The identity crisis of the seasons has become unremarkable for those living in Northeastern Oklahoma.  Two weeks after the last event where morning lows were at or under 40 degrees, Tulsa Kart Club drivers were met with mixed skies and high temperatures in the upper 80's, owing to a very gusty south wind that would help karts up the back straight.

This year, Round 17 of the 2012 Championship was the date for the Grand Prix of Tulsa special event.  The club ran its typical GP-style 3-minute qualifying session, then a 5-minute timed heat followed by a 10-minute timed final.  To make things interesting, classes were combined into three groups (excepting Kid Karts which ran by themselves), meaning they would qualify and race together on track at the same time as is common in grand prix road racing.

Group A consisted of 4-cycle karts, with F4 Junior and F4 Medium on track together.  In the final, the #14 of Cole Quaile in F4 Junior crossed the finish line just before the 10 minute mark, meaning he would finish one lap ahead of the field with 20 laps complete in the time allowed to claim the victory in class and overall.  The #00 of Morgan Bain finished 2nd in class and overall, ahead of F4 Medium winner Chris Pearce in the #2 who capitalized on an error by points leader Benny Cantellay in the #182 to sneak through for the lead.  Cantellay moved over and slowed to let the leader by after seeing the blue flag, rather than maintain his pace and line.  Unsure whether Cantellay was having a mechanical issue, Pearce followed the #00 of Bain through the opening for the position in class.  Jase Martin in the #9 would finish 3rd in the F4 Medium class, while Reese Moore in the #240 kart would take 3rd in the F4 Junior class.  The final overall order (with class positions in parentheses) was as follows:

1. 1.Quaile (1st), 2. Bain (2nd), 3. C. Pearce (1st), 4. Cantellay (2nd), 5. Martin (3rd),
   6. Churchwell (4th), 7. Starkweather (5th), 8. K. Pearce (6th), 9. R. Moore (3rd),
   10. G. Pearce (7th), 11. Kessler (4th), 12. Shockey (5th), 13. Endsley (DNS - 8th)
   

Group B was all air-cooled 2-cycle karts, with Sportsman and Junior 1 classes running together.  The promotion of Derek Proctor to TAG in advance of his 16th birthday combined with fall break schedules left Paige Evans to run by herself in the Sportsman class, effectively sealing up her class championship.  She managed to set a best time of 28.675 seconds in so doing, during the heat race.  Behind her, the #159 of Austin Jeffries stretched his lead out to over 9 seconds in front of Cole Quaile's #14 kart to claim victory in class.  The #3 of Kennon Anderson, whose formation lap contact with points leader Joshua Callahan in the heat race put their #48 kart out of the show, crossed the line a lap down in 3rd place for the final.  The #74 was piloted by Justin Shockey, and retired on lap 9 in 4th place.  Callahan was credited with 5th place points on the day.

Group C ran as the water-cooled rocket ships of the TAG classes, and the final was one of the most enjoyable races to watch so far this year.  The #91m of Luke Waller, running in the TAG Heavy class, qualified on pole overall and set the fast lap (even if only by 0.009 seconds) despite carrying the extra 45 pounds of weight that separates them from TAG.  Surrounding him at the start were the #1 of Gavin Moore and the #30 of Christian Duarte - both from the (normally) quicker TAG class.  At the start, Duarte got a dynamite leap and was alongside Waller entering turn 1 where he ultimately made the pass.  However, while those two were contending for the position, Moore's kart had driven around the outside of them both and had the inside position entering turn 2.  As they exited calamity corner, Moore was clear of Duarte, who was clear of Waller, and it appeared a 10-minute slugfest was about to take place.  For several laps, Duarte and Waller were both within a second of Moore in the lead, but nobody was making any mistakes.  Before half-way, Waller had established a commanding lead in his class, and left the bumper of Duarte rather than force the issue.  However, that very bumper was creating a problem for Duarte as it appeared to have deranged, allowing Moore to open a 3 second gap.  Waller would eventually catch Duarte again, and make the pass for the 2nd overall position.  Recent graduate of the Sportsman class Derek Proctor would pilot his #2 kart to 3rd in class in his TAG debut, one lap down as the checkered flag waved.  Behind all of that action was another train of TAG Heavy karts as Jason Shackelford in the #48 tried to hold off Scott Matejec's 22m and Jerry Isaacs' #97 - all while Proctor was trying to work his way through in his TAG.  Proctor was less than a tenth behind Shack for two straight laps before finally making it by, but ran out of time before he could chase down Duarte.  Matejec would be the last man standing to challenge Shackelford for 2nd overall, and missed doing so by only 0.027 seconds at the finish.  The final overall order (with class positions in parentheses) was as follows:

1. 1.Moore (1st), 2. Waller (1st), 3. Duarte (2nd), 4. Proctor (3rd), 5. Shackelford (2nd),
   6. S. Matejec (3rd), 7. Isaacs (4th), 8. Anderson (5th), 9. C. Matejec (6th), 10. Blair (7th)
   

In the Kid Kart final, the #240 of Reese Moore capitalized on the misfortune of points leader Rachel Callahan's #48 who's lap 4 bobble gave 20 seconds away that she would be unable to get back in the remaining 8 laps.  In open air, Moore ran the rest of his race mistake-free to proudly earn a 1st place trophy and sticker.  Despite the bad luck in the final, Callahan is at least comforted by the knowledge that she has an insurmountable championship points lead!

Just one more race to go as our 2012 season winds rapidly down!  We hope to get weather as nice as we saw for Round 17, if not with less wind, for the finale in two weeks.  See you there!