Ryan Marshall tops podium at Nortown Automotive Jr. Champ Kart Classic

Burris Circle Tour racing returned to the Rockford Speedway August 15th. Ryan Marshall fought off Corey Domenick early in the Champ F200 Jr. 3 leg of the Nortown Automotive Champ Kart Classic held this year at the Rockford Speedway. Marshall extended his lead and won handily. Domenick’s kart was handling well and he was able to hold off a strong challenge from Ross Kenseth and Jimmy Sivia. Mackenzie Piller had hers hands full this week with Jacob Zellmer in the Champ F200 Jr 1 class but held on for the win.

Jamie Clos broke out the rocket headgear this week in the hopes it would give him the extra edge in the Jr. Sportsman Champ class. It appeared to work as Jamie took the win in the heat race. In the feature Clos ran the entire race right behind Dylan Barbosa. Clos set up for the pass on the final lap. Barbosa slammed the door shut holding the inside line, leaving no room for Clos. This was Barbosa 9th feature win this year. Zack Saran and Ashton Hubbell rounded out the top four. Stephen Kammerer was the winner in the Champ 4-Cycle Jr. 3 class. All of the drivers received special prizes from the folks at Nortown Automotive including scale models of some of our favorite NASCAR drivers.

In other action, the Jr. 2 points battle continues to be red hot as the top 3 are separated by only 30 points. Today, the front of the field was packed tight when Cory Talaska, Alex Stumpf and Any Jones drove so close to each other it was scary cool. First Stumpf ran out front, then Talaska with Jones running just to the side. At the white flag, Stumpf was out front. Jones, last weeks feature winner, set up for the final turn pass. Jones made the move and dove to the inside. Stumpf, no newcomer to that move, came on strong to the outside. At the stripe, Jones was ahead by a mere 3/1000ths of a second – just inches in front. Talaska, Matt Holzgrafe and Caylie Duncanson finished 3rd through 5th respectively.

Damian Jenks debuted his bright orange #87 kart and drove to victory in Jr. 3. Tyler Peterson, Aaron Katzenberg and Tommy Jones mixed it up and finished in the second through fourth spots. Morgan Schissel won the F200 Jr. 1 feature with Trevor Kelley in second.

The Sr. Light feature was a nail biter – as usual. Today, Rich McGill and Nick Chiapetta teamed up to draft away from the rest of the traffic. In the second group, 6 drivers – Mike Terrafino, Rick Johnson, Carly Madarino, Jeff Everts, Ryan Rockhold and Brandon Eash were all switching places so fast it was hard to keep track. Chiapetta surged in the final yards to win by a nose over McGill. A few seconds back, Rick Johnson pushed the kart to edge out Everts and Terrafino. Nick Chiapetta retains his lead in the Series Points battle.

Brandon Eash had the strongest kart in the F200 class and won by a convincing margin. However, the battle for second was very tight as Mike Kann, moving from the Sr. Lite class, made a bold move in the final lap to take the second spot from Chris Lishamer. Trevor Raisbeck, Eric Frisby and Destini Clark finished on the podium in 2-Cycle Sportsman and the Sr. Sportsman Class was led by Dan Rado, Dave Terrafino and JJ Adams.

Kid Karters were 15 strong with a lot of side-by-side action. Brent Edmunds won, Cody Lipstreuer, Brennan Frisby, Morgan Schissel and Teddie Stumpf were all top finishers.

The Burris Circle Tour makes stops at Lake Geneva Raceway on August 29th before heading to the Milwaukee Mile Labor Day Weekend.