July and August 2008 " July brought race number four of the Great Lakes Sprint Series and our first trip to the .7 mile Concept Haulers Motor Speedway in Sheridan, Illinois. The qualifying attempts on Saturday in Yamaha Junior Sportsman resulted in a 14th place start. Positions two through eleven were separated by less than half a second. The prefinal found Jake dropping three spots to start the final from the 17th spot. Through lap 5 of the final Jake had cut over .8 seconds a lap and was running 16th when he was once again his day would come to an early end after being hit in the left rear and popping a chain. Jake has completed only 11 of 48 laps in the Yamaha finals and has been wrecked in all four races.
Race number two on Saturday was the Cadet Junior Sportsman, Jake qualified 11th and held his position through the prefinal. In the final Jake picked up over .6 seconds a lap and with a great pass on the last lap finished a solid 8th.
HPV Junior Sportsman qualifying on Sunday resulted in a disappointing 18th qualifying effort. However, Jake did pick up a position in the prefinal and final to finish 16th.
In August we made the trip to New Castle, Indiana to race in the final Great Lakes Sprint Series race at the 1.1 mile New Castle Motor Park. Qualifying in the Yamaha Junior Sportsman class found Jake in the 14th spot in a strong 26 kart field. In the prefinal Jake gave back four spots to start the final. The big question in all are minds was could Jake actually finish a Yamaha final without getting spun. After taking the green flag, contact in front of Jake resulted in the race being red flagged and restarted. After the restart Jake led a group of karts two wide up the short straight into turn four. Inside position allowed Jake to pick up several spots until the kart behind him spun him around and knocked him off the track. Determined not to finish the race in the grass again Jake kept his foot in the throttle and mowed some grass until he got the kart back on the track. He then charged from dead last, running 1 second faster a lap, to pick up nine spots and finish 17th. Exiting his kart in the scale line he put his hands in the air and yelled to his Mom in the stands "Yeah, we finished one!". With that finish he actually more than doubled the number of laps he had completed in the previous four Yamaha finals. However, the streak of being spun continued.
The Cadet Junior Sportsman resulted in a qualifying effort good enough for 13th. In the prefinal Jake lost two spots while avoiding a wreck on lap 8. In the final he was able to pick up one spot to finish the day in 14th and over .7 seconds faster.
Sunday brought cloudy skies and a damp track as rains had moved in the night before. Qualifying was disappointing as Jake was over 2 seconds off the pace. Big changes were made for the prefinal that helped Jake pick up 1.4 seconds a lap to finish 14th. Jake was able to hold his position through the final and finish the weekend running his fastest laps.
Jake thanks his wonderful sponsors " Championship Racing Performance, McWhirter & Associates, XS Energy Drink, Polymer Valley Chemicals, Tallmadge AutoZone, Spring Valley Equestrian Center, The Chapel, Seckinger Insurance Agency and Redmon Funeral Home. Please contact us at victory-racing@sbcglobal.net if you are interested in joining our team for the 2009 season.