Season in review is when we can look back at this past year and honor those that have raced as well as the champions. First recap is for the Northern Nevada Kart Club and their successful season.
Stock Moto 125 is the fastest class the club has. These karts use a 125cc motor hitched to a six-speed gearbox that not only delivers speed but it puts the driver under some pretty strong G loads in the corners.
Mike Faker won the first event back in April followed by Dean Andrews, Jeff Wamre and Jeremy Kay. After that Kay ran a string of six victories only interrupted when Andrews and Matt Koerner won separate evens.
Jeremy Kay came into the season only expecting to get some experience but in the end he won the 125 Stock Moto championship.
In the end the 15-year-old Kay amassed 1815 points while Andrews wasn’t too far behind with 1701. Should be even more competitive next year.
In the F-80 Shifter class Jeremy Holm not only is the champion but the only driver to compete in all eight races where he scored five victories.
His chief mechanic father, Kurt Holm did win one race while Cody McKinney scored two victories.
At the end Jeremy had a total of 1802 points but the race for second and third was very close with father Kurt earning 1282 while third place Jeff Wamre amassed 1253 points.
Further down the list there was another close battle between Ryan Holm, with 912 and Turbo Sombatsiri, who finished with 888 points.
It must be noted that a victory is worth 205 or more points so races for second and fourth were pretty close.
TAG Masters is another class with close competition but in the end Steve Ryckebosch won the title with 1607 points. However Mike McMullen might have pulled off an upset if he had won a race since he ended up with 1482 points.
Not far behind in third was Mike Ryckebosch in third with 1369 and he wasn’t too far ahead of Jeff Solvason, who had 1214 points at the end.
This class many times turns into a family battle as the Ryckebosch clan accounts for half of the entries.
Four classes use the LO206 motor, which apparently is a whole lot more durable than the original Clone motor that’s from China. This motor has allowed drivers to purchase a relatively inexpensive power plant and be competitive.
There are two Senior classes with one of them for the older and heavier competitors or the Heavy class.
When the season began in April the first winner was Brandon Walsh. Then he won two out of the next three, took a break and won one more of the five races he competed in.
Doug Hunter and Brian Rivera each won a victory a piece but Jason Anderline used steady driving and the fact he raced in seven races to claim this year’s championship.
Reporter’s Note: A reader pointed out that the Senior LO206 had the closest points finish of all the classes so here is my correction to the original article. And I found a typo that has also been corrected.
The class champion is Zachary Rivera who started off with six wins, one second although he had problems in the final double points race he still finished the season with 1769 points. The only other local winner was Stephanie Callahan, who won the third race when Rivera wasn’t competing while California driver Nicholas Grossi won the final two events.
Gary Guzelis used a trio of second and third place finishes plus two fourth place finishes to stay close in the championship hunt. At seasons end he was second with 1715 points, only 54 behind Rivera making this the closest finish of the season.
Taking third and and fourth in the championship were Jacob Ciari and Rick McLeod. The next three places, fifth through eighth, were separated by 169 points and at the end Nat Sombatsiri was fifth followed by Brud Beaudoin and John Mayer.
Behind them was another close battle for ninth as Stephanie Callahan held on to the position by a scant two points over Alec Beaudoin.
This class should be very competitive in 2017.
The next two classes, Jr-2 and Jr-1 LO206 are younger drivers climbing their way up the racing ladder.
In the more senior Jr-2 class only 224 points separated the top four with Aiden Hawkins taking the championship.
Only 109 points back was Jake Guzelis, who won one race, while third place Chase Dulude was 68 points further back and only 47 points ahead of Bryce Berry.
All in all it was a pretty competitive season for all concerned.
The largest class in the NNKC is the Jr-1 LO206 group that had 19 racers competing although several drivers only showed up for a few races.
Topping the championship race was Brooks Anderline with 1869 points but Austin Hawkins was only 210 points back in second. If Hawkins had scored a victory the margin would have been very close.
Heavyn Hill had a good season and she ended up in third only 37 points in back of Hawkins.
Anderline won seven of the nine races he competed in and the only other winners were Garrette Randolph and Phillip Kelly.
There was a tight battle for fourth place won by Landon Kwapich with 1351 points but fifth place Isiah Nobels was not far away with 1289 while three points further back was Wyatt Sander with 1286 points.
These young drivers are the future generation and will soon be giving their elders a run for their money.
The NNKC scores points in all the races a driver competes in then they get to choose a “throw away event,” so having a bad day really doesn’t handicap a person.
Youngest drivers in the club are in the Kid Kart Class. They are under 8-years-old and use this time to earn their racing spurs before moving up to Jr-1.
Since every driver gets a point when they compete there was a tie for first between Tarron Graves, who won the most races, and Mia Wright who got faster as the season went on and also won one of the races.
The other top driver was third place Alyssa Winters and this youngster was showing steady improvement and almost had a perfect race late in the season. She wound up third after competing in six of the events while the top two raced in all nine.
Two part-time racers were Cooper Perez, in fourth and Emmett Gunter in fifth.
All the Kid Kart drivers get participation medals and will also pick up awards at the banquet. For them just finishing a race is like a victory.
Every year the club hosts a regional event and this year it was the final race of the year, which was also the final event in the KPX series.
