Spring iDrive Passes Halfway Mark

29 May Spring iDrive Passes Halfway Mark

With four rounds down and three to go, points battles are heating up in all three of Gateway Kartplex’s competitive iDrive classes. Several top five drivers find themselves in close quarters, trying to maintain or improve their position in the overall class standings.

A perfect example of this are the evening’s two winners in Light class – Aidan RoosEvans (Race #1) and Seth Hanlon (Race #2). A couple of uncharacteristically poor finishes in the first round have RoosEvans currently in third overall behind Hanlon, a narrow 773 to 787. RoosEvans has been making up ground quickly, adding a second place in Race #2 to his podiums for the season. The pair are nipping at the heels of Elijah Ward, who sits first overall with 802 points after a second place finish in Race #1 and a third in Race #2. Nathan Levenhagen rounded out the Light podiums for the night, taking home a Race #1 third (his first podium in the series) in only his second-ever iDrive.

Medium class continues to attract large numbers of competitors, extending its streak of split fields to four iDrive rounds in a row. This means double the podium finishers and a lot more tight points battles, including a tie (558 points) for eighth overall between Lawrence Dunlap and Clint Sullivan. Overall class leader Josh Merklin made it onto two podiums with a double third in Medium A. He was bested in both races by SuperComp and Ignite regular Dylan Ellsworth, who ended his first iDrive with a win (Race #2) and a second place (Race #1). Luke Thompson was the Race #1 victor, while Charlie Keeven (second, Race #2) rounded out the Medium A Round #4 podiums.

Over in Medium B, there was another first-time iDrive competitor on the top step – rental regular Max Swarringin narrowly edged out Jeremy Franko (second) for the victory in Race #1 only to have Franko turn the tables on him and win Race #2 while Swarringin ended up second. With those two battling for the lead, it was left to Brad Paquet to complete the Medium B podiums with a pair of thirds. Paquet is currently 10th overall in Medium with 553 points (244 points behind Merklin) but you can expect him and Thompson to climb the rankings. Both drivers have just six finishes to the rest of the top 10’s eight, so it’ll be interesting to see how those early drops shake up the points as the season carries on.

Mark Schwigen was the man with all the answers in Heavy Race #1, finishing at the top ahead of iDrive competitor turned Ignite racer Dennis Wilburn (second) and Craig Pyatt (third). It was the same song, second chorus as the top three repeated in Race #2. Matt Zigiaitis leads the Heavy points standings, 722 points strong but only 35 ahead of Pyatt (687). Those two racers have set themselves apart from the rest of the Shootout-eligible Heavy competitors, with Steven Marshall their closest challenger, fifth overall with 475 points.

The Gateway Kartplex’s talented pack of iDrive racers will be back on track for Round #5 of the Spring season on June 9th.

Recap by Rose vonHatten