Rock Island Grand Prix Update ROCK ISLAND, IL - From Roger Ruthhart, director of the Rock Island Grand Prix - "We have assembled what we believe is an awesome technical crew to handle inspections and scrutineering at this year's Grand Prix. A lot of detail-oriented planning has gone into this year's effort in pursuit of our goal to provide the fairest and safest karting event in the country. As in the past, an emphasis will be placed on pre-tech. We want the races to be fair and would rather fix a problem before the races than DQ someone after. Detailed plans are in place for all classes and as we did last year, racers will receive Technical Passports when they sign in. Drivers will be responsible for presenting them at pre-race inspection and seeing that they are filled out completely. You will also receive a list of rules and regulations specific to the classes you are participating in. Please be sure to review them immediately. Our team again is headed by Race Director Tom Argy Jr. and Bob Paladichuk is our technical coordinator. Bob is certified with a number of racing organizations, including NASCAR, and is also head of tech for TAG USA. Assisting him will be Jack Hoegerl, IKF board member from Rock Island, who has worked each and everyGrand Prix. Three Canadians fill out the crew. Shawn Hill returns to head 4-cycle tech and Bobby Ling will do gearbox tech. Harvey Pool, an experienced CIK scrutineer in Canada, joins the team this year to handle the international classes. Loren Niehaus from the WKA will serve as a technical advisor. Nancy Paladichuk again is grid steward and Jim Marrero will be her assistant. Gwen Smith will again run the transponder staff. Debbie Duffy heads the registration team and Steve Murphy is the pit steward and will direct pitting procedures. Bill Ruthhart returns as your track announcer and, as usual, we hope to squeeze a few races out of Rob Howden from Shifter Kart Illustrated, too. On-track officials remain essentially unchanged. Mr. Argy will be assisted on the back side of the track by two On-Track Race Controllers who carry the same authority as the race director. They are Harold and Troy Meyer from Marshalltown, Iowa. Mr. Tom Argy III will again be the starter and Head Corner Marshall Becky Rasmussen has reassembled her talented team of corner workers. Tom Thelen, SKUSA National scoring director, will handle timing/scoring duties. We put a premium on fairness and treating race teams with respect and we ask for the same in return. We think drivers who have raced here before will agree that we have one of the finest groups of officials to ever run a race in the U.S. and perhaps the world. With your cooperation we'll have another outstanding event."