RED BLUFF, Calif. (Dec. 14, 2002) - December has traditionally been the hottest month of the Red Bluff Indoor Winter season for veteran Brian McCain and the Redding driver used a win in Saturday night’s 30 lap A Main for the Open Outlaw Kart division to take over the season point lead. It was the first win of the 2002-2003 season for the Win River Casino sponsored racer and opening night winner Daniel Becker ran second as the series closed the 2002 portion of their 12 race season. Cycleland champion Ryan Kaplan finished third after coming from the 11th starting spot. Leading all 25 laps of the Open Intermediate A Main from a front row start, Cycleland Speedway Open Intermediate champion Quintin Crye from Gridley put his Joey Hubbard built machine in the winner’s circle for the second time in the current season. Crye opened the night tied for second in points with Chad Widener, just 6 behind point leader Micah Parmer. Austin VanKeuren beat Michael Hubert III through a lap 17 tangle to finish 2nd with Hubert third. The day and night racing show was run in horrid weather conditions with fierce winds and driving rain, but the officials accomodated the teams by running the quickest show of the season, finishing before 9:30.

The race winner’s younger brother, Tyler McCain, paced the 35 Open Outlaw Karts in time trials with a 8.883 lap on the clay oval. Steven Gannon ran a 8.902 lap and Ryan Foster was third quick at 8.955. B McCain ranked fourth with his 8.982 lap and Kaplan was the final 8 second entrant at 8.984. Coming off his win in the last week’s Brothers Race, Jasen Webb timed in sixth quick and won the dash from the pole with Kaplan second ahead of B McCain. The field was divided into four ten lap qualifying heats with just the top 2 finishers in each advancing to the 30 lap A Main. The potent Becker brothers each picked off a heat with D Becker winning heat 1 ahead of Tyler Schaaf and Kaplan. The incoming point leader Sean Becker won heat 2 in front of Jasen Webb and Gannon. Kyle Hirst celebrated his 15th birthday four days early by winning the third heat ahead of Zack Mason, who was filling in for Clint York. B McCain’s near perfect night continued as he won the fourth heat ahead of Mitch Mootz and previous week A Main winner Pete Johnston. The track’s new format advances the top six in the preliminary features for the Open Outlaws. Since the heat races use an invert 4 lineup and transfer just 2, many top qualifiers are relegated to the preliminary action and this night four of the top 5 qualifiers were in the 20 lap B Main. S Gannon led wire to wire for the win with T McCain a race long second ahead of Kaplan and Ryan Foster. Kyle Cattanach crossed the line fifth and was originally told that he wouldn’t be allowed to race in the A Main as he ran the 20 lapper with his transponder functioning, but he later was allowed to tag the A Main with both Beau Perkins and Jason Schuppert also advancing. Johnston was challening for a transfer slot when his kart stalled for a lap 16 yellow flag. Driving the kart that Tom Hubert drove the previous week, veteran Tony Sousa crashed racing 2nd in the C Main where Bubba Hill won ahead of Josh Chartier, Schuppert and Perkins. Schuppert had a busy night as he won the D Main in front of Keith Hill and motorcycle racer Todd Boyd.

The invert 4 lineup for the 30 lapper put Schaaf and Mason on the front row and they tangled on the first try to force a restart. Schaaf won the restart and paced five laps. B McCain traded second with Mason several times before gaining the spot on lap 4. The race was red flagged on lap 5 when Foster flipped spectacularly down the front stretch. He emerged bruised and shaken, but unhurt and his kart saw it’s frame severely bent. B McCain took the lead from Schaaf on the restart and D Becker drove underneath Mason in turn 4 on lap 10 to take over third. Mootz had climbed into fifth and sixth place duelers S Becker and Jasen Webb tangled for a lap 12 yellow flag. On the restart, Cattanach spun with Mootz and D Becker climbing into the 3-4 slots before Mason drove through a lap 16 spin. Perkins crashed for a lap 20 yellow flag and the race was over for fast timer T McCain. A second red flag fell on lap 21 when Mootz flipped in a tangle with Schaaf. Schaaf maintained second, but slipped too high in turn 4 on lap 22 and was passed by both D Becker and Kaplan. S Becker had worked his way back to duel Schaaf for fourth when they tangled on a lap 24 restart. The big front stretch incident ended the race for Schaaf, S Becker, Schuppert, Jasen Webb and Mootz. This left just 8 karts for the final six laps of action and B McCain charged to the win ahead of D Becker, Kaplan, Gannon, Perkins, Cattanach, Hirst and Mason.

