Pitt Race Karting Series Race 3 Report

[Kartwerks Dan]

Large Senior Field Highlights Rotax Series Debut at PRK
Palmer Earns Bragging Rights in TAG & Rotax

Pittsburgh, PA (June 18, 2012): The anticipated return of a Rotax Series to the Wilson Circuit featured eight strong Senior Max competitors including National stars Andrew Palmer and Roby Bujdoso. The additional classes helped push the entry list to 84 strong - a season high!

Palmer made the most of his trek to Western Pennsylvania from Illinois eventually sweeping both ends of the TAG and Rotax Final races. Defending WKA Champion Robert Bujdoso finished second in both races with Trent Walko rounding out the podium in TAG and Ayrton Climo following suit in Rotax.  Theo Chick brought the lone Minimax to the track for the weekend and is looking forward to more competition in the coming races as a tune-up for the Rotax Grands.

Clone once again featured the biggest fields and the most action as 16 drivers took to the track between the Clone and Clone Lite classes. Bob Seidel made the trip from Northeast Ohio to break the stranglehold that Krista Schumacher seemed to have on the field as of late. It was no easy job though as Schumacher was just .092 seconds behind in the pre-Final and .168 seconds in the Final. John Burton scored a third place finisher overall.  Barry Shenck was the first across the stripe in Clone Heavy to earn the win followed by Ron Dodson and Henry Gnad.

The Kid Karts were once again back to a big field and Richie Martsolf put on quite the show winning by 7 seconds – an unheard of margin so far this season.  More remarkably, Martsolf did so after tangling with Luca Mars for the lead in the Pre-Final and rolling over in Turn 1. The young racer shook off the incident and rejoined the race picking up that win as well as the Final.  Mars finished second and Louis Martsolf third.  The entire Kid Kart class was treated to post race awards courtesy of newly announced class sponsor Diamond Landscaping of Pittsburgh.

Nick Luedeke made his debut in the Junior ranks and instantly made his presence known, pushing the lead duo of Tommy Frazier and Connor Gawry from the very first session.  Luedeke would make it a runner-up sweep as Gawry picked up the Pole and Final win with Frazier prevailing in the Pre-Final. As the competition ramped up, the lap times dropped in correlation culminating with Frazier throwing down a scorching 59.796 lap!

Hartsdale, New York’s Michael D’Orlando and David Kalb wrapped up the top two spots in Cadet and then ran away from the Yamaha Sportsman field exchanging the lead several times while pushing the lap times in to the 1:04.8 range.  Nate Kazienko beat Jordan Griffith to the line after a tight battle for third. D’Orlando was the dominant force in Cadet but Kalb left with fast time of the day, and one of the fastest of the year, at 1:03.792 in the Pre-Final. Joe Wright rounded out the podium in the Final.

The Rookie/Novice group had their largest turnout of the year with eight karts across the three classes. Nicholas D’Orlando followed his brother to the Winner’s Circle picking up the race win and the class win for Yamaha Rookie. Savannah Fitzgerald and Spencer Stiffler were at the top of the Clone Junior and Cadet Novice classes respectively.

Tyler Wilson, visiting from Indiana, won the Yamaha Senior race ahead of Bob Seidel and Harry McEllhaney. 

The next race on the Pitt Race Karting Series calendar will take place Sunday June 3rd.  Pre-registration is available online at www.pittracekarting.com . Race Three will also mark the first race in the PRK Rotax Challenge Series. Earn your punches for the US Rotax Max Grand Finals in this six race series!

For more information about the racing program: 724.535.1000 or d.schlosser@pittrace.com .


Pitt Race Karting Series – Race 1 Result:

Kid Karts – Diamond Landscaping   
1   Richard Martsolf
2   Luca Mars

3   Louis Martsolf
4   Thomas Spencer
5   Levi Schwimer
6   Benjamin Kempf
7   Dawson Crum
8   Olivia Gnad
   
Cadets   
1   Michael D’Orlando
2   David Kalb
3   Joe Wright
4   Theo Chick
5   Alex Lester
6   Madison Campeau
7   Griffin Kunz
8   Savannah Fitzgerald
9   Nate Kazienko - DNF
10   Andy Collins - DNF
   
Yamaha Junior – Cook Racing Engines
1   Connor Gawry
2   Nick Luedeke
3   Tommy Frazier
4   Andrew Bujdoso
5   Derron Gregory
6   Max Wright
7   Charlie Osborne
8   Justin DiMassa
9   Anthony Camperchioli
10   Nathan Dunbar - DQ
   
TAG – JW’s Eurotech/DB Motorsports   
1   Andrew Palmer
2   Roby Bujdoso
3   Trent Walko
4   Mike Burton
5   Ayrton Mutagaana
6   Derek White
7   John Flucker
8   Randy D’Amato
9   Richard Martsolf
10   Charles Mason
11   Brian McHattie - DQ
12   Andy Schlosser - DNS
   
Clone – Clinton Racing Engines   
1   Bob Seidel (Lite P1)
2   Krista Shumacher (Lite P2)
3   John Burton (Lite P3)
4   Dave Paterniti (Lite P4)
5   Tom Tomaro (Lite P5)
6   Mike Fleeson (Lite P6)
7   Barry Shenck (Clone P1)
8   Gene Richardson (Lite P7)
9   Ron Dodson (Clone P2)
10   Henry Gnad (Clone P3)
11   John Ciraula (Clone P4)
12   Paul Hirsch (Clone P5)
13   Mark Frank (Lite P8)
14   Mike Gnad (Clone P6)
15   John Morabito (Clone P7)
16   Anthony Morabito (Clone P8) - DNF

   
Yamaha Sportsman      
1   Michael D’Orlando
2   David Kalb
3   Nate Kazienko
4   Jordan Griffith
5   Madison Campeau
6   Griffin Kunz
   
Yamaha Rookie/Cadet Novice/Junior Clone   
1   Nicholas D’Orlando (YR P1)
2   Beau Power (YR P2)
3   Savannah Fitzgerald (JC P1)
4   Logan Frank (YR P3)
5   Spencer Stiffler (CN P1)
6   Elizabeth Snow (JC P2)
7   Summer Dodson (YR P4)
8   Ari Gnad (JC P3)

Yamaha Senior
1   Tyler Wilson
2   Bob Seidel
3   Harry McElhaney
4   Stacy Grier – DNF
5   Bill Snow - DNF

Rotax Minimax
1   Theo Chick

Rotax Senior Max
1   Andrew Palmer
2   Roby Bujdoso
3   Ayrton Climo
4   Ayrton Mutagaana
5   Kaylee Sawyer
6   Oliver Scigliano - DNF
7   Brandon Adkins - DNF
8   Andy Schlosser - DNF

[ninetyfourintegra]

Nice write-up, as usual. Yet another event the mechanic let down the driver. Summer didn't qualify or run the heat race due to motor issues. This time it was because her brother thought the blue knobs on the carb were fun to turn... Brandon's comment of "did it even run?" were spot on.

Lesson learned.

In talking with Barry last night, had I not been DQ'd in Race 2, I would be right there in the thick of the points. Missing the next few races won't help my cause either. I am going to need strong finishes in every race to even matter in this class. But like I said before the season, I hope I am far enough out to not even have a chance as I can't afford to win or lose that race.

[trigun7469]

Thank you for the write up, last year we had a website with scoring and championship points for all races, is that available this year?