Martinez first multi-time winner in 2022 at Sprint Round #6!

The second half of the racing season at CalSpeed Karting kicked off this past Saturday, as the Sprint Series took to the Sportivo layout for round #6 of its 10-race campaign. After five different winners in the open five events, the sixth event saw our first repeat winner, although there were plenty of other new faces scoring the spotlight as well…

Qualifying and Heat Races…

Jacob Reis would score his second pole position of the year in the 8 minute group qualifying session, his last pole also earned in this direction on the Grande circuit at round #2,. Jack McNeel and 2021 winner of this event Leo Ovtcharov locked out the top three, and the first starting spot for their respective heats. When the heats did start though, it would be three different names atop the standings, with Jeremy Aldridge bringing home his fourth hit win of the year, the newly crowned Winter Series Champ and overall point leader Ivan Martinez locked in heat two, and a new face in heat three. That was Derek Borunda; after getting a late start to the season in round #3, Derek put up three top 5 finishes in his heats up to this point, scoring his first career heat win with a last lap pass on the aforementioned Leo Ovtcharov to do it…

C-Main

The new faces at the front continued into the Mains, as Alexander Benyamin led the field away for the start of the C-Main, however it would be newcomer Amanda LaFranco leading at the end of lap one. Bolster with an immense amount of infighting from 2^nd on back, LaFranco’s advantage over the rest of the front runners grew over the first half of the race, before Brian Kaplan and Andrew Mekhail finally settled into second and third. By then the damage was done however, as Amanda’s advantage held steady at about 6 seconds over the rest of the pack, scoring her first piece of CalSpeed hardware in just her second Sprint Series start…

B-Main

The B-Main was about rebound and recovery for a few drivers, as some found themselves digging out of a hole from an incident not of their doing in the heats, pushing to try and earn the final A-Main spot. Working up from 6^th on the grid, one of these drivers was David Mock, picking off one spot on lap one, and then capitalizing on the infighting from second on back to come out in the runner-up spot with still 8 laps to go. Having started on pole, Richard Kim was nearly 3 seconds up the road, and Mock immediately went to work. With the battle continuing behind him he was able to pull out his own advantage on 3^rd and focus on his task of reeling in Kim. Finding his rhythm, Mock took chunks out of the deficit, reaching Kim with three to go, and wasted no time on the move, holding on to steal away the B-Main hardware and move on to the A-Main.

A-Main

The start of the second Sprint Series A-Main to take on the Sportivo layout look a lot like the season opening race here, with Jeremy Aldridge out front. This time around however, the attack would come immediately, and this time it was Ivan Martinez with the move. At the event in January, Martinez had to work up a few spots to enter the battle, this time he got to the front immediately, and never looked back. Cutting fast lap after fast lap, he slowly built up the advantage, while Aldridge maintained a decent gap over the chasing pack behind him. It looked like the may finish that way, but for one driver on the move: Emerson Thieman. Starting 6^th but immediately falling back to 9^th, Thieman steadily made inroads through the pack, picking up a new position nearly every lap, before catching Jeremy on the final lap, stealing away the second spot, forcing Jeremy to settle for another third. For his part, Martinez was able to cruise to his 5^th career win, and second of the 2022 season…

The CalSpeed Sprint Series is already SOLD OUT for round #7, taking to the Nuotivo circuit on July 9^th!

Sprint Series Round #6 A-Main Top 10

1. Ivan Martinez
2. Emerson Thieman
3. Jeremy Aldridge
4. Derek Borunda
5. Jack McNeel
6. Oleg Gluchkov
7. Leo Ovtcharov
8. Joey Andrews
9. Paul Wagner
10. Jacob Abrams

Overall Point Standings Top 10

1. Ivan Martinez              1170
2. Emerson Thieman       1142
3. Jeremy Aldridge          1130   
4. Brett Lopinsky             1115
5. Jack McNeel                1097
6. Joey Andrews              1087
7. Chris Fox                     1071
8. Vince Azua                  1043
9. Leo Ovtcharov             1010
10. Derek Borunda            1004

SE Sub-Championship Standings Top 5

1. Luca Zambello             858
2. Lee Povey                    854
3. Brian Vidales               761
4. Shane Leistner             757
5. Tiange Li                      741

Summer Series Sub-Championship Standings Top 5

1. Ivan Martinez              300
2. Emerson Thieman       290
3. Jeremy Aldridge          290
4. Derek Borunda            285
5. Jack McNeel                270