With summer racing coming to an end the Sykart Indoor Racing Series begins! The Sykart Indoor Racing Series (S.I.R.S) consists of 7 regular season races, from September 21st until November 9th, and finally closes with a shoot-out invitational on November 16th. Next we will highlight the classes a driver may compete in.

There are 2 classes a driver may choose to compete in, broken up into different weight-divisions:
The ‘P’-classes utilize Sykart’s 9hp Sodi Karts. The P-class is broken into ‘P1′ and ‘P2′. The P1 class is the Lightweight Division, with a minimum weight of 180lbs. The P2 the Heavyweight Division, with a minimum weight of 240lbs. In addition to the weight requirement, you must first complete a regular season in a GT class before joining.
The ‘GT’ classes (GT1, GT2, GT3 and GT4) utilize the 6.5hp Sodi karts. Similar to the P classes, each has a minimum weight that must be met in order to compete in the class.

Team Grip and Hammer currently has 5 drivers competing in this year’s S.I.R.S -

Scott Santiani P2 and GT4
Ralph Boeckman GT2
Jimmy Moore GT2
David Tanioka GT3
Joe Filipanko GT3

The Race

The night kicked off with P2 and GT1 for the first race of the season. Scott had a great qualifying session and was starting from second place. When the green flag dropped the leader and Scott slowly pulled away from the rest of the field. On lap 22, Scott came in to make his pit stop at 2nd place, but because of some congestion re-enterting the track he was passed and dropped back to 3rd. 4th place had caught up to him and put the pressure on for the remainder of the race, but Scott was able to hold him off and secured 3rd place!

The 2nd race of the night was GT2. This year’s GT2 has some of the toughest veterans in any division. Good luck to Ralph and Jimmie! Team Grip and Hammer started the race at the back of the pack and had a slow start. On lap 7, Ralph made an early pit stop so he could get some clean track and run some hot laps. Jimmy made his stop on lap 25 and came out a little bit behind Ralph, but Jimmy was able to catch Ralph and the two had a great battle for position. On lap 31 Jimmy was able to pass Ralph and capture 6th position! The two ran a close race to the very end and posted their best lap times near the finish. Great race!

P1 and GT3 would start the third race of the night. Thanks to a good showing at the qualifier,Joe started from the pole and David from fourth position. The GT field stayed very tight from the beginning with the top 4 spots up for grabs. The field finally got separated by a few early pit stops and the real racing began. On lap 29, a red flag came out to stop the race due to a kart in P1 that had engine failure. Afterwards, the field was bunched back up for a shootout for the last 20 laps. David was pinched off into the wall after the restart and slipped back into fourth position. Joe was able to maintain his lead by holding off consistant pressure from 2nd place and won the race!

The final race of the night was P1 and GT4 . Scott started in 4th place in the GT4 class. Go Scott! On lap 2, Scott made an early pit stop so he could get clear track and focus on putting down some fast laps. Scott’s strategy paid off: when the rest of the field pitted he had moved into 1st place with an impressive 12 second lead! Scott kept up the speed for the rest of the race. He dominated the final laps and captured the win.

We all had an awesome start to the season and let’s hope this luck continues with us. See ya next week for Round 2!