7/12/2021
KC Sparks
Minnesota Missile Monday: Beating the Weather in Blue Earth; Tough Competition at Cedar Lake
Minnesota Missile Monday: Beating the Weather in Blue Earth
Golden Spike Speedway; Blue Earth, MN
July 12, 2021
The weather around Blue Earth was wet and threatening all day, but persistence by the track crew and draw from money put up for some of the karting classes by Ron’s Trenching attracted eleven Box Stock drivers to the newly reopened facility on the Faribault County Fairgrounds.
The class was divided into two groups for heat flights with heat wins going to Taver West, Hunter Hanson, Tommy Tanner, and Wyatt Schutte.
When it came time for the 20 lap feature, Hanson paced the field in his 9A kart with Whiting Iowa driver, Taver West to the outside. When the green dropped, West got a strong drive on the high side while KC Sparks drove from his second row starting position to take the field three wide past the scoring stand into turn one.
West had the preferred line into the first set of turns and pulled into the lead down the backstretch while Hanson and Sparks traded the runner up position with Hanson settling into the position while Sparks faced challenges from Tanner who was running fourth.
On lap three, Tanner got a drive under Sparks out of turn two and claimed the podium position on the track. Sparks remained within striking distance and had a strong drive into turn three where Tanner lifted slightly to hold his line and Sparks tapped him, sending the Hinton driver around and tipping over lightly. Tanner was fine and able to tag the back of the field on the restart.
The field realigned single file with West out front ahead of Hanson, Sparks, Florence Drost, and Schutte in the top five. The top four quickly spaced themselves from the pack with Sparks driving to the inside of Hanson into turn three to take over the runner up position.
West was hooked up and pulling away as Sparks opened a four kart length lead over Hanson who was fending off challenges from Drost with Schutte close behind.
As the field neared the halfway point, Drost threw a slide job on Hanson going into turn one only to have Hanson turn back under her and reclaim the position. The next lap, she did the same move and again Hanson got back to her inside and in a drag race to turn three, Drost came out with the third position as they exited turn four.
Sparks, Drost, Hanson, and Schutte were all racing similar lap times and then Drost came to life and closed in in the back of Sparks. The leaders came up on lapped traffic and closed in the trio. Sparks set up the pass and cleared the lapper on the front stretch while Drost and Hanson had to battle past down the back.
Coming out of turn four to the white flag, Hanson pulled alongside Drost to battle for the final podium position. West took the checkers for the second show in a row by a commanding lead. Sparks claimed second with Drost edging ahead of Hanson for third and fourth. Schutte finished fifth with Kaecyn Jones, Tanner coming from the early incident to finish seventh. Trevyn Carr, Karson Hansen, and Oliver Sackett finished out the running field.
Golden Spike MEDIA RESULTS:
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 39-Taver West[2]; 2. 1-KC Sparks[3]; 3. 14-Florence Drost[6]; 4. 9A-Hunter Hanson[1]; 5. 8-Wyatt Schutte[4]; 6. 06K-Kaecyn Jones[8]; 7. 48-Tommy Tanner[5]; 8. 16-Trevyn Carr[9]; 9. 44-Karson Hansen[11]; 10. 17-Oliver Sackett[7]; 11. (DNS) 4-Jack Hargan
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 39-Taver West[1]; 2. 1-KC Sparks[3]; 3. 48-Tommy Tanner[5]; 4. 06K-Kaecyn Jones[2]; 5. 16-Trevyn Carr[4]; 6. (DNS) 44-Karson Hansen
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 9A-Hunter Hanson[3]; 2. 14-Florence Drost[1]; 3. 8-Wyatt Schutte[5]; 4. 17-Oliver Sackett[4]; 5. (DNF) 4-Jack Hargan[2]
Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 48-Tommy Tanner[1]; 2. 1-KC Sparks[3]; 3. 39-Taver West[5]; 4. 16-Trevyn Carr[2]; 5. 06K-Kaecyn Jones[4]; 6. (DNS) 44-Karson Hansen
Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 8-Wyatt Schutte[1]; 2. 9A-Hunter Hanson[3]; 3. 14-Florence Drost[5]; 4. 17-Oliver Sackett[2]; 5. (DNS) 4-Jack Hargan
TOUGH COMPETITION AT CEDAR LAKE
Cedar Lake Indoor Arena
New Richmond, WI
The Sizzlin’ Summer Series continued with their quick moving show at the Indoor Arena on Sunday. A total of twelve drivers from three states signed in for competition in the Jr. Wing/BP class.
The class was split for the two flights of heat races with wins going to Connor Bruss, KC Sparks, Tylar Alton, and Drew Alton.
