David Yourd on Sunday by .015 seconds.  Regan Vehring continued his multiple winning streak by capturing the charity
race on Friday and the Sunday Sprint Briggs Animal 360 class.  Jonathan Evans was running strong in the Briggs classes, taking the Sprint Briggs Animal 335 class and the OHV International Sunday class. 
In the Junior classes, Stephanie Schumacher captured the Sprint Jr. 4-Cycle class both days, Brad Brittin won the Jr. Sprint YBX Can classes both days and Austin Duncan won the Tag Jr. class both days.
In the 2-cycle Sprint classes, Bob Zirves won the PP Can Sprint 360 and 340 classes and Jerry Revely
captured the Yamaha Sprint Heavy and Lite classes. 

The next event for the PG Racing Championship Enduro Series will be held at the new 1.4 mile Iowa Speedway road course located near Newton, Iowa.   Look for this event to be another well attended race as everyone will want to check out Rusty Wallace’s brand new race track.  For more information visit www.iowayspeedway.com and www.championshipenduro.com.

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