"IRA utilizes closed-circuit TV to accomodate huge attendence at it's Awards Banquet!" CAROL STREAM, IL - The International Racing Association's (IRA) 2001 Awards Banquet was held with a standing room only crowd on January 26 at the Carol Stream Holiday Inn. All 300 dinner seats were sold in advance, so video monitors were set up outside the main banquet hall to accommodate the overflow crowd. Receiving awards on this night were all divisions of the IRA; the Burris Circle Tour, the MG Tires Championship Enduro Series (CES), and the SSC Racing Shifter Kart Pro Series. John Nuttall presented the awards to the 12 Burris Circle Tour classes and Tom Koutny presented the CES and SSC Pro Shifter awards. In addition to the point championship awards, special participation awards were given to all the CES Novice and Burris Kid Kart participants. Recognition was also given to all series officials and workers. Top 5 awards were presented to the CES point champions in each class. Besides the beautiful silver bowl trophies, merchandise awards were given to each with the class champion receiving an embroidered jacket. The Burris Circle Tour classes received trophies for up to the top ten point champions along with merchandise awards. Hundreds of door prizes were also given away throughout the evening. A special thank you goes out to Jan Lapke for organizing this successful event. She even arranged for vegetarian dinners for the non-meat lovers. Plans are already under way for next year's banquet, which will include arrangements to accommodate a bigger crowd and a DJ for the post-awards bench racing session. For more information on the International Racing Association or any of their affiliated series, check out the IRA's website at www.internationalracingassociation.com or call Toll Free at 1-866-689-RACE. Click here to visit the International Racing Association's website!