RED BLUFF, Calif. -- Having brought recognition to the outlaw kart world everywhere he raced in a very successful rookie season with the USAC Ford Focus midgets, Ryan Kaplan has enjoyed the opportunity to again race his Open Outlaw kart weekly during the Red Bluff Indoor Winter Season and he closed the 2003 portion of the 2003-2004 schedule by leading all 30 laps from the pole Saturday night to capture the A Main event. Series point leader and defending champion Brian McCain continued his usual strong December efforts by following up last week’s feature win with a 2nd combined with fast time and a heat race win. Michael Hubert III made a late move into third. Series sponsor Benny Brown’s Corning Ford-Mercury-Kia put extra money into the holiday race with each of the A Main event winners picking up an extra $50. In the Open Intermediate division, point leader Justin Reinolds added to his point advantage as he paced the final 17 laps to win a crash shortened 20 lap main event. Third ranked Brett Miller ran second ahead of Cody Braund. This final event of December was a rare double point night for the series.

B McCain again set fast time for the 36 Open Outlaw karts, but his mark was not a track record for the first time in three races. He ripped off a 8.493 qualifying run in his QRC Factory Kart ride. Pete Johnston ranked second at 8.567 as third ranked Steven Gannon and Ryan Foster also dipped into the 8.5 bracket. The dash field was rounded out by Kyle Cattanach and second ranked Robbie Whitchurch. Interestingly, S Gannon, Foster and Cattanach are all very successful pavement late model racers during the regular race season. Cattanach beat S Gannon and Foster to gain the dash honors. The five heat format was used with the top two finishers in each advancing into the 30 lap A Main. B McCain outdueled Kaplan in heat 1 with Johnston winning heat 2 over Bryan Eady. Again racing on his trip home for the holidays, occasional Winston Cup competitor Tom Hubert flipped in heat 2, but rebounded for a 4th place finish. Daniel Becker and S Gannon were 1-2 in heat 3 as an early race spin relegated QRC All Star Tour champion Tyler McCain to a third. Ryan Schuppert got upsidedown in this event. Heat four also had a flip victim in fifth ranked Matt Menne. Oregon’s Joe Weststeyn beat out Hubert III at the checkered flag and Sean Becker won heat 5 ahead of Cattanach. S Becker turned heads everywhere in his second year of winged 410 sprint car racing and recently had to turn down an offer to race the winter season in Australia. The final four A Main starters were determined in the 25 lap B Main and Whitchurch was a wire to wire winner ahead of Foster. T Hubert was fifth on lap 21, but made a late charge to finish third as third place Beau Perkins stalled and collected 4th place T McCain on lap 22. David Wilson nipped Robert O’Bannon for the final transfer spot. Former series regular O’Bannon is now in the Air Force serving in Japan, but was home on holiday leave. Josh Chartier won the C Main ahead of O’Bannon and Schuppert. Josh Zander got into the front wall racing in second and the incident saw Andy Cumpton get upsidedown. Cumpton returned to finish fifth behind Brandon Mansfield.

The five fastest karts to advance through the heat race action were inverted in the front of the 14 kart A Main grid, putting Kaplan and Cattanach in the front row ahead of S Gannon, Johnston and B McCain. Kaplan took a quick lead with Cattanach second ahead of S Gannon on lap 1. Cattanach spun on lap 2 to move Johnston into second ahead of S Gannon. Fifth place D Becker got out of shape on lap 4 and third place S Gannon dropped back in the pack on lap 5 as B McCain raced into third ahead of 12th starter Foster. Johnston failed to race to the caution flag on lap 8 when Cattanach, Wilson and Eady tangled. He fell back to 4th behind B McCain and Foster, but his aggressive style regained third on lap 10. Fifth place S Becker nearly flipped on lap 24 when he was hit hard in the rear by T Hubert. T Hubert was penalized to the back for the restart with M Hubert gaining the fifth spot. The aggressive bull ring action continued as Foster spun with M Hubert muscling his way around Johnston for third on lap 28. The final lap saw S Gannon, S Becker and T Hubert all tangled in turn 2 as Kaplan won ahead of B McCain, M Hubert III, Whitchurch, Johnston, Wilson and Foster.

