"Two-time winners are plentiful at DMSS GingerMan"
By David Cole
SOUTH HAVEN. MI - The last round of the Dunlop Mid States Series had a tough time battling the weather in South Haven, Michigan at the 6-year-old Gingerman Raceway. Rain slowed down Friday practice a few times and cancelled 4 of the 6 races on Sunday. Racers were lucky enough to get some great racing in on Saturday though.
The weekend saw six 2-time winners in all different levels. Leading the juniors were Jarrett Schwarz and Brandon Klos. Schwarz was able to take the Sprint and Enduro Yamaha Can Jr. classes on Saturday, while taking the championship in the Sprint class by a large margin. Klos was able to take the victories and the series championships in the Sprint Jr. Briggs Lite and Heavy classes. He was running times of five seconds a lap faster than the rest of the competition in both classes.
Leading the sprinters was Donnie Day. He was able to take the victories and the championships in both the K.R.S. Promotions Sprint Yamaha Can and Sprint Yamaha class. While the only trouble he had in those races was the handling of his kart, he had a handful in the Sprint Yamaha Can class on Sunday. Third place finisher on Saturday, Erick Schmitt, passed Day on the second lap and wouldn't give up the lead. Day stayed on Schmitt's bumper the entire race, with no more than half a second between the two in the shortened twenty-minute race. Coming off the last turn on the last lap, Day was able to make a run on Schmitt for the victory but it was Schmitt who edged out Day by 0.052 seconds. Neil Nutting followed them in third, as Bill Anderson and Jeff Selz rounded out the top 5. Day was able to take the championship though while taking another championship in the rained out Sprint Yamaha Sunday class.
The Joey Presnell was able to take both victories and championships in the Presnell Racing Sprint Briggs Stock Medium for both days. Rod Williams was able to take two victories, like Schwarz, in a sprint class and an enduro class. Williams took the victory in the German Motors, Inc. Controlled Limited Saturday class. He came up short though in the championship fight as third place finisher, Tom Disch, took the class championship and second place finisher, Mike Roncke, took the runner up spot in the championship. The Karting Specialties Controlled Limited Sunday class was rained out, thus giving the championship to Disch, followed by Williams, Jonathan Gashel, Ronke, and Dan Dean.
David Somers was able to take two victories and one championship. The championship came in the Enduro Yamaha Can Sunday class. One of the victories came in the New Concept Design Enduro Yamaha Can Saturday class, winning by only 0.055 seconds, and one in the Enduro Yamaha Sportsman Sunday class. In both races, he was able to beat out the Scott Greiner, who ended up winning the championship in both of those classes. He also won two other championships, one being the Saturday Enduro Yamaha Sportsman class, which he took the victory at the event, and in Yamaha Heavy, which was rained out. Greiner and Day, running with LAD power, were the only two drivers who won four championships.
One of the most exciting races of the weekend to watch is the Greenflag Motorsports Sprint 125cc Gearbox class on Saturday. Ted Tackett was the point's leader going into the weekend. The first lap had Ted Steffke, the winner from the July Grattan DMSS race, out in front of a hard charging group behind him. Tackett was able to get by Steffke, followed by Barth, to lead the next lap. The two seasoned drivers began running nose to tail and broke away from the rest of the pack. The remainder of the field was lead by Frank Clayton (Tracy/CKT Honda), who started near the back and was running the same times as the front two. He was able to distance himself from the field, but was unable to narrow the gap to the leaders.
Coming down the tracks longest straight, leading into a ninety-degree corner onto the start finish straight for the finish, Tackett stayed glued to Barth's bumper. Tackett moved to the inside and drove deep into the last corner under Barth and made the pass. Barth dove back under Tackett as Tackett used up the entire track exiting the last corner, which set-up a drag race to the finish line for the win. It was dead even until less than 5 yards before the line, when Barth was able to edge out Tackett, beating him at the line by 0.035 seconds in a dramatic photo finish.
The victory was the first of the year for Barth and gave him second place in the series season championship. The second place finish gave Tackett more than enough points to take the title, his second Sprint 125cc Gearbox championship in three years. Bryan Blair was able to take a ninth place finish to secure him with a third overall in the championship battle while Ted Steffke took forth in both the race and the championship points. Rounding out the top five of the championship battle was Harold Diehl III. Sunday's race was rained out but some stayed out to have a good time in on the wet track.
In the West Racing Enduro 80/125cc Gearbox, Scott Fiesler was able to run a wire-to-wire victory to clinch the championship. Second place in the race and the championship went to Harry West, who was followed by Dan Meray, Richard Lawson, and David DeClue. In Sunday's race, Meray was unable to catch Robert Lawson for the victory.
Dave Hechler, the runner up in the Yamaha Heavy class championship, was able to take the victory and the championship in the Yamaha Lite class. Larry Scheeder and 16-year-old Zach Casto challenged Hechler until both drivers dropped out with problems. Scheeder was able to take second in the championship while second place in the race, Jim Farr Jr, took third in the championship.
In the always-competitive Martin Custom Products Enduro 100cc Controlled class, the four Scavuzzo brothers are always near the front of the pack. John Scavuzzo took the lead from the start and never looked back. John was ten seconds away from lapping the entire field. With the victory, John was able to clinch the championship. Third place finisher Ron Taylor followed John in the championship. John's brothers Santo finished second in the race and third in the championship while Steve took a DQ in the race and a forth in the championship. Martin Powers took a fifth in the race and the championship.
Sunday's West Racing Unlimited, thus giving the championship to Johnny West, was rained out but the Unlimited Saturday was good size field for the second weekend in a row. Thirteen drivers took the field and all saw West take the wire-to-wire win. The win was not enough for West to take the championship away from the fifth place finisher Bill Riley.
Other winners included Scott Frost taking the B-Limited Saturday victory and championship; Ray Smith taking the victory in the Sprint 80cc Gearbox Saturday while Jon Miles took the championship; Larry Scheeder took the Enduro 100cc Piston Port Saturday victory with Russ Smith taking the championship; Derek Trimble taking the victory in the Sprint Briggs Super Stock Saturday while John Koch took the championship; Zach Casto took the victory in the Enduro Team Yamaha Can while Matt Hursey took the championship; and Janice Pritchett took the victory and the championship in the Sprint Yamaha Can Jr. Sunday.
For full results of the race weekend and final championship standings, check out www.michkartclub.org. A special thanks goes out to all our sponsors for making the series possible and all the club volunteers that make the events run so well.