The twenty lap feature was paced by Ameila Eisenschenk with Ryley Finnegan to the outside. As the pack came through turn three to the green flag, the drivers in the outside line were looking for any cracks to get into the preferred inside line causing Cade Nelson to get into the back of Sparks, spinning him around and a melee ensued with two karts ending on their sides.
The field realigned for a complete restart and this time things were clean and green. Eisenschenk held the top running position over third starter Tylar Alton who remained on her back bumper throughout the event. Sparks was able to find a place in line behind Alton and moved ahead of Finnegan into turn one. Finnegan stayed in the throttle strong and pulled back ahead of Sparks down the back.
The next lap, Sparks got to the inside of Finnegan and had the track position going into turn one. Finnegan tried to hold the bottom where Sparks was racing and the two DRE drivers hooked together for a moment, allowing Nelson and Bruss to move ahead.
Bruss wasted no time finding a line past Nelson while Michael Hucovski worked ahead of Finnegan. Sparks was working on closing the gap on Nelson and after several runs at the 44 machine, Sparks was able to muscle his kart ahead with Hucovski trying to follow past.
Out front Eisenschenk was running a smooth race just ahead of Tylar Alton who was driving the wheels off his 30JR kart in effort to get around the North Dakota driver.
The caution flew once with five to go which regrouped the field nose to tail. The top five of Eisenschenk, T. Alton, Bruss, Sparks, and Nelson had a great start all remaining close. As the white flag flew, Sparks missed the corner exit and lost contact with the lead trio. Alton gave Eisenschenk a bumper hit coming out of turn two that gave her a shot down the back and Bruss was not going to just settle for third and made a challenge on Alton as he collected his kart. Alton slammed the opening going into turn three forcing Bruss to crack the throttle. Sparks was too far back to take advantage as Bruss continued to the checkers in third ahead of Sparks, Nelson, and Hucovski.
Cedar Lake Speedway Indoor MEDIA RESULTS:
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 1-Amelia Eisenschenk[1]; 2. 30-Tylar Alton[3]; 3. 20-Connor Bruss[7]; 4. 1KC-KC Sparks[4]; 5. 44-Cade Nelson[5]; 6. 88-Michael Hucovski[9]; 7. 32-Ryley Finnegan[2]; 8. 81-Jaden Anderson[8]; 9. WIN1-PARKER FROLIK[12]; 10. (DNF) 100-Drew Alton[6]; 11. (DNF) 5JR-Alaina Chaplin[10]; 12. (DNF) 128-Marshall Willing[11]
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 20-Connor Bruss[1]; 2. 1-Amelia Eisenschenk[3]; 3. 30-Tylar Alton[6]; 4. 81-Jaden Anderson[5]; 5. 5JR-Alaina Chaplin[2]; 6. 128-Marshall Willing[4]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 1KC-KC Sparks[1]; 2. 32-Ryley Finnegan[4]; 3. 44-Cade Nelson[2]; 4. 88-Michael Hucovski[3]; 5. 100-Drew Alton[6]; 6. WIN1-PARKER FROLIK[5]
Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 30-Tylar Alton[1]; 2. 1-Amelia Eisenschenk[4]; 3. 81-Jaden Anderson[2]; 4. 5JR-Alaina Chaplin[5]; 5. 128-Marshall Willing[3]; 6. (DNF) 20-Connor Bruss[6]
Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 100-Drew Alton[1]; 2. 32-Ryley Finnegan[3]; 3. 44-Cade Nelson[5]; 4. 88-Michael Hucovski[4]; 5. 1KC-KC Sparks[6]; 6. WIN1-PARKER FROLIK[2]
1KC Motorsports Upcoming Schedule:
7/16: English Creek Speedway
7/17: Newton Kart Klub
7/23: English Creek Speedway
7/24: Mississippi Thunder OR Golden Spike
7/25: Cedar Lake Indoor Arena Sizzlin’ Summer
7/27: Golden Spike Fair Race (start time 6:30 PM)
2021 Partner/Sponsor Appreciation
Autoland; Sioux Falls, SD
Furby’s Auto Repair; Sioux Falls, SD
GRP Motorsports; Stillwater, MN
Last Deck LLC; Jackson, MN
Heser Auto and Detailing; Jackson, MN
DRE Horsepower; Boyden, IA
Jared Bailey Photography; Carlisle, IA
MyRacePass; #TeamMRP #GetTheApp
TL Racing; Jackson, MN
Red Camel Racing
YTD Stats:
Features: 32
Wins: 7
Top 3: 15
Top 10: 30
Heat Wins: 9 out of 36
Quick Times: 0 out of 10
Article Credit: Stephanie Sparks
