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WKA: 2009-07-28

WKA's Pit Board - 07.28.2009 *** Cannon, Miller, many others leave Liberty Speedway Dirt Summer Nationals with cash prizes, awards 07.28.2009 -- The third round of the 2009 WKA Briggs & Stratton Speedway Dirt Series at North Carolina's Liberty ...

WKA's Pit Board - 07.28.2009

***

Cannon, Miller, many others leave Liberty Speedway Dirt Summer Nationals with cash prizes, awards

07.28.2009 -- The third round of the 2009 WKA Briggs & Stratton Speedway Dirt Series at North Carolina's Liberty Raceway Park is now history. The Summer Nationals, run July 24-26, saw the best turnout of the season for the Speedway Dirt Series and a number of racers enjoyed the cash prizes and awards offered by WKA and its fine sponsors.

Junior driver Blake Cannon was the weekend's big winner, taking four feature victories, one of them a Sunday 7 Money class, winning a random drawing for a Brute by Briggs & Stratton pressure washer and winning four TS Racing $50 gift certificates for his four feature wins while running Vega tires. That's quite a weekend of accomplishments, flanked by some luck in the drawing for the pressure washer, for the talented, young Georgia racer.

One of the main stories on the Speedway Dirt tour this season has been the Saturday night Briggs Animal Heavy Money Race, sponsored by Briggs & Stratton Racing, Firestone, Tim Fishel Motorsports, Ultramax Racing Chassis and Vega Tires. Thirty-five of the country's best Animal dirt karters entered the 20-lap affair at Liberty, ready to vie for the $1,700 top prize.

Dee Paschal qualified his No. 01 on the pole and led most of the first half of the race. Veteran Tod Miller, who qualified his Phantom chassis eighth fastest, had worked his way into second by Lap 6 and began to put pressure on Paschal for the top spot. He would make the pass, and go on to win the race by a 1.6-second margin over Devin Dowell, who collected $400 for second. Brett Miller netted $300 for third and Donnie Nall got $100 for finishing fourth. Paschal faded late, and finished just out of the money in fifth. Tod Miller also was awarded a $500 bonus put up by Firestone for being the first kart to cross the finish line on Firestone tires.

The Ultramax "Sunday 7" Money classes provided racers in nearly every division a chance to earn some extra gas money for the ride home. Each winner received $300 for the top spot, while second place collected $150 and third $75.

The Sunday 7 winners at Liberty were Blake Cannon in Briggs Jr. Sportsman 1 Heavy; Gavyn Deiter in Briggs Jr. Sportsman 2 Heavy; Jacob Schneider in Briggs Jr. Heavy; Codie Rohrbaugh in Briggs Jr. Champ Heavy; Jerry Mullis in Briggs Medium; Dan Sox in Briggs Super Heavy; and Mullis again in Briggs Champ Heavy. Congratulations to those six racers and thanks to Ultramax for making the Sunday 7 Money classes possible at the 2009 Speedway Dirt Series events.

Eight racers won $50 TS Racing gift certificates for winning their respected class(es) while sporting Vega tires on their karts. The TS Racing gift card winners were Blake Cannon in four classes, Hunter Crane, Codie Rohrbaugh, Houston Smith, Gavyn Deiter, Jacob Schneider in two classes, Kaitlyn Crane and Jacob Owens.

Other national feature winners at Liberty included Shannon Beldsoe in Limited Medium and Heavy, Derrick Rice Champ Lite, Tony Belk in Briggs Masters, Hunter Curtis Briggs Lite, Donnie Nall in Briggs Heavy, Jared Dutton in Raptor Lite and Jonathan Hickman in Raptor Heavy.

Briggs & Stratton again made five racers extremely happy ones at Saturday morning's drivers meeting. Four brand new Brute by Briggs & Stratton 2,500-psi pressure washers and one new 5,550-watt, 10-horsepower portable generator were randomly drawn for at the meeting. Alex Reece won the generator; Blake Cannon, Stephen Ford, Kyle Bowers and Jason Kitzmiller each left the meeting with the nice problem of figuring out how to make extra room in their hauler to fit a new Brute pressure washer.

Liberty Raceway Park put together a terrific program for Briggs flathead racers, offering three $500-to-win Local Option classes for flathead engines. Jared Dutton won the top prize over Jerry Mullis in Briggs Heavy Flathead. Donnie Nall won Briggs Sr Champ Flathead over Zack Burrow. Chris Harris beat out Dan Sox in Briggs Super Heavy Flathead. Each winner received a cool $500, while second got $200, third $100 and fourth and fifth $50 each. Sr Champ Flathead and Super Heavy Flathead each started over 10 karts; Briggs Heavy Flathead had seven karts take the green flag.