Unsung Garet Morton paced the 18 Open Intermediates with a quick 8.954 qualifying run. Matt Menne clicked off a 8.968 and David Taylor surprised with a third quick effort of 9.010. Fifth fast David Wilson won the dash over Hubert and Taylor. The top five advanced from each of their two heat races. Wilson won the first with Crye second ahead of Morton. Hubert won heat 2 ahead of Justin Reinolds and Michael Helwig as M Menne had his steering wheel came off racing 2nd. M Menne rebounded to win the B Main ahead of Cody Braund, Taylor and Oregon’s Joe Weststeyn. With both M Menne and Taylor having to come through the B Main, the invert 5 lineup for the 25 lap A Main put Crye on the pole ahead of Hubert, Wilson, Reinolds and Morton. It was a tough night for last week’s winner and incoming point leader Parmer as his kart failed on a pace lap and he spent the first 3 laps of the 25 lapper making repairs. Crye took a quick lead over Hubert and Wilson. On lap 3, Wilson spun and was hit by both Reinolds and Morton. VanKeuren leaped to third ahead of Michael Tarter and Reinolds. Taylor spun for a lap 5 yellow and Parmer’s tough night continued as he flipped on the restart. The final 20 laps were raced with just one more slowdown as VanKeuren was able to take 2nd from Hubert when Wilson and Morton tangled in turn 2 trapping both leader Crye and Hubert. Crye made it through in the lead, but Hubert ended up losing a spot to VanKeuren. They raced in that order for the final rounds with M Menne advancing to 4th ahead of Tarter, Reinolds, M Helwig, Braund and Weststeyn. Point title hopeful Chad Widener stalled on the final round.

After two weekends off for the holidays, action will resume with January dates on Jan 4, Jan 11 and Jan 18th. The January 4th night will find all five divisions racing for one year’s possession of the Six Foot Tall Perpetual Trophies.

RESULTS

OPEN INTERMEDIATE
Fast Time-Garet Morton 8.954
Dash-David Wilson, Michael Hubert III, David Taylor.
Heat 1-Wilson, Quintin Crye, Morton, Austin VanKeuren, Micah Parmer.
Heat 2-Hubert, Reinolds, Michael Helwig, Michael Tarter, Chad Widener.
B Main-Matt Menne, Cody Braund, Taylor, Joe Weststeyn, Taylor Simas, Robbie Ritcheson, Tyler Ritcheson.
A Main-Crye, VanKeuren, Hubert, Menne, Tarter, Reinolds, M Helwig, Braund, Weststeyn, Widener, Parmer, Morton, Wilson, Taylor.

OPEN OUTLAW
Fast Time-Tyler McCain 8.883
Dash-Jasen Webb, Ryan Kaplan, Brian McCain.
Heat 1-Daniel Becker, Tyler Schaaf, Kaplan, T McCain, Josh Chartier.
Heat 2-Sean Becker, Jasen Webb, Steven Gannon, Richard Weststeyn, Brandon Farquhar.
Heat 3-Kyle Hirst, Zack Mason, Kyle Cattanach, Ryan Foster, Bubba Hill.
Heat 4-B McCain, Mitch Mootz, Pete Johnston, C W Tiner, Beau Perkins.
D Main-Jason Schuppert, Keith Hill, Todd Boyd, David Lewallen, Kevin Juvenal, Jimmy Pettit, Brandon Mansfield, Andy Cumpton, Kurt Favre.
C Main-B Hill, Chartier, Schuppert, Perkins, Farquhar, Scott Morton, Tony Sousa, Todd Carmichael, K Hill, Pettit, Lewallen, Paul Gunsauls.
B Main-Gannon, T McCain, Kaplan, Foster, Cattanach, Perkins, Schuppert, B Hill, Tiner, Johnston, Farquhar, Chartier, R Weststeyn.
A Main-B McCain, D Becker, Kaplan, Gannon, Perkins, Cattanach, Hirst, Mason, Schuppert, Schaaf, S Becker, Jasen Webb, Mootz, T McCain, Foster.