Route 66 Racing Coverage
2009 Racing Coverage
Record Entries Attend New Castle Route 66 Series Rounds Three and Four
New Castle, IN
July 17-19, 2009
Story By: Joe Brittin
The MyChron Route 66 Series presented by Margay/Bridgestone held rounds three and four at New Castle Motorsports Park (NCMP) on July 18 and 19 with a weekend record 241 entries attending the double-header event. Both rounds were sponsored by Comet Kart Sales. The three day event held racing on the "Iron Man" track configuration on Saturday and on the national track configuration on Sunday. Practice was held on both configurations of the track on Friday.
The New Castle Motorsports Park is one of the premier karting facilities in the U.S. Owner Mark Dismore continues to add enhancements to the facility each year. A new scoring building was recently constructed near the oval track. More plastic crash barriers have been added to the track eliminating the need for hay bales. There is a well stocked kart shop on site (Comet Kart Sales) and the large indoor restaurant serves as a meeting room for the pre-race driver's meetings. The track even has Wi-Fi internet service available in the restaurant.
This event gave competitors a rare chance to compete on the 1.25 mile Iron Man track configuration that is only used by NCMP about once a year. The Iron Man track added between five and seven seconds to the national track's lap times for most classes. The Iron Man track utilizes a portion of the adjacent oval track with an exciting downhill connection between the two tracks that had some karts "catching air". Most competitors seemed to enjoy the Iron Man track and used about the same gear ratio as the national track.
The high temperatures for the weekend did not exceed 80 degrees which is rare for a July weekend in Indiana. Saturday's weather presented a record low high temperature for the date with the high only reaching about 70 degrees. The rain held of until the last final on Sunday and that class was scored based on their pre-final results.
With the weather a little cooler than usual and the competitors using the new Bridgestone YKC compound tire, many took advantage of the 12 rounds of practice held on Friday to work on their setups. Most classes found that the new YKC tire required a higher air pressure than the old YHC compound. Although the new YKC tire has a little less grip, it seems to not wear as quickly and many racers were able to run competitively on the same set of tire both days.
Fourteen classes of racing were held on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, a pill draw format was used to determine the starting position instead of qualifying. The second heat starting positions were inverted from the first heat and the finals lineups were based on summing up the heat race finishing positions. This made for some interesting racing with some of the faster karts having to race their way up from the back of the pack. In the Yamaha Jr. Heavy class, there was a four-way tie in points for the pole starting position after the two heats were completed. The tie breaker was determined by the original pill drawing.
Capturing the most wins over the weekend was Jake Cole who won five finals in the Junior classes. Cole won the HPV Junior class both days, Yamaha Jr. Heavy both days and Yamaha Jr. Lite on Saturday. Kyle Crump was able to deny Cole a sweep by taking the win in Yamaha Jr. Lite on Sunday, edging Cole by just .185 seconds. Kyle Erdmann brought home four first place trophies by winning HPV Senior both days and Yamaha Sr. Lite and Heavy on Sunday. Erdmann just missed two more wins, losing Yamaha Sr. Lite on Saturday to Matthew Laukaitis by just .088 seconds and Adam Crepin took the Yamaha Sr. Heavy class win over Erdmann on Saturday by .104 seconds.
Double class winners over the weekend included Mark Bumgarner in the Saturday TAG Senior and TAG Senior Leopard classes, Kyle Tilley in the Sunday HPV Jr. Sportsman and Yamaha Jr. Sportsman classes, Kaleb Allison in the TAG 60 class both days and Logan Mitchell in the Yamaha Rookie class both days.
Class Winners (Saturday/Sunday)
Joey Karter - Kid Kart Unrestricted: Luke Fineis/Eric Erdmann
Kevin Williams Karting - Yamaha Jr. Supercan Heavy: Jake Cole (both days)
Adkins Speed Center - Yamaha Sr. Supercan Lite: Matthew Laukaitis/Kyle Erdmann
Dagget Racing Photography - TAG 60: Kaleb Allison (both days)
MarCo Sign and Graphix - Yamaha Rookie: Logan Mitchell (both days)
Express Kart and Parts - Yamaha Jr. Supercan Lite: Jake Cole/Kyle Crump
Viper Racing - Tag Sr. Leopard: Mark Bumgarner/Billy Lewis
Streeter Super Stands - HPV Junior: Jake Cole (both days)
Franklin Kart Supply - HPV Junior Sportsman: Michael Goodyear/Kyle Tilley
Comet Kart Sales - Yamaha Sr. Supercan Heavy: Adam Crepin/Kyle Erdmann
Triple E Sales - Yamaha Jr. Sportsman: Camden Speth/Kyle Tilley
Laukaitis Racing - TAG Senior: Mark Bumgarner/Brandon Newey
Jet Karting - TAG Heavy/Masters: Rod Holliday/Rick Apichairuk
LSR Motorsports - HPV Senior: Kyle Erdmann (both days)
For the complete race results, visit www.mylaps.com.
The driver's meeting prize drawing recipients included Allan Braatz and Dustin Kessinger who each won a set of Bridgestone tires donated by Margay. Kyle Erdman won a five-gallon can of Sunoco 110 spec fuel given away by the series in a drawing to those who pre-entered. Triple E Sales gave away three gift certificates including the fast time award to Colton Ramsey along with certificates awarded to Kyle Tilley and Dilon Morley in the Junior Sportsman class which they sponsor. More prizes will be given away at each event this season by a drawing held at the driver's meeting including a set of Bridgestone tires.
Round five of the MyChron Route 66 Series presented by Margay/ Bridgestone and KartLift will be held at 61 Kartway in Delmar, Iowa on July 31 and August 1. Registration opens at 10 am on Friday and practice is scheduled from 10 am to 10 pm on Friday by racer's request. A free cookout will be held Friday evening for the participants. The full race program will be conducted on Saturday with two rounds of practice starting at 9 am. Spec fuel will be available at the track. The new Bridgestone YKC spec tire will be required at this event. Pre-entries post-marked by July 25 will be accepted. For more information visit www.route66kartracing.com.