WKA would like to thank the staff at Liberty Raceway Park for each members' hard work and effort to put together an outstanding weekend, every sponsor that contributed to the tremendous amount of cash and awards, and the racers and their families for supporting the Speedway Dirt Series.

The next event on the Dirt schedule is Aug. 14-16 at Hanging Rock Kartway in Kershaw, S.C. The weekend will be the fourth of five 2009 Speedway Dirt events.

***

Road racers return to VIR this weekend

07.28.2009 -- One of the most storied road course facilities in America, VIRginia International Raceway -- popularly referred to as VIR -- is back on the Dunlop Tire National Road Racing Series driven by Mazda schedule in 2009. The road racers of WKA and the Woodbridge Kart Club will return to the Danville, Va., track this weekend, July 31-Aug. 2, for the Road Race Summer Nationals.

The VIR Summer Nationals marks Round 6 of the nine-race Road Racing tour, following Midwest events at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in June and the July 10-12 Zoom Zoom Nationals at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin's Road America. This weekend's event at VIR marks WKA's only 2009 national race in Virginia and the first of two to be hosted by one of the nation's oldest karting organizations, the Woodbridge Kart Club (WKC). The second will be Sept. 25-27 at the New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP).

WKC has been organizing kart races since the early '60s and became known for its presence at West Virginia's Summit Point Motorsports Park throughout the '80s and '90s. Throughout those decades, WKC held five to six events annually at Summit's challenging 10-turn course with one always being a much-anticipated WKA national.

The new millennium has seen change for all karting organizations, including WKC. The club now hosts events at Summit Point; the Shenandoah Circuit, which is another road course located on Summit Point's property; and two courses (Lightning and Thunderbolt) at the new NJMP. After a two-year absence, WKA returned to the main course at Summit Point for a national event in 2008 before scheduling the WKA / WKC-hosted national races at VIR and NJMP in 2009.

WKC's competition level has always been among the best in the country for Road Racing series and when the WKA racers come to their turf, the racing, entertainment and overall competitive nature of the event are always at some of the highest levels of the season. This weekend is sure to be no different.

Gates open Friday at 7 a.m. followed by an 8 a.m. drivers meeting and group practice from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Two WKC local option classes will race after practice Friday. Saturday and Sunday will each feature eight race groups comprising 57 national and local option classes.

For more information on the Summer Nationals, view the VIR entry blank at www.worldkarting.com/downloads/eb-2009/0731_vir_rr.pdf.

***

Championship Karting International expands partnership with World Karting Association

PHOENIX (07.28.2009) -- Championship Karting International (CKI) is pleased to announce it has extended its partnership with the United States sanctioning body World Karting Association (WKA) for the 2010 season and beyond. CKI obtained WKA sanctioning for its highly successful inaugural season in 2009 and has worked to continue strengthening the partnership throughout the course of the season.

"Championship Karting International recognizes the value of sanctioning by the World Karting Association -- they've been an integral part of our triumphant launch as the premier national series in America," states CKI co-founder RJ Valentine. "It's been our goal from the very beginning to continue and expand our relationship with the WKA. They're a big part of our goal to provide the most open, competitive kart racing series in North America, training the next generations of racers for careers in Motorsports. We want to continue to strengthen and expand our partnership with them in 2010 and beyond."

The CKI 2009 series is a WKA-sanctioned four-event season. In addition to the upcoming event at Grand Prix of California at CalSpeed Karting Center (Aug. 6-8), the series hosted events at New Castle (Ind.) Motorsports Park in May, and at New Jersey Motorsports Park, Millville, N.J., in June. A season finale is slated for Oklahoma Motorsports Complex, Norman, Okla.; Oct. 9-11. Plans are under way for the 2010 season. For more information, visit www.championshipkartracing.com.

***

Deep South Sprint Series
Springdale Raceway in Jackson, Miss.
Saturday, Aug. 1
Contact: Bobby Lane 601.668.0472
www.mississippikarting.com

South Carolina Divisional Dirt Series
Cross Anchor Raceway in Enoree, S.C.
Saturday, Aug. 1
Contact: Jayson Brown 864.304.4589
Brownrace8@bellsouth.net

Pennsylvania Dirt Divisional Series / PDKS
Central PA Speedway in Clearfield, Pa.
Sunday, Aug. 2
Contact: Doug Dietrich 610.750.4501
www.padirtkart.com

-credit: wka

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