Race Report from Streets of Lancaster Grand Prix

The season finale of the 2010 Gatorz Karting Cup was held last weekend as part of the Streets of Lancaster Grand Prix. Meeting expectations, the Gatorz Karting Cup races were action-packed and had large fields and competitive racing from start to finish – a great way to end the season and crown the 2010 season champions.

Ben Schermerhorn

ROTAX SENIOR
Rotax Senior Qualifying was as close as you can get with four drivers all separated by less than a tenth of a second. Scott Saunders earned his second pole of the weekend with a time of 51.189. Phast Phil Giebler qualified P2 with Jeremy Kane and Ms. #29 herself Airel Jimenez completing row two. Saunders, Kane and Giebler traded the lead in the Prefinal with Saunders getting the win. The final was typical of any street race, total chaos from green to checker. Saunders and Kane went at it early with Jimenez and Nicholas Silva glue to their bumpers. Motors exploded, hay bales exploded and the crowd exploded as lap nine really got the ball rolling. Saunders dropped out, Jimenez went backwards, Silva went backwards, Kane went backwards while Ben Schermerhorn rebounded up to the lead. Troy McCall, Michael Leib and Matt Hart all jumped up a few positions and now were entrenched in the fight for the podium with McCall sitting in the leader’s draft. McCall took his turn leading this freak show for three laps but soon Schermerhorn was back on top. Once the dust finally settled after twenty laps of this, Schermerhorn had earned a fantastic win and had a three-second buffer back to second place. Kane recovered nicely, picking off driver after driver to secure his second place finish. Silva completed the podium, turning the fastest lap of the race in the process. Quite the finish for this youngster – who just moved up to Senior not so long ago. Joey Barros and Hart completed the top five.

ROTAX MASTERS
The Crow show got the ball rolling in Rotax Masters qualifying when John Crow set the pace with a time of 51.844. Steve Dzurilla, Scott Falcone and Paul Bonilla all were within a few tenths, but none could match Crow. The Prefinal saw Dzurilla snag the hole shot away from Crow heading down the long 1000 foot front straight, but his time up front only lasted a few laps. Once out front, Crow was able to keep Dzurilla, Falcone and Bonilla behind him, while Ian Thomas led the charge of the main field a few seconds back. The Final had its fair share of bumps and grinds as the Masters guys took advantage at every corner. Crow jumped out to an early lead with Falcone and Dzurilla glued to his rear bumper. A few kart lengths back sat Bonilla, Thomas and a charging Andy Seesemann. Seesemann put a pass on Thomas for fifth place but it didn’t end well for the recent un-retired Thomas who soon found himself in the bales. As the leaders held their positions up with Crow leading the way, Seesemann and Bonilla were now locked in battle for fourth. Contact between the two ended Seesemann’s race on lap nine, collecting Robson, Bradley and DeSilva in the process. The lead trio finally was able to gap the field and settle things on the last lap. Falcone couldn’t mount a charge for the win, but last lap, three turns left, Dzurilla went for it, taking second place from the Colorado driver. Crow capped off another fine performance with a Streets of Lancaster win to add to his palmarés. Bonilla ran solo to the line for fourth place as Tom Dolan climbed up from eighth to finish in fifth.

Jake Craig

JUNIOR ROTAX
Emmanuel Mestre showed the way in Qualifying in Rotax Junior as the only driver under the 52-second mark. His 51.816-lap was better than Dakota Dickerson and Jake Craig. Dickerson got the jump on Mestre at the start of the heat race. Mestre kept it close the entire 12 laps as Dickerson led the entire way. Craig fell off the pace and later retired as Brenna Miscione took the third spot. The top two continued their battle into the main event, swapping the lead until Mestre was shuffled back. Craig joined the fight up front until lap six when the race was red-flagged for an incident involving Mini Max drivers. On the restart, contact was made between Dickerson and Craig. Dickerson was unable to continue while Craig rejoined after losing positions. This gave the lead to Tim De Silva until Craig was able to work his way back to the point and scored the win. De Silva finished second with Miscione in third.

MINI-MAX
Canadian Parker Thompson scored the pole position with a 52.655 over Jake Drew and Adam Iavelli. Showing the way through the Prefinal, Thompson scored the win by five-seconds. Iavelli edged out Austin Versteeg and Nicky Hays for the second spot as Drew ended up fifth. Completing the sweep, Thompson took the main event victory by two-seconds following the mid-race restart. Drew fought back to score the second step on the podium while Royal McKee completed the podium in third over Hays and Trenton May.