Idaho Racing News

IOKA indoor series comes to a close for 2008

By Brent Arte

Caldwell, ID—The 2008 winter series came to a close with two big two day shows in February. The local karters welcomed some out of town competition for the Northwest Winter Nationals on February ninth and tenth.

With a full field of karts and the regular OMC (Owyhee Motorcycle CLub) crowd, the pits were packed as Mother Nature took a break from the snow of the week before. When the dust settled, Brandon Johnson emerged the big winner of the weekend. One week later was the Championship weekend for the IOKA. Again a full field of karts packed the pits for two days of wild racing action. On Saturday the karts ran all their races before the OMC show started. It was an early day as they tried to get the show in by 2pm. The main events were action packed as always. In the bandits main, which is for the true beginner, the drivers started from their traditional standing start and the day belonged to Eagle’s Delaney Blume, who drove to victory in front of Drew Miller and Daytona Wurtz.

Tyler Henderson continued his strong runs in the box stock division with a main event win on Saturday. Brenna Lee and Jesse Fuller came in second and third. The Hot Rod class heated up the track all night long and when all was said and done it was Zach Blume bringing home the hardware in front of Nick Isaacson and Dylan Stacy.

The 125’s proved to be a class with more experience and speed as Meridian’s Chance Connell proved to be hard to beat with his main event win. Dana Evans and Shon Gooden battled it out for second and third. The feature event of the day had the open 500’s rippin around the track and after making the long trip two weeks in a row from Missoula, Montana, Tommy Brown grabbed the win followed closely by Boise’s Kyle Hossfeld and Stevensville, Montana’s Randy Phillips.

And with that the stage was set for Championship Sunday! Delaeny Blume took the sweep for the bandit main events, with Drew Miller and Zach Sokoli right behind. Near the end of the main event, Daytona Wurtz, who was running a high line all day got into the loose dirt on the back stretch and turned her kart on its side. As track personnel rushed to the 01 car and got it back on its wheels, she was ready to go and sped off around the track giving the crowd a wave as she went by. Brenna Lee outran Tyler Henderson in the box stock A Main while Kaleb Johnson showed his skill coming in third.

Nitro Nick Isaacson would not be denied a championship day trip to victory lane in the Hot Rods as he held off a charge from Chase Gilbertson and Dylan Stacy to bring home the win. In the 125 division Chance Connell dominated his way to a weekend sweep in front of Hailey Hossfeld and Dana Evans. The visitors from Montana were looking to go home with more IOKA hardware in the open 500 main event, and they did. Gary Brown led Tommy Brown to the checkered to take the top two positions back to Missoula, Montana ahead of local power Kyle Hossfeld.

The outlaw karts have a short breather before they get back behind the wheel for the summer series in mid April at Sandhollow Raceway Park and Rock Creek Raceway in Twin falls. Dean Taylor and Brian Lev did an outstanding job running the indoor series and should be congratulated on a job well done. All the promoting and work is volunteer for the IOKA during the indoor season. All who helped should be commended. The awards banquet is set for March 7 at Idaho Pizza in Meridian. Points Champions will be crowned at that time.