The weekend was even more interesting because Mother Nature decided to pull a surprise and had a storm go through the area.
As a result Sunday’s schedule was sped up but while many of the heat races were run on a dry track started to rain before those finished. As a result the main events were cut back just a bit.
Anyone that races has to learn to adapt to changing track conditions and on this day they also had to learn what the wet line was and how to race in very slick conditions where their karts were sliding in the turns.
Once the rain began several drivers had problems due to water getting into the intakes of their motors, another had clutch problems and some didn’t have rain tires. Still they gave a good account of themselves and all the main events were run.
Up holding the local’s honor was Dan Harris. After doing most of his racing in California, he returned to his home track and won the F-80 Shifter main.
While many drivers, for one reason or another, didn’t take the green it still wasn’t a cakewalk for Harris. He mentioned afterwards that it was a case of survival being out there.
This final event of the year was also the swan song for the club’s long time flagman, Dave Brant. After 14 years on the stand he’s climbing down and will do other things including land speed type events he’s been involved in.
For the past 14-years Dave Brant has been the NNKC’s flagman. Now he’s stepping down and moving on to other things.
Now Desert Park Raceway is dark except for testing sessions although some racers will be going over the hill to south to compete in events this winter.
Come March however the track will once again echo with the sounds of racing karts as the Northern Nevada Kart Club hosts is practice race. Until then the club’s next function is the awards banquet on December 3.
Those wishing further information on the club need to go to their website at www.nnkc.com.
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We now have four very appreciated sponsors that are helping support this site.
The newest is familiar to anyone in the riding lifestyle. It’s PJ & Co Restaurant and Saloon located at 1590 Wells Avenue in Reno.
Good food, great place and they have Bike Night every Wednesday. For further information please check their website at, www.pjandco.net.
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The business is located at 240 Telegraph Street in Reno and their website is, www.concoursbodyshop.net.
If you are into karting or want the most cost effective way to start racing then check out Nevada Kart Sport, our only full service kart shop in this region.
They are located at 1220 E. Greg Street in Sparks and their website is, www.nevadakartsport.com.
Into riding or racing a motorcycle? If so Reno Motorsports is for you as they have a full service shop as well as about anything a rider could want.
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There is a photo gallery after the results
RESULTS:
Northern Nevada Kart Club – 2016 season.
Final points finishing order.
+ Kid Kart: 1. Tarron Graves 1. Mia Wright (They tied in points so there is no second place.), 3. Alyssa Winters, 4. Cooper Perez, 5. Emmett Gunter.
+ Jr. 1 LO206/Clone: 1. Brooks Anderline, 2. Austin Hawkins, 3. Heavyn Hill, 4. Landon Kwapich, 5. Isiah Nobles, 6. Wyatt Sander, 7. Korey Sander, 8. Boden Barnwell, 9. Jack Shrady, 10. Brinley Barnwell, 11. Asa Gourley, 12. Kendra Winters, 13. Adrian Brown, 14. Austin Perez, 15. Garrewtt Randolph, 16. Brianson Melear, 17. Deano Pinten, 18. Eli Mays, 19. Cole Gamma.
+ Jr. 2 LO206/Clone: 1. Aiden Hawkins, 2. Jake Guzelis, 3. Chase Dulude, 4. Bryce Berry, 5. Caleb Mayer, 6. Isaac Bourque, 7. Aidan Piggott, 8. Braden Benedix, 9. Nick Short, 10. Kaili Hill.
+ Sr. LO026/Clone: 1. Zachary Rivera, 2. Gary Guzelis, 3. Jacob Ciari, 4. Rick McLeod, 5. Nat Sombatsiri, 6. Brud Beaudoin, 7. Jon Mayer, 8. Kelly Chinander, 9. Stephanie Callahan, 10. Alec Beaudoin, 11. Nicholas Grossi, 12. Dean Andrews, 13. Kelsey Nelson, 14. Geoff Shaw, 15. Karl Rauta, 16. Jed Spangler.
+ Sr. Heavy LO206/Clone: 1. Jason Anderline, 2. Brandon Walsh, 3. Chris Wright, 4. Zak Koch, 5. Barry Barnwell, 6. Brud Beaudion, 7. Tim Maddox, 8. Max Glenn, 9. Brian Rivera, 10. Doug Hunter, 11. Harell Fischer.
+ TAG Masters: 1. Steve Ryckebosch, 2. Mike McMullen, 3. Mike Ryckebosch, 4. Jeff Solvason, 5. John Ryckebosch, 6. Randy Ryckebosch, 7. Mike Arnold, 8. Keith Roberts.
+ F-80 Senior: 1. Jeremy Holm, 2. Kurt Holm, 3. Jeff Wamre, 4. Ryan Holm, 5. Turbo Sombatsiri, 6. Ken Brown, 7. Cody McKinney, 8. Ben Fisher, 9. Steve Dow, 10. Brock Gardner, 11. Jeremiah Golden, 12. Greg Jaime, 13. Russell Dudley.
+ Stock Moto 125: 1. Jeremy Kay, 2. Dean Andrews, 3. Jeff Wamre, 4. Mike Faker, 5. Doug Hunter, 6. Tom Gardner, 7. Matt Koerner, 8. Pandora Garcia.
PHOTO GALLERY:
