08-17-05

DOMENICK, BARBOSA, EDMUNDS AND NITTI STAND OUT AT THE NOTOWN AUTOMOTIVE CHAMP KART CLASSIC ON THE BURRIS CIRCLE TOUR

Loves Park, Illinois — The Champ Kart drivers of the Burris Circle Tour stood out from the crowd at the Nortown Automotive Champ Kart Classic.  Corey Domenick was the top qualifier of the day in his silver #22 Champ F200 Jr. 3 Kart.  Corey qualified at 16.625 around the full ¼ high banks of the Rockford Speedway.  Dylan Barbosa was tops in Champ F200 Jr. 2 at 16.710, Mike Nitti in Champ F200 Sr at 17.212 and Brent Edmunds was the top qualified in Jr. Sportsman Champ at 19.206.

With extra trophies and prizes on the line furnished by Nortown Automotive, the action got off to a sizzling start.  John Beinlich and Corey Domenick were out in front of the mass of Champ F200 Jr. 3’s until a yellow flag bunched the field back up with only 2 laps to go.  Beinlich surrendered his first place track position as the line up went back to the last completed lap.  On the restart, Domenick powered his kart to first place, with Beinlich in second and new BCT Series Points Leader Mitchell Garfield finishing third.  Colton Clevenger and Max McNamara rounded out the top 5.

Coming into the final turn, the race was up for grabs in the Champ F200 Jr. 2 class.  Dylan Barbosa, Makenzie Piller and Jacob Zellmer were in fine form racing 3 wide throughout most of the race.  At the last turn, Zellmer had the momentum, but Barbosa and Piller both made their karts very, very wide.  Dylan crossed the stripe in first, and Mackenzie finished less than 1/10th of a second ahead of Jacob. 

Brett Edmunds continued his bid for the Jr. Sportsman Champ points lead by winning a convincing victory over Sean Clavey. Brett accelerated through the field to cap his feature win this year.  David Brady was tops in the F200 Sr. Champs overcoming strong challenges from Mike Nitti and Angelo Karokozis.

Heidi Goodman ran a flawless race, keeping her composure and taking advantage of an inside opening to win her 2nd feature of the year over Brennan Frisby and Mike Flores.  Sr. Lites provided heart pumping action as Tommy Jones took over the lead on the last corner to win by 2/100ths of a second over Nick Chiapetta.  Aaron Katzenberg recovered from a weak start in the race to finish 3rd.

5 different drivers have won feature races in the Jr. 3 Lite class this year and any of  them could easily have won this weeks event.  On the last lap, Mike Bartlett stood his ground at the front while Jimmy Yurs and Damien Jenks muscled by last weeks feature winner Matt Hottinger.  Dave Terrafino held off strong challenge from Amy Ghislain for the first ¾ of the race in the Sr. Sportsman class.  In the closing laps Heat Race winner, Mikie Briener caught up and nearly passed the entire field.  Mikie settled for 2nd place this week. Mike Terrafino is consistently moving up and staying at the front with the feature race in this growing class. 

Christian Janssen and Mavrick Piller won the Kid Karts and Kid Kart Champ Karts Respectively.  Mike Bilderback won the Legends feature and Mike Cooter finished up the day in front for the Bandoleros.

The Burris Circle Tour would like to thank Jim and all the folks at Nortown Automotive for making the Champ Kart Classic a marquee event on the Burris Circle Tour.