03.16.10 – The WKA Dunlop Tire Road Racing Series driven by Mazda resumed its season over the weekend at Carolina Motorsports Park for the second of eight 2010 rounds. Heavy rain every night of the weekend forced the postponement of morning practice each day due to the wet track. Personal vehicles took to the track each day to help dry the surface, while officials, led by popular Race Director Brandon Taylor, shortened laydown races to from 45 to 35 minutes while sprint-enduros ran 25-minute features instead of 30.

Weather was a factor all weekend, but all of the 13 race groups were completed. Sprinkles fell on the track at times on Saturday and Sunday, but the rain affected only Saturday’s group 5 finish. Rain began to fall hard enough to stop the race, which was just past halfway. About two minutes later the rain stopped and the program continued, but race 5 was deemed official because it had gone past halfway.

Chuck Gafrarar and Matt Michel were the top performers at Kershaw. Each driver went four for four in their respected classes. After a 2009 season filled with numerous multiple-win weekends, Gafrarar had a perfect weekend at Kershaw when he won every main he entered. His wins came in Stock Leopard Final 1,Kirby Derby Stock Leopard Final 2, Chuck G Fabrication TaG 1 and Checkeredflagdesign.com TaG 2. Likewise, Michel swept the four classes he entered, Dart Kart Club 100cc Pipe Medium and Heavy, Yamaha Sportsman Medium and TSRacing.com Yamaha Sportsman Heavy.

Courtney Atkinson wasn’t far behind the success of Chuck G and Michel. The Wisconsin shoe captured three of the four classes she raced. Atkinson won Heiser Trailer Leasing PP Can Sprint 360 #1 and #2, and Dart Kart Club PP Can Lite. She finished second to Michel in Sportsman Medium. Mike Lattos also found three victories at Kershaw. Lattos swept the Unlimited finals over Chuck Bunnell after winning Formula 125 over Scott Davis.

Six road racers drove to double wins. Joey Kuley won both Briggs Jr mains; Derek Somers did the same in the two Jr Sprint features. Southern Kart Club regular Wilshire Walkup was victorious in Office Mart Inc. PP Can Medium and Competition Karting Inc. PP Can Heavy. Lake Speed made last-lap passes on Kevin Learnard to win both D.R. Guilbeault Air Compressor Spec 125 TaG features. Speed passed Learnard on the exit to the final corner to win Sunday’s version of the class.

Adam Myers dominated the WKA Sprint features to take his second and third wins of the season in the pipe-sprint ranks after winning at Daytona. Noah Stark couldn’t find victory in the Stock Honda mains, but won WKA 125 Shifter 1 on Saturday and held off Beth Chryst to win MVG Motorsports CIK 125 Shifter 2 on Sunday. Chryst also finished second to Gafrarar in both TaG mains.

Other Kershaw winners were Milo Schoonover in 100cc Controlled. Randy Fulks won Sleeper Racing Team 100cc Controlled Spec 1. Fulks led early in Spec 2 but slipped up about halfway into the race, giving the lead to Scott Buerman, who never relinquished it for his only win of the weekend. Michael O’Chocke only entered one race, MVG Motorsports CIK 125 Shifter 1, which he won. Don Chrzan drove to victory in KartVideo.com / PowrPads Formula 100 #1, while Paul Wyzga won Sunday’s Formula 100 #2.

The senior Briggs Animal divisions were the largest fields of the weekend on the Road Racing side. The three classes saw three different winners. Jonathan Tedder won Custom Trophy Briggs Animal 335. Randy Delp beat out Kevin Colborn in Animal 385. Andrew Bruner won in a close race over Tedder, Colborn and Leon Hodges-Austin in the weekend’s largest class, the 14-kart Animal 360 feature.

There was some question as to who was leading when the red flag flew in the rain-shortened Stock Honda 1. Officials deemed Learnard the winner over Brian Fisher and Stark as scoring showed the New Hampshire native leading the last completed lap. Fisher had actually taken the lead on the final lap, which ended up not counting. Fisher got redemption Sunday in Stock Honda 2 when he laid down the fastest laps of the weekend in the low 1:41-second bracket and held off Stark to the finish.

Eric Saunders won MVG Motorsports WKA 125 Shifter 2 over Stephen Flatt. Local-option winners comprised Todd Wohlford in Briggs Limited Mod Heavy; Robert Garland and Joe Cuslidge in the ARC Racing-sponsored Int’l 4-Cycle (Clone) divisions; Todd King in the Southern Kart Club Briggs LO206 classes; William Evans in both Open Sprint mains; Duane Eberhart in Vintage 1. Jim McMurray made some laps in his TaG-E Saturday and Schoonover took it out in Sunday’s TaG-E.

Only one red flag occurred all weekend. Michael McCombs got on his roof, or head, in Turn 1 in Saturday’s Sportsman Medium go. Other than being covered in a coating of sandy mud, McCombs was OK.

The Road Racing Series has two months before the next national. The tour will stay in the South for the annual Southern Kart Club-hosted national at Savannah, Georgia’s Roebling Road Raceway May 14-16. The annual Grand National will follow at the Dart Kart Club-hosted event at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course June 11-13.

WKA thanks all racers, officials, team members and fans for a great weekend at Kershaw. A special thanks goes out to the Carolina Motorsports Park staff for provided WKA with a fine racing facility that now features a top-notch venue for both sprint and enduro-style karting.