The Coyote Motorsports team closed the 2012 World Karting Association Gold Cup Series season Sept. 23-25 at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, N.J. The 4-cycle national sprint series ran the 0.48-mile Avenger Circuit, the shortest layout at New Jersey’s karting venue, and the Coyote team came away with five feature wins, including a triumph in the big Animal Heavy Money Race that runs on Friday night.
We’ll start with the Money Race in the recap of the event. Arie Ouimet, a decorated kart racer, mainly on the 2-cycle TaG side of the sport, joined the Coyote team at New Jersey. Ouimet wheeled the familiar Baker Racing Engines-powered No. 24 Coyote and made himself feel right at home in his first appearance at a WKA Gold Cup national event.
Ouimet kicked off the weekend with a big win in the Money Race by a solid 4.6-second margin over Zach Linsell. Ouimet won both segments of the 40-lap race and captured the Coyote team’s second Money Race win of the season. The first came at the Jacksonville season opener in March, which saw Sean Meier score the victory.
After a second-place run in Saturday’s Stock Lite feature, Ouimet returned Sunday and drove to the win in Stock Medium, the largest class of the weekend. Ouimet won by a cool three-second margin over Travis Manning. The win marked the Coyote team’s second of the season in Stock Medium. Meier won the class at Barnesville.
Tim Stiefel put an exclamation point on his terrific 2012 campaign in the Masters divisions. Stiefel swept the weekend in the Masters category, winning Masters Medium and Heavy. It marked the fourth time in five events this year that Stiefel won both Masters classes.
Congratulations to Tim on his pair of national championships in the Masters classes!
Sarah Luoma completed her outstanding 2012 season with the win in Restricted Junior. And, unofficially, it looks like Luoma has secured her first WKA national championship in the Restriced Junior division, and congratulations go out to her and her family.
Along with Luoma, Jake Lutz, CJ Leturneau and Ryan Bavineau represented Coyote in the Junior divisions. Lutz raced to a trio of top-five finishes with a second in Jr Medium, third in Jr Heavy and fourth in Jr Lite. Unofficially Lutz has won another national championship in Jr Heavy, his first in the 12- to 15-year-old Junior divisions.
Leturneau accomplished finishes of fourth, fifth and sixth. CJ and his family made four of the five Gold Cup nationals in 2012 and appreciation goes out to them for devoting so much time and resources to the WKA circuit this year.
Bavineau entered the weekend with a shot at the Restricted Junior championship. The New York racer, who has improved throughout the season, came up just short. He finished second to Luoma in the class and unofficially will end the year about 25 points back of Sarah in the final standings. Ryan also finished fifth and sixth in Jr Heavy and Jr Medium to conclude his fine year.
Team Coyote had awesome representation in the Sportsman 1 classes. Five of the 13 starters in the seven-to-10-year-old age group were on Coyotes. Joshua Stark had a tough run Saturday with a 12th-place finish in Sportsman 1 Lite but rebounded for a fine third-place result in Sunday’s Sportsman 1 Heavy main.
Evan Bovee recorded finishes of fifth in Sportsman 1 Lite and sixth in Sportsman 1 Heavy. Bovee showed great improvement in what was only his second Gold Cup event.
TJ Vargo was in the mix all weekend and ended up with a pair of seventh-place finishes. Like Bovee, Vargo showed improvement as the young driver continues to hone his skills on the national level.
?Connecticut’s Robert Gierum raced a Coyote at his first Gold Cup event and came away with finishes of 10th and 12th.
Young Nick Fauci had a tough weekend with finishes of 10th and 13th. Fauci still had a great year, one that saw him win his first Gold Cup feature event and then back up his first triumph with several wins this past summer.
The Chapman family made the long haul from their Michigan home to southern New Jersey. Michael finished third in Masters Medium while his daughter, Cayla, raced to finishes of sixth in Animal Amateur Medium and 10th in Stock Lite. Much appreciation goes out to the Chapman family on making every Gold Cup national event in 2012.
The Zobkiw brothers continued their devotion to the Gold Cup circuit by making the trip Jersey for the season finale. Dylan recorded a pair of top-five finishes by running fifth in Stock Medium and Heavy. Jason edged out his younger brother in the Money Race by taking the last slot in the top five. Dylan was sixth in the Friday night show. A big thanks goes out to the Zobkiw family for supporting Coyote and the WKA national series again in 2012.
Coyote Motorsports owner Jim Lipari spoke about New Jersey and the entire Gold Cup season.
“Five wins at a track a lot of our drivers had never seen was a great way to finish the year. I think we had an incredible season. We were competitive all year and the feature wins really started to rack up through the second half of the season. I want to thank all our customers for their continued support, the Fauci family for all their help, my dad and all the people here at the shop. Everybody at WKA. And Keith Shampine of New Concept Race Media for writing the press releases and maintaining the CoyoteKarts.com website,” Lipari said.
The five-race national series is now complete and work has already begun on Coyote’s 2013 program. The 2013 WKA national season will begin in the final days of this year with the annual Daytona KartWeek at Daytona International Speedway Dec. 27-30. Last year, Michigan’s Scott Kleman represented Coyote at the Manufacturers Cup Sprint Championships at Daytona and Steven Kilsdonk and several others raced their Coyote mounts at the Road Racing Championships on the 3.56-mile superspeedway road course.
Kilsdonk, who’s had a fine season on the Road Racing circuit this year, and others will be on their Coyotes at Daytona. We’ll look for the WKA Gold Cup schedule to be announced shortly and plan for the season opener this March.
About Coyote Motorsports
Coyote is one of the original production go-kart chassis manufacturers in the United States.
Based in the Rochester suburb of Spencerport N.Y., Coyote is now owned and managed by longtime kart racer Jim Lipari. In addition to chassis manufacturing, Coyote is a full-service kart shop and machine shop capable of in-house manufacturing nearly all of the components on its popular line of karts.
Coyote is proud to conduct nearly all of its services at its home shop, including bending tubing with a computer-operated Pines 1000 tubing bender, TIG and MIG welding and painting with a state-of-the-art Nordson powder-coating system.
To learn more about Coyote Motorsports, visit www.CoyoteKarts.com.
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Press written by New Concept Race Media. For more information, visit www.NewConceptRaceMedia.com.
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