The final round of our adult league series ended on Wednesday night.  The competition was fierce and the formats were kept a mystery each week.

In week one the facility did the usual 8 minute qualifier to determine the league groups.  After the qualifier the groups each competed in two 20 minutes feature races.  Kyle Lick won honors for the A group while Samanthalee Greco too the B group and Brian Roemer won the Group C.

Week 2 the format was a true test of endurance.  After the qualifying race each group participated in a 40 minute mini-iron man race.   Halfway through the race the field was inverted and sent backwards.  This added a twist and created challenges for drivers who had never driven the track backwards.  In the A group the honors were split between Kyle Lick and Jeff Shuey.  Group B was a dominate victory by Samanthalee Grecco winning both directions and the Group C was split between Brian Roemer and Jon Stangle.

Week 3 was the biggest surprise of the league series.  League Director, Ryan Suchon, made the decision to throw down powder and make the track surface slick.  None of the drivers had any practice opportunity, so the skill had to come from natural instinct and ability.  In group A Kyle Lick and Jason Frankenfield split the two victories.  In Group B Jim Wilson and Dan Deithorn were winners and in Group C Brian Roemer and Ed Stangle came out on top.

Week 4, the final week was the best week to make up points and climb or fall down the ladder.  The format was each group ran a 8 minute qualifier followed by 3 features that were 12 minutes.  The shorter features meant drivers had to be more aggressive and make moves early.  It also meant that there was an extra feature to earn points.  Jeff Shuey from the A Group took advantage winning 2 out of the 3 features helping him secure a third place in overall standings.  Jason Frankenfield was the other winner in the A Group.  In the B Group Samanthalee Greco continued to dominate winning the final 2 of the 3 features and Jim Wilson took the first of the 3 feathers.  In Group C Mike Krachun came out of the boxes hot winning the first 2 features and Michael Hartberger took the final race.

Overall, this was one of the most competitive leagues in LVGP history.  The formats were meant to keep the races fresh and exciting each week and we are thank to all the drivers who participated!!

Final Standings:

Group A

1.  Kyle Lick, 7,339 pts 2.  Michael Jachowski 7041 pts 3.  Jeff Shuey 6852 pts 4.  Jason Frankenfield 6703 pts 5  Andrew Pettijohn 6638 pts 6. Tyler Benson 4534 pts 7.  Clint Benson 4100 pts 8.  Martin Kompas 3232 pts.

Group B

1.  Samanthalee Greco 7732 pts 2.  Jim Wilson 7183 pts 3.  Daniel Deithorn 6663 pts 4.  Michael Egge 6541 pts 5.  Hunter Stewart 6142 pts 6.  Ashley Giroux 5249 pts

Group C

1.  Brian Roemer 7452 pts 2.  Mike Krachun 7261 pts. 3.  Ed Stangle 7009 pts. 4. Michael Hartberger 6591 pts. 5.  Walter Sahaydak 6279 pts. 6.  Jon Stangle 5568 pts.

Ryan Suchon and Kyle Lick are dirt racers.  They are also the Competition Team at LVGP.  To spice things up at last nights league they decided to add a little of their dirt racing background to the league experience.

Powder Night!  The league drivers got to experience the first ever Powder Night at LVGP.  Using a combination of baby powder and shuffle board wax they created an entirely new experience on the track.

Upon entering the track, driver’s appeared to be driving on ice!  Sliding all over the track and struggling to adjust to the new surface.  It was fun to watch the drivers compete.  ”The true driver’s can figure out how to go fast on any type of surface.” said Ryan.

Overall, the event seemed to be a huge success.  You could see big grins on the driver’s faces as they slid around the track!

Here is a link to a video taken by League Driver, Walt Sahaydak.

The economy has had a major effect on the racing world over the past 2 years.  I believe that continuing to invest in your products and delivering on your customer’s demands is key to survival.  Just yesterday Indoor Karting News released that it will be closing it’s doors.  Excuses such as economic factors and business model issues were the major reasons for ending the sites existence.  I strongly believe that this could have been avoided if the company simply listened to their customers.

IKN had some great ideas on how to grow the indoor karting community through forums, driver rankings and advertising for tracks, however, I feel the site had some major flaws.  The driver rankings did not include drivers from tracks who were not partners with the website.  How can you have a true national ranking when you don’t have 80% of the drivers listed due to their track not advertising on the site?  Also, there were major flaws in how the scoring was kept.  Drivers from tracks with a great number of major races had points that were weighed heavier than the tracks with less events.  Also, the rankings did not differentiate endurance competitions from individual races.  The site also did not involve a kids ranking.

To finish on a high note, overall, I felt the site was a great step for the industry.  It is disappointing to see it fail but I think there was some great learning for other sites and future competition strategy.  Lehigh Valley Grand Prix is now partnering up with Sodi World Series which is an international ranking series that has some great promise in growing this fast growing sport.

Holiday Gift Cards are available at the track.  If you are looking to give the gift of excitement and adrenaline a gift card to LVGP would be the winning ticket!  Call the track today to order your gift cards.  610-432-RACE(7223)

Week 3 in junior league were great as always good racing in both divisions. Couple juniors missed week 3, making the point standings in each group tighter. 1 point seperates the top 2 in group A and in group B we have a 4 way tie for 1st place in points! Should be fun to see how things unfold in the remaining 5 weeks! As always you can check out scores and results at Indoorkartingnews.com or on our facebook fan page!