GOLD CUP OPENER ATTRACTS NEARLY 300 ENTRIES TO JACKSONVILLE By Keith Shampine / Photos by Carl Barnes
The RLV Tuned Exhaust Products
Gold Cup – WKA’s premier 4-cycle series – kicked off its 2014 campaign this past weekend at Jacksonville, Florida’s 103rd Street Sports Complex, where the Ionic Edge Chassis Nationals was held at the very popular urban-area kart track.
Sunday’s racing. Cooksville, Maryland’s Jason Alder raced his Bandit chassis to four wins on the weekend in the Junior Sportsman divisions. Alder won two of the four Sportsman Pro Gas main events – Lite on Saturday and Heavy on Sunday – and swept the Miller Welders Sportsman Methanol mains. Jax Walker raced his Razor chassis to a sweep of the LO206 Kid Kart features.
The Gold Cup opener drew 240 pointclass entrants and 290 overall entries including Friday evening’s pro races, a fine rebound from the 2013 Jacksonville opener, which drew 175 point-class entrants. Senior racers were posed with plenty of competition with an encouraging sophomore season debut for the Pro Gas Animal. Thirty racers took the green flag in Saturday and Sunday’s $500-To-Win Pro Gas Animal main events, and 21 started Friday night’s Pro Gas Animal Money Race. The four Sportsman Pro Gas Animal divisions – now split to a Lite and Heavy – all boasted more than 15 entrants, and the pair of Junior Pro Gas divisions each started a dozen 12- to 15-year-old racers. Even the LO206 Kid Kart class, which had never seen more than four youngsters start a Gold Cup national, featured six young racers on Sunday afternoon. Several racers earned their fair share of the over $5,000 in awards that was presented among Friday, Saturday and
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KID KART WINNER
JAX WALKER
Zach Wells did something few have ever done at a Gold Cup national – win five races in a weekend. The Maryland racer rode his new MGM Hybrid Jr chassis to wins in five of the six Junior features. Wells swept the most competitive Junior mains – Van-K Wheels Junior Pro Gas Animal – while doing the same in Thor Oil Junior Medium. His only non-win came in Saturday’s Junior Heavy Mix 1 feature to Jason Yarbrough. Wells returned Sunday to dominate the Junior Heavy weekend capper over Yarbrough. Gary Lawson continued to surge in the Senior classes. The Ohio veteran opened the weekend with a runner-up finish to young hot shoe Corey Towles in Friday ‘s Pro race. Lawson was denied of victory worldkarting.com