The road to California Speedway started to be paved yesterday as Round #1 of the Reaper Rentals Rookie Racing Series was held at Grange Motor Circuit.  For those of you who are new to this site, Reaper Rentals is giving out a full race weekend sponsorship to the Series winning driver of this 3 race series.  The sponsorship is for the Tri-C Grand Prix that is being held at the 1.9 mile infield road course at California Speedway (aka Auto Club Speedway) in Fontana, CA and will bring Pro Drivers from around the Country to this one of a kind race.  The Reaper Rentals Rookie Racing Series is only for drivers who have never raced before so even you can enter.

 

The race day belonged to Mike Marino who swept both Heat races and the Main Event in only his 3^rd time driving a racing kart.  Heat 1 started with a first turn spin by Abhisht A.S. (1^st time in a racing kart).  All of the other drivers avoided him and Brian Smith (2^nd time in a racing kart) held the lead for the next few turns.  Marino would then pass Smith and drive away with the win.  Smith had Jake Pfeiffer (5^th time in a racing kart) hot on his tail for the rest of the race but would hold on for 2^nd with Pfeiffer rounding out the Top 3.

 

Heat two saw Jake Mottram (3^rd time in a racing kart) spin in turn 1 followed by Marino slamming the side of his kart into Mottram.  This catapulted Abhisht to the lead with Smith in 2^nd, Pfeiffer in 3^rd and Jason Young (1^st time in a kart) to 4^th.  Marino bounced off Mottram but kept running.  Lap after lap he passed karts until catching the leader on lap 4.  Abhisht would get loose exiting turn 13 and Marino would pounce on the mistake to take over the lead.  Smith too would pass Abhisht there and move the once leader to 3^rd.  Marino would drive away with the win, but Smith, Pfeiffer and Abhisht would exchange positions for the remainder of the race with Smith finishing in 2^nd, Pfeiffer in 3^rd and Abhisht in 4^th.

 

The Main saw Marino take the lead in turn 1 and never look back.  Smith fell into 2^nd, with Pfeiffer in 3^rd, Mottram in 4^th and Abhisht in 5^th.  Smith and Pfeiffer battled hard every lap of the Main, never having more than 4 kart lengths between them.  On lap 7 Pfeiffer would pass Smith for 2^nd and hold it the remainder of the race.  Smith would end up finishing in 3^rd.  Mottram and Abhisht would race hard as well passing Mottram for 4^th.  With 2 laps remaining in the race Abhisht would spin off of the track.  This gave 4^th back to Mottram and he would hang on to it.  Abhisht would end up in 5^th.