Young Brent Hamilton was the second fastest qualifier overall on the day’s action as he paced the 17 Open Intermediates with his 8.507 clocking. This class races the same 500 cc machines as the Open Outlaws, but is designed for the young teenaged racers moving up the outlaw kart ladder. Point leader Reinolds was just a tick back at 8.534 and second ranked Chadd Noland from Medford OR put his 250 in third at 8.576. B Miller ranked fourth and Orland Speedway sprint car star Chris Webber finally got his new entry handling as he stood fifth ahead of Micah Parmer. Parmer beat Reinolds and B Miller in the dash. Webber turned an outside front row start into a win in heat 1 over Braund and Noland while B Miller captured heat 2 after Parmer broke leading. Reinolds placed second ahead of Garrett Mills. The 17th kart was Taylor Simas who arrived in time to tag the main event grid after racing earlier in the day in Chico. Braund led the first 3 laps of the scheduled 30 lap A Main. Reinolds took second from Webber on lap 2. Coming down for the green flag on a lap 4 restart, Braund got out of shape and Reinolds emerged as the new leader over Webber and B Miller. A lap 8 restart saw Webber slip into the infield, allowing B Miller to race into second ahead of Braund and Noland. Noland lost fourth with his lap 14 spin and a sixth caution flag on lap 16 saw the officials shorten the race distance to 20 laps. Paradise resident Reinolds won ahead of B Miller, Braund, Reyna Krueger, Noland, Simas and Hamilton.

The track is taking just one week off for the holidays and will return to race the first 3 Saturdays of January. After the annual Bull Sale, the season will conclude on the first 3 Saturdays in February. The Annual Six Foot Tall Trophy night will race be run on January 10th.

RESULTS

OPEN INTERMEDIATE
Fast Time-Brent Hamilton 8.507
Dash-Micah Parmer, Justin Reinolds, Brett Miller.
Heat 1-Chris Webber, Cody Braund, Chadd Noland, Reyna Krueger, Thomas Bruckenstein.
Heat 2-Miller, Reinolds, Garrett Mills, William Lyons, Adam Main.
Main-Reinolds, Miller, Braund, Krueger, Parmer, Noland, Taylor Simas, Hamilton, Mills, Webber, Jerryd Stanley, Lyons, Dylan Greenleaf, Steven Rogers, Main, Bruckenstein, Boomer Crownover.

OPEN OUTLAW
Fast Time-Brian McCain 8.493
Dash-Kyle Cattanach, Steven Gannon, Ryan Foster.
Heat 1-B McCain, Ryan Kaplan, Robbie Whitchurch, Eric Gannon, Josh Chartier.
Heat 2-Pete Johnston, Bryan Eady, Beau Perkins, Tom Hubert, Bubba Hill.
Heat 3-Daniel Becker, S Gannon, Tyler McCain, Keith Hill, Jason Schuppert.
Heat 4-Joe Weststeyn, Michael Hubert III, Foster, Troy Combs, Shawn Amos.
Heat 5-Sean Becker, Cattanach, David Wilson, Todd Boyd, Josh Zander.
C Main-Chartier, Robert O’Bannon, Schuppert, Brandon Mansfield, Andy Cumpton, Zander, Amos, Tyler Schohr, Richard Weststeyn, Sally Long.
B Main-Whitchurch, Foster, T Hubert, Wilson, O’Bannon, Perkins, Schuppert, K Hill, Combs, E Gannon.
A Main-Kaplan, B McCain, M Hubert III, Whitchurch, Johnston, Wilson, Foster, D Becker, J Weststeyn, S Gannon, S Becker, T Hubert, Eady, Cattanach.