Jason Lynch debuts kart in victory at Sr. Champ Kart Classic Story by Sue Nuttall SCHERERVILLE, IN - The Nortown Automotive Sr. Champ Kart Classic attracted new and veteran racers alike as the Burris Circle Tour made its fifth stop of the season at the Illiana Motor Speedway. Jason Lynch who started racing with the Burris Circle Tour from its inception a decade ago, returned to circuit and took home the big trophy. Jason introduced a new kart that he designed and built himself and after a few laps getting it dialed in, he ran to a resounding victory. A few seconds back, Jacob Finney and rookie driver, Brad Becker were mixing it up, swapping spots on almost every turn. Jacob finished second and Brad was thrilled with his best finish ever in third place. Aaron Phillips was the top qualifier with 18.625 seconds around the 1/4 mile, and Nicole Phillips at 18.804 seconds. Julie Hellyer, in her first race said, "I had the time of my life. I need to do this again." A pack of Jr. Champ kart drivers including Brian Freiberg, Matt Scott, Michael Bilderback, Ryan Marshall and Matt Vice ran out to an early lead. Bilderback spun, so he was suddenly out of contention. Ryan Marshall slipped by Matt Vice and Matt Scott was taking the fast way around on the preferred inside line. With one lap to go, the top 3 were in a dead heat. Ryan held on for his first feature win of the year. Matt Vice is leading the points race with 860 points - only 20 points over Bilderback and Marshall who are tied for second at 840 points. In the Jr. Sportsman Champ class, Dylan Barbosa led through the halfway mark. Then he and Colton Clevenger got together and went to the back leaving the field open for Tyler Blume. He jumped out to a commanding lead, crossing the stripe in first place. The win put Tyler atop the leader board for the Class Overall Series Points Championship. Mackenzie Piller and George Clos, Jr. rounded out the podium in second and third respectively. In Sr. Briggs action, the Sr. Medium's turned in another close finish. After running nose to tail most of the race, Brandon Eash, Ryan Rockhold and Anthony Danta spread out 3 wide coming in the final turn and finished with less than 2/10th's of a second separating them. This week Eash took home the honors, Rockhold finished second and Danta was third. The Sr. Heavy class was almost a repeat of the Medium's. Eash and Danta doubled up and ran away from the rest of the Sr. Heavy field. These two experienced drivers had to weave their way through lapped traffic at the end of the race. Danta finished on top and Eash was second. Shane Morrisey led the Sr. Lite Feature from start to finish. With 2 laps to go, Rick Johnson made a slick inside pass to take over the second spot. He barely held on coming down the final backstretch. Rich McGill settled for third and Jeff Everts finished fourth. Not to be outdone, the largest Jr. 2 class of the season took to the track with Matt O'Leary on the pole. In the early going O'Leary was in the lead while Tyler Peterson, Ben Stumpf and Dylan Hobbs chased him down. With 9 laps down, a yellow flag bunched the field back up with O'Leary still leading and Stumpf right on his bumper. Dylan Hobbs made a charge to the outside but got in the marbles close to the wall and fell back a few spots. The final stretch was a thriller as Tyler Peterson went all the way to the wall and made the turn at the last possible moment. At the checker it was O'Leary, Stumpf, Hobbs and Peterson. Other feature winners this week included Seth Lootans in his first victory of the year in the Sr. Yamaha Class. Joe Chiapetta mastered the tight turns to earn his first feature win of the year in the Sr. Sportsman class. Jessica Brannham - Jr. Yamaha, Derrick Gough - Jr. 1 Lite and Billy Hulbert - Jr. 3 Lite won their respective classes. Tiffany Wester and Chris Lishamer finished 1-2 in the F200. RESULTS (6/22/2003 - Illiana Motor Speedway): Sr. Champ: 1.) Jason Lynch, 2.) Jacob Finney, 3.) Brad Becker, 4.) Aaron Phillips, 5.) Jeff Stornello, 6.) Nicole Phillips, 7.) Jim Maher, 8.) Dennis Zellmer, 9.) Julie Hellyer Jr. Champ: 1.) Ryan Marshall, 2.) Matt Vice, 3.) Matt Scott, 4.) Michael Bilderback, 5.) Brian Freiberg , 6.) Charlie Burgess, 7.) Jimmy Sivia, 8.) Tyler Kelley Jr. Sportsman Champ: 1.) Tyler Blume, 2.) Mackenzie Piller, 3.) George Clos, 4.) Dylan Barbosa, 5.) Colton Clevenger, 6.) Jacob Zellmer, 7.) Ben Hewitt, 8.) Jacob Bandaly, 9.) Sean Clavey Jr. I Lite: 1.) Derrick Gough , 2.) Matt Schultz, 3.) Cory Talaska , 4.) Grant Sheridan, 5.) Zach Witek, 6.) Alex Stumpf, 7.) Andy Jones, 8.) Matt Holzgrafe Jr. II Lite: 1.) Matt O'Leary, 2.) Ben Stumpf, 3.) Dylan Hobbs, 4.) Tyler Peterson, 5.) Tommy Jones, 6.) Aaron Katzenberg, 7.) Cullen Camasta, 8.) Tyler Kuder, 9.) Rick Sheridan, 10.) David Brady, 11.) Taylor Moore, 12.) Patrick McCarty Jr. III Lite: 1.) Billy Hulbert, 2.) Jordan Thiel, 3.) Mason Hadley, 4.) Adam Carlson, 5.) Nick Chiapetta, 6.) Tyler Middleton, 7.) Zach Axlen, 8.) Nick Beinlich, 9.) Nick Miller, 10.) Kyle Beno, 11.) Carly Mandarino, 12.) Nathan Counihan, 13.) Andrew Hintt Jr. Yamaha: 1.) Jessica Brannam, 2.) Carly Mandarino, 3.) Joey Mandarino Sr. Heavy: 1.) Anthony Danta, 2.) Brandon Eash, 3.) Amy Ghislain, 4.) Tyler Traber, 5.) Jay Badgley Sr. Lite: 1.) Shane Morrissey, 2.) Ricky Johnson, 3.) Richard McGill , 4.) Jeff Everts, 5.) Jimmy Johnson, 6.) Joe Johnson, 7.) Jason Lindgren, 8.) Amanda Lishamer Sr. Medium: 1.) Brandon Eash, 2.) Ryan Rockhold, 3.) Anthony Danta, 4.) Eric Freiberg, 5.) Kris McCarty, 6.) Jason Lindgren Sr. Sportsman: 1.) Joe Chiapetta, 2.) J.J. Adams, 3.) Rob Blake Yamaha Sportsman: 1.) Seth Lootans, 2.) Eric Freiberg, 3.) Mike James F200-OHV: 1.) Tiffany Wester, 2.) Chris Lishamer, 3.) Dale Weter F200-OHV Jr. III: 1.) Corey Domenick, 2.) Jeff Everts Kid Karts: Austin Hintt, Elliot Pritchett, Trevor Kelley, Teddie Stumpf, Joshua James, Jacob VanWazer, Jordan Jagielski, Jimmy Ryan, Thaddeus Malosh , Amy Atkinson, Amanda Atkinson, Zaida Clevenger