Hot racing as Margay.com CES visits Putnam Park Story and photos by Joe Brittin MT. MERIDIAN, IN - Putnam Park was the site for the Russell Karting/Dunlop Mid-States Super Series and the Margay.com Championship Enduro Series joint road race along with WKA Regional points being awarded on a hot fourth of July weekend in central Indiana. The Indianapolis Kart Club (IKC) has hosted a race on the first weekend of July at this road course for almost ten years and was the first group to race on the brand new track when it opened in the fall of 1991. IKC has even made generous donations to the track to help pay for paving of the pit roads. This 1.8-mile road course is a favorite among drivers since it is so smooth and fast. The nearly flat-out track requires very little braking and always has groups of karts running together in the draft providing for some exciting racing. Almost the entire track can be viewed from the spectator mounds and scoring tower. This feature also allows race officials to closely monitor for pushing violations and resulted in several black flags being thrown to pushing violators. Six rounds of practice were held on Friday followed by the Intrepid Kart Shifter Pro race at 4:30 pm. The pro races were won by Rich Salerno in the ICC 125 class and by Clayton Prater SK 125 class. Salerno and Prater were able to break away from the pack and battle it out amongst themselves with Salerno pulling the slingshot move at the finish line to take the overall win. The hot July weather reached into the 90's all weekend and the only relief came in the form of rainshowers on Saturday morning which delayed the program a few hours. One round of practice was held and the full day of races were worked in by shortening the enduro races to 25 minutes and the sprint races to 20 minutes. The shortened races were welcomed by most due to the high temperatures. Some of the Sunday races were also shortened by popular demand of the drivers due to the heat. Nearly 300 entries were on hand for this joint series race including 14 Novice participants in the class for 8 to 11 year olds. The biggest classes were the 125cc Shifter groups who put on exciting drafting exhibitions both days with packs of karts often fanning out three-wide during their slingshot maneuvers. The SK-125 group proved to be the fastest shifter class on Sunday as their lead pack ran down the CIK 125 class with Tim Koutney setting the fastest lap at 1:12.121. Preston Peltier captured the CIK 125 class on both days while Tim Koutney won the SK-125 class on Saturday and Tim Barnard won the SK-125 class on Sunday. The Sunday shifter race turned out to be one of the most exciting races of the weekend when seven karts battled in the lead pack for most of the race, furiously swapping the lead amongst themselves. The battle came down to the last lap where several karts banged wheels in the next to the last corner allowing the top three karts of Peltier, Barnard and Chad Donner to break away from the group. Peltier took the overall win and Barnard was second in the group taking the SK-125 class win. The Indianapolis Kart Club did a nice job of hosting this event and smoothly ran all of the races even with the rain delays. They gave away some nice participation prizes in a drawing held at the end of practice on Friday, which included color televisions and DVD players. All drivers who registered for Friday practice were eligible for the drawing. The IKC also is providing personalized award plates for the top five finisher's trophies in each class that will have the participant's name engraved on a plaque. John Copeland, of the IKC, presented a nice tribute at the Sunday morning driver's meeting to their past treasurer, Greg Haussin, who passed away suddenly this Spring from a heart attack. Greg will be greatly missed and was an important contributor to the IKC and karting in general. Capturing three wins over the weekend was Eric Larue in the Enduro PP SSX Can class both days and the Team Enduro SSX Can class. Tim Barnard also won three classes by capturing the Sprint Piston Port SSX Can Lite class both days and the SK-125 class on Sunday. Brad Richards took three wins in the Sprint 4-Cycle Open class both days and the Sunday Sprint Briggs class. Other multiple winners included Preston Peltier, Dave Hechler, Johnny West, Scott Grenier, Tiffany Wester, and Brian Ellis. The next joint series event for the two road racing groups will be held at the newly paved Blackhawk Farms Raceway on August 8, 9, & 10. This race will also be a WKA Regional points race. For more information, pictures and results please visit www.championshipenduro.com.