3/8/2021
KC Sparks
Minnesota Missile Monday: Tuning Up For Winter Nationals
Minnesota Missile Monday: Tuning Up For Winter Nationals
Emma, MO
March 8, 2021
With the doors open, sunshine flooding into the building, and warm weather, the drivers put on a good show. After a month away from the track, the karts were back in action for the 6th point show at the indoor raceway. This was the last chance for racers to tune up before the Winter Nationals and the event drew a season high, eleven Box Stock karts.
Box Stock (11 karts)
Heat (10 laps):
The field was split into two heats allowing everyone a chance for moving forward and earning passing points.
Heat one was paced to the green by Rylea Kriegel with Kaden Rice alongside. Kriegel led the field through the first set of turns but lost the handle going into turn three and spun forcing Jaden Alexander into the hay bale as he tried to squeeze to the outside of her crippled kart. Kriegel was retired from the event and the field aligned for a single file restart.
Rice paced Alexander, Micah Haugan, Anthony Guessford, and Wyatt Schutte in his first Box Stock event. Rice held a 3-6 kart advantage over Alexander but couldn’t pull away and Alexander was staying within striking distance but just couldn’t get that charge to challenge for the lead. Meanwhile, Haugan was busy fighting off challenges from Guessford for third.
Heat Finish 1. Rice (2) 2. Alexander (3) 3. Haugan (4) 4. Guessford (5) 5. Schutte (6) 6. DNF Kriegel (1)
The second heat had another youngster starting his first Box Stock event sitting on the pole in Kaecyn Jones. Jones set the pace alongside fellow 9 year old, KC Sparks. THe duo headed down the front stretch side by side with Sparks backing out before the turn allowing Jones to take the lead into the corner. With his inexperience with the higher horsepower, Jones got too high and spun but continued.
Sierra Rose Gary was battling Michael Hucovski for second when the duo made contact, sending Hucovski around. Gary dropped out of the event with brake issues and the remaining four karts lined up for the restart.
Hucovski was running second behind Sparks when his kart broke loose coming out of turn four just ahead of Haylie Allen and Jones who both made good moves to avoid making contact and the race stayed green.
Heat 2 Finish: 1. Sparks (2) 2. Allen (5) 3. Hucovski (3) 4. Jones (1) 5. DNF Gary (4)
Feature (20 laps)
By earning the most passing points in the heat races, Allen earned the pole position for the feature event where she lined up alongside Rice with Sparks and Alexander in row two. The initial start saw the top three jump ahead of the field nearly heading into turn one 3 wide before they sorted things out with Allen leading Sparks and Rice. Back in the field, Hucovski ended up spun around and the field was reset for a single file complete restart.
Allen was followed to the green closely by Rice with Sparks in third. Heading down the backstretch, Allen led while Sparks drove to the inside of Rice and was able to take the runner up position.
On lap three, Sparks used the same line to drive under Allen getting into the third turn and hold the position to lead the lap. As Allen regained her momentum, Rice moved to her outside down the frontstretch and boldly held on through turns one and two to pull ahead of her out of turn two.
Sparks opened up a ten kart length lead over Rice as the field settled into a staggered rhythm for a handful of laps. As the crossed flags were displayed, Rice bagan closing on Sparks as Sparks was better in one and two and Rice was able to charge into three and four.
Sparks fought off several runs by Rice to the inside before Rice was able to move to the top spot out of turn two with four laps remaining. Sparks continued to fight a tight kart for the final circuits as Rice pulled ahead unchallenged to his third win at the track. Sparks held on for runner up with Allen holding off Alexander and Hucovski taking fifth in his first run at the Raceway.
Finish: 1. Rice (2) 2. Sparks (3) 3. Allen (1) 4. Alexander (4) 5. Hucovski (7) 6. Guessford (6) 7. Haugan (5) 8. Schutte (8) 9. Jones (9) DNS Gary, Kriegel
Upcoming Schedule:
3/13-14 Winter Nationals, Maloofa: Emma Indoor Raceway; Emma, MO
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
YTD Stats:
Features: 5
Wins: 2
Top 3: 4
Top 10: 5
Heat Wins: 3 out of 3
Quick Times: 0 out of 2
Article Credit: Stephanie Sparks
