Jarrett makes comeback as White sets personal best in 4-Cycle Mid-Season at South Bend By Lisa White SOUTH BEND, IN - Sunday, August 24th was a great day for racing at South Bend Raceway Park with Michiana Kart Klub's 4-Cycle Mid-Season Championship on the line. With temps predicted in the high 80's and not a cloud in the sky, the track would be hot for racing. The first 4-Cycle class was 4-Cycle Jr. Sportsman with 2.3 seconds separating the points contenders. Justin Jarrett #17, points leader for the class, had the fastest time for the day putting him in pole for the feature. Outside pole was Tyler Brindley #3 who also won the feature at MKK Race #7 and is a close second in the points race. Jarrett had been in a slump for the past few weeks narrowly taking first at race #6 by .22 seconds and taking fourth at race #7. This double points race would definitely be a plus in his favor. As the green flag dropped, Jarrett and Brindley drove their own drag race, making contact, but Jarrett coming out of turn one in first position. As the distance between Jarrett and Brindley increased, new comer Vincent Martinez #43 made his way up the line to third place, right behind Brindley. Going into turn 5, Jarrett spun off the track allowing Brindley to get by him and take first, with Martinez in second. Jarrett quickly got back on the track, resulting in a three-wide race on the downhill. Martinez passed Jarrett and Brindley, going from third to first place, Brindley in second and Jarrett and Grant Lewis #7 battling for third. Jarrett took third position with his sights set on Brindley. Attempting many times but failing, Jarrett finally set himself up for the inside straight and passed Brindley, taking second position. As Jarrett continued to pull away from Brindley, Martinez pulled away from Jarrett every lap. The race finished with Vincent Martinez #43 taking first, Justin Jarrett #17 taking second and Tyler Brindley #3 in third. Post-race tech was refused by Martinez, giving the win and a nice points lead to Jarrett. 4-Cycle Jr. and Intek Jr. ran together with Kenny White #8 in pole, Mitch Pugh #25 outside pole, Chris Strickland #7 inside second row and Eric Schumacher #10 outside second row. Pugh got the jump on White taking the lead out of turn one with Strickland in third. White set up for a pass on the inside straight to take first from Pugh, as Strickland continued in third. Morgan Reynolds #9 followed Schumacher closely, looking for a way around the first position Intek Jr. kart, and finally taking it. Pugh pulled off the track with mechanical difficulties, a broken seat strut, in lap 10. Kenny White #8 finished first with an all-time personal best fast time of 47.26 seconds, with Chris Strickland #7 in second for 4-Cycle Jr. feature. Morgan Reynolds #9 finished first for Intek Jr., also giving him the points lead, followed by a close second to Eric Schumacher #10 and third to Chasity Mottinger #11. The last 4-Cycle race was the Animal Sr. class with Todd Kirts #00 in pole, Dave Ridenour #31 outside pole, Jeremy Banning #30 inside row two, and Nick Townsend #12 outside row two. This class had fourteen entries with 2.6 seconds separating their fast times. As the green flew, Kirts took the lead, Ridenour second and Townsend in third. With Ridenour breathing down his tailpipe, Kirts was able to hold his position for much of the race. Townsend and Banning fought their own battle for third as Ridenour made his pass on Kirts taking first. Although he spun off the track in the first lap, due to contact on the first turn, Van Fore #47 made the best time for the race clocked at 46.059 seconds in lap 7. The race finished with Dave Ridenour #31 in first, Todd Kirts #00 in second and Nick Townsend #12 third. Sunday's 4-Cycle Mid Season Championship Feature Winners 4-Cycle Jr. Sportsman - Justin Jarrett #17 4-Cycle Jr. - Kenny White #8 Intek Jr. - Morgan Reynolds #9 4-Cycle Sr. Lite - Matt Deardurff #8 4-Cycle Sr. Heavy - Ryan Mottinger #27 Animal Sr. - Dave Ridenour #31 Sunday's 2-Cycle First Place Winners Yamaha Jr. Sportsman - Josh Menting #41 Yamaha Jr. SSX - Mikie Breiner #13 Yamaha Sr. SSX - Ryan Padgett #07 Yamaha Pipe/Spec 100 Medium - Eric Fisher #38 HPV Jr. Sportsman - Jordan Pennington #8 HPV Jr. - Tyler Sullivan #20 HPV Sr. 3 Medium - Ben Wilkey #95 HPV 4 Heavy - Ron Dials Jr. #38 125 cc Shifters - Phil Gordon #24 80 cc Shifter Jr. - Tim Megenbier #17 The next race for MKK will be September 7 which will also include the famous Arrive and Drive feature in which the first 12 people to sign up will race track-owned karts against each other. Anyone can sigh-up for this race, just bring jeans and $25. This always makes for great fun among the drivers. Great Lakes Sprint Series will hold the last race of their season at SBRP on September 13 - 14. Be sure to check out SBRP's race and practice schedules at http://www.sbrp.com and MKK point standings at http://www.mkk1.org with new pictures being added after every race.