Photos Results

Story by: Sue Nuttall 
The temperature soared, the excitement heated up and new racers were on the top of the standings for the 9th race of the Burris Circle Tour.  Matt Scott, from St. Charles, Illinois, inched out Matt Vice in the closely contested Nortown Automotive Jr. Champ Kart Classic held at the Illiana Motor Speedway on August 17th.  Jacob Zellmer won his first Feature race of the year in the Jr. Sportsman Classic and Brandon Eash edged out Ryan Rockhold by a mere 5 points to win the Short Season Championships in Sr. Medium.

The Burris Circle Tour Short Season consists of 6 races for the Sr. Medium Class, at 3 different speedway tracks in the Chicagoland area.  Qualifying set the stage for the day with Brandon Eash posting the fast qualifying time in Sr. Medium at 18.879 seconds around the big ¼ mile.  Eric Freiberg also broke the 19-second mark at 18.939.  In the feature, Freiberg took the early lead, but it didn’t take long for it to become a 3-way battle between Freiberg, Eash and Ryan Rockhold.  Once Eash took the lead, he never gave it up.  The podium finish for the day was Eash, Freiberg and Rockhold.  The Championship Points gave the nod to Eash by 5 points, Rockhold took second place, Freiberg and Anthony Danta were third and fourth respectively.

Matt Scott continued his late season charge winning his second feature race in as many outings in the Nortown Automotive Jr. Champ Kart Classic.  Matt Vice, known for his consistently high finishes, drove away from the field at the start of the long 25-lap race.  In lap 21 Matt Scott turned the heat up posting the fastest lap of the day at 19.685 virtually eliminating Vice’s lead.  Then coming around to the white flag, Vice went wide and Scott dove to the inside to take the lead.  Scott held the position for the final lap to take the win.  Vice took second while Brian Freiberg and Ryan Marshall rounded out the top four.

The Jr. Sportsman Champ Kart Classic featured Trophy Dashes and a 25-lap feature event.  Dylan Barbosa started out the day winning the first Trophy Dash.  Colton Clevenger, Jacob Zellmer and Tyler Blume were second through fourth.  The second Trophy Dash saw new faces on the podium with Rachael Pinkerman taking the first place award while George Clos, Sean Clavey and Jacob Bandaly were also top finishers.  The Jr. Sportsman Champ Kart feature was a heart stopper filled with near accidents, spins and swapping positions so fast it was hard to keep up.  At the end of the day, Eagle, Wisconsin resident Jacob Zellmer won his first feature race of the year edging out Jacob Bandaly, Tyler Blume and Sean Clavey.  George Clos, Jr. finished fifth.
 

Matt O’Leary, Jr. 2 and Rick Johnson, Sr. Lite joined the Feature Winners Circle for the first time this year.  Their victories bring the total of different feature winners to 50 this season.  Jordon Thiel, Jr. 3 class and overall points finished third today racking up his points total to 1515.  Billy Hulbert, also in Jr. 3 moved into second spot overall with 1486 points and Tyler Blume has 1482 points for a third place standing in the overall Championship race.

Other feature winners today included Chris Lishamer – F200 OHV, Alex Stumpf – Jr. 1, Billy Hulbert-Jr. 3, Jessica Brannam-Jr. Yamaha, Austin Hintt-Kid Karts, Nicole Phillips-Sr. Champ, Anthony Danta-Sr. Heavy, Joe Chiapetta-Sr. Sportsman, Seth Lootans – Sr. Yamaha.