With a resonant thud, summer gave way to autumn on the weekend of Round 16.  Morning lows on race day were in the low 30's, and Saturday's high temperature never got above 50 at JRP Speedway.  Reports of sleet pellets were not uncommon, and racers expected to be in for a chilly start before skies lightened and temps rose into the low 60's.

The resulting conditions were prime for racing.  Fatigue wouldn't be as big a factor in the cool air, and the heavy cool air meant engines were making bags of power.  Teams who set up for low grip conditions capitalized, setting personal best lap times and knocking on the door of track records.  The entire field was quicker than in weeks past, and we saw some great racing because of it!

In the F4 class final, Heat race winner Ken Foster in the #43 and pole qualifier Paul Churchwell in the #77x - who were less than a tenth of a second apart in the heat event - had contact entering calamity corner on the first lap of the final.  Churchwell, whose nosepiece suffered damage earlier in the day, saw it come free again as he contacted Foster's rear bumper.  The missing piece, he knew, meant his race was over before it began and he retired to the pits.  Foster was able to continue, and had a bumper full of Jase Martin in the #9 instead as the early laps clicked by.  Martin eventually made a pass for the lead on lap 5, but Foster wasn't through fighting.  The two came together on lap 7 and ground to a stop, allowing the #42 of Kyle Pearce to shoot through for the lead.  Once there, he would storm off to the checkered flag for his first ever victory.  The #3 of Jeff Starkweather also made it past the stalled Foster and Martin, en route to a 2nd place finish.  Foster was able to continue on and finish 3rd, barely staying on the lead lap.  Martin however wasn't so lucky, retiring after the contact on lap 7.  Two new drivers in the Shackelford clan - Wayne and Don in the #12 and #10 respectively - enjoyed their day in RPMotorsports rent-a-ride karts and finished a respectable 4th and 5th.  Jase Martin was classified 6th, and Churchwell 7th, both drivers having retired due to contact.  Points were also awarded to Gene Pearce (8th) and Chris Pearce (9th), who competed in the heat but did not start the final.  Fastest lap of the day was set by Paul Churchwell with his pole setting qualifying effort of 32.019 seconds.

The Junior 1 Two-Cycle final saw the #48 of Joshua Callahan extend a solid 2.6 second lead from pole position for a wire-to-wire victory.  Behind him, the #159 of Austin Jeffries had a great battle with Braydon Cromwell in the #4e kart, but couldn't fend him off out of the hairpin on lap 6 as Cromwell stormed by.  Cole Quaile in the #14 wasn't able to keep touch with the pack, but finished 4th on the lead lap.  The #3 of Kennon Anderson was simply off the pace in this class, despite winning convincingly in Kid Karts, and finished 5th on the day.  Fast lap on the day went to Cromwell, who set a time of 29.873 seconds in the final.

In the Kid Kart final, Kennon Anderson put his cold-weather kart control skills on display and picked up the big trophy after lapping the field by lap 7.  The #48 of Rachel Callahan maintained her commanding points lead with a 2nd place finish, ahead of Reese Moore in the #240 kart who took a 3rd place trophy back home to Kansas City, Missouri!  Anderson's fast lap was 36.971 seconds.

For the Junior 1 4-cycle final, the much anticipated rematch of a close Heat final between Morgan Bain's #00 kart and Braydon Cromwell in the #4 was not to be.  Hitting the curbing just right on lap 2, Morgan's chain was thrown off leaving her to watch as Cromwell and Cole Quaile's #14 battled it out.  While Bain was able to get assistance with her chain and rejoin the race, she was three laps down and out of contention.  Cromwell didn't have enough pace to hold off Quaile for long, as he watched the #14 take the lead on lap 4 on the way to victory.  The #23 of Justin Kessler would finish a lap down in 3rd place for the last podium position.  Reese Moore pulled double duty competing in this class as well as Kid Karts, and finished 4th ahead of Bain who earned points for 5th place.  Bain did however lay claim to the fast lap honor for the day, with a best of 30.621 seconds in the Final.

The Sportsman class saw the #08 of Paige Evans on an absolute tear, storming off to an 8.7 second victory over the #86 of Steven Younger (2nd) and the #2 of Derek Proctor (3rd).  The trio would finish as they qualified in the heat and the final.  Particularly noteworthy was the pace of Evans, who was .02 seconds below the all-time best lap time at 28.274 seconds in the final.  The sportsman field looked very quick and smooth through the flat left-handed turn 1, and reminded everyone that they're seriously quick machines. 

In the TAG class, the #1 of Gavin Moore was quick straight off the trailer and avenged the frustration of his mechanical issue from Round 15 that saw TKC's closest points battle tighten further.  With only a few laps of practice in one session on a re-assembled rear end, Moore set a qualifying scorcher of 26.156 seconds which would stand as the fast lap of the day.  In the heat race, the #30 of Christian Duarte lost spark with a hard charging Rey Ferreyro Jr. on his bumper, right down the front straight and narrowly avoiding contact.  After some hectic last minute work to repair that and other issues though, Duarte made it to the grid for the final - where he would instead watch Ferreyro Jr. lose drive on the front straight due to a dreaded stuck piston.  Having established a big gap early, Moore conserved his equipment and brought it home clean for the win.  Duarte would claim the 2nd place trophy, and Ferreyro Jr. 3rd.  Moore's lead in the points is where it was before the last round, but with two races still remaining, everyone still has a chance at the title.

Wrapping up the program, the TAG Heavy class was ready to have fun going fast as always.   Anthony Honeywell in the #76o kart returned for his second race of the year and again demonstrated impressive pace en route to a solid victory.  His best lap time of 26.882 seconds - also in qualifying - was also within shouting distance of the track record, making him the only TAG Heavy driver in the 26's on the day.  Behind him, the #97 of Jerry Isaacs built a 1 second gap back to the #14 of Don Grace to finish 2nd and 3rd respectively.  The #48 of Jason Shackelford, who was never short of something to do with the Amigos team and his family taking to the track in F4, made its way to the checkers in 4th place.  Further back in the field, the 22m of Scott Matejec climbed his way up from last place to finish 5th - ahead of his brother Chad's 23m machine (6th) and Kip Anderson (7th).  Charles Martin made his TKC debut in the Amigos racing stable in the #5 Intrepid chassis, finishing 8th and on the lead lap for the finale.

Up next is the Grand Prix of Tulsa, which features road-racing style timed heat and final events for each class rather than racing to a fixed number of laps.  It will be another test of endurance, reliability, and speed, and the penultimate shot for drivers to make moves in their TKC 2012 Championship points races!