Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The Last Race Of The Season!

The final race of "The Mazda Heartland Sprint Series" presented by Russell Karting Specialties is this coming weekend, September 24 -25, at the Precision Driving Center in Kansas City.  It's been a tremendous season this year and we have our promotional partners and our racers to thank for that!  We couldn't have done this without them and we're certainly looking forward to some very exciting things for next season.

The highlight of the season came early in the year for all of us at BP Motorsports Group when we received confirmation that "The Mazda Heartland Sprint Series" was the first IZOD IndyCar Series Regional Karting Partner for their Scouting Combine as part of "The Mazda Road to Indy".  We'll crown our Champion in the Tag Senior Class this coming weekend and that driver will participate in the first ever Scouting Combine in November at Anderson Raceway Park in Palmetto, Florida.  What an amazing honor to be the first regional karting series selected to be part of this program with Mazda and the IZOD IndyCar Series. 

Shortly after that announcement we solidified our partnership with Mazda and we couldn't have asked for a better partner to be associated with.  Mazda has a passion for the grass roots of racing and it was a perfect fit with our series.  We're proud to be associated with such a wonderful company that has helped create the ladder system, with the IZOD IndyCar Series, for young grass roots racers to find their way from the local tracks to the big leagues of racing.  Then to add to that we've had the pleasure of working with one of the best known karting shops in the United States in Russell Karting Specialties.  Drivers started to come in from several other states and kart counts continued to grow this season  This is been the biggest and the best season for "The Mazda Heartland Sprint Series" to date and we're all looking forward to the final race this weekend and the seasons still to come.

There are tight battles in several classes and some big money to be earned this weekend.  One driver in the Tag Senior Class will be headed to Florida in November for the first ever Mazda Road to Indy Scouting Combine.  Another driver will win a pair of tickets to the IZOD IndyCar Series World Championship race in Las Vegas on October 16th and get to meet the winning driver in Victory Circle after the race as part of the Mazda Summer Cash Dash.  Several other classes have money on the line as well and every class (excluding Kid Karts) that has ten drivers or more in it's class gets a 50% payout for the top three drivers. 

Heading into this weekends final race of the season John Pennington holds a five point lead over Ted Hite in the Clone Class with Andrew Pennington close behind in third place.  The Clone Championship is still very much up for grabs this weekend.   In the Kid Kart class last years champion, Luke Howard, holds a solid lead but has been challenged much more this season than last year.  Tyler Hagan currently sits in second place and Zach Granberg, a rookie this season, is currently in third place.  The S2 Shifter class is all but locked up by Chris Tomasson with Dennis Brandon and Mike Parker in second and third place coming in this weekend race.   Jacob Winslow looks to take the Tag Cadet championship this season as well as the added Mazda Summer Cash Dash bonus money.  He's currently holding off Caden Bolz and Will Burke.  Cole "Monster" Hannah has a rather commanding lead in the Tag Jr. class coming into the final race of the season with Wyatt Maness and Kyle Potts rounding out the top three positions.  Angie Hannah has a solid lock on the top position in the Tag Masters division ahead of Chris Koster and Carl Hayward.  The Tag Senior Division has been a solid battle all season long and Luke Waller currently holds a seventy point lead over last years champion, Kaylee Granberg.  Alex Nowyse, currently sitting in third place, is only twenty points out of second and ninety points out of first place.  It will be a serious battle for the top three podium spots this weekend.  Something else on the mind of all three of these racers is Jim Russell Jr.  He may be in their rear view mirror in points but he's seldom in that spot on the track.  Will Jim Russell Jr. be the spoiler this coming weekend and sneak up to grab a podium spot?  The Tag Senior Class is set to be a very big race this weekend!

The Mazda Heartland Sprint Series is one of the fastest growing karting series in the Heartland attracting drivers from:  Arkansas, Iowa, and Oklahoma, as well as our home states of Kansas and Missouri.  It has been a wonderful season and all of us at BP Motorsports Group would like to extend a sincere thank you to all of our promotional partners and to each and every driver and his or her crew that came to race with us.  Best of luck to you all this weekend, thank you for coming to race with us and we'll see you all at the track.

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