The Nation’s Best
Pavement Oval-Track Karters Visit Riverhead
By Bob & Danielle McCormack
This past weekend Riverhead Raceway and
East End Kart Racing (EEKR) hosted the 2009 season finale for
the national Race Kart Speedway Pavement Series, the Bonsignore
Kart Shoppe Nationals. Twenty-three classes of the country’s
best pavement oval-track drivers, along with three local
divisions, tried to conquer the ultra-fast 1/4-mile track during
Saturday and Sunday. One of the classes, the Briggs Sportsman 1
Lite, featured a three-way tie amongst Stephen Brewer Jr.,
Brandon McGough, and Aaron Weed, who all had 719 points after
four events. McGough would walk away with wins in three of the
four Briggs Sportsman 1 divisions: Heavy, Champ Lite, and Champ
Heavy.
Dean Grunert, Ryan Breithoff, and Chase
Dowling each drove to two wins. Grunert, an EEKR regular, had a
great weekend, capturing a pair of wins in the Briggs Raptor
finals. Dowling won the Sportsman 2 Lite and Sportsman 2 Champ
Lite features. Breithoff, who entered a record six classes, took
wins in the Briggs Junior Lite and Junior Champ Raptor.
Preventing Dowling from capturing two more
wins were Trevor Trost and Dylan Duhaime, who won in Sportsman 2
Heavy and Sportsman 2 Champ Heavy, respectively.
In other WKA action, Chris Hammett won in
the Briggs Junior Heavy while Tyler Robertson took the Briggs
Champ Lite win and AJ Roderick took the Briggs Champ Heavy win.
Amongst the three Briggs Senior divisions,
there were three different winners – Glenn Meiserhelder (Briggs
Lite), Tyler Gauther (Briggs Medium), and Chris Daley (Briggs
Heavy). This was Gauther’s second national win as he got his
first last month at Beave Run Motorsports Complex in
Pennsylvania.
Three local-option classes included
victories by David Hardman in the Senior Champs over 35, Alexa
Hipperling in the Sportsman 1 Raptor Champs, and
third-generation driver Artie Tappen in the Sportsman 2 Raptor
Champs.
One of the most exciting races of the
weekend featured the youngest drivers in attendance – the Kids
Karts. The field featured six youngsters: William Ebert, Eddie
Fatscher, Michael Hurley, Julia DiCanio, Nicholas DiCanio, and
Joseph Bertuccio III, the son of 2005 Riverhead Modified
champion, J.R. Bertuccio.
While Justin Bonsignore won in the Briggs
Raptor Champ final, which featured 18 karts – the largest field
amongst the national classes - it was just one of many strong
performances of the weekend for the Holtsville, N.Y. native. On
Saturday night, the EEKR presented a $2,000-to-win Senior
Champrace that started 40 karts. In a battle of attrition, 10
karts finished, and the one that wound up in victory lane was
Bonsignore. After his big kart win, he packed his bags, loaded
up the trailer, and took his tour-type modified to the King of
the Mountain at Sundance Vacations Speedway in St. Johns, Pa.
Bonsignore would finish second in the 150-lapper, which
attracted 35 modifieds from all around the Northeast.
The WKA, EEKR President Dave Brigati and
his officials, and Bonsignore Kart Shoppe put on one heck of an
event, and we hope that the Nationals return for an encore
performance at Riverhead Raceway in 2010.
Source: Bob and Danielle
McCormack/LongIslandJam.com
Posted: October
16, 2009
