Day: March 2, 2021

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2021 GSKA NFKC VKA Vintage Ice Breaker
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2021 GSKA NFKC VKA Vintage Ice Breaker

By Bob Barthelemy
Photos by Tony Cassata

This is just one half of the smooth, long Jacksonville straightaway

Although the temperature was in the mid 30’s Thursday morning, the late morning and afternoon saw temps. in the60’s and made for a beautiful day of practice. After safety tech inspection, we opened the track for practice around 10 am. With all single engine karts then duel engine kart practice. After lunch (the Mother Truckin Pizza food truck served some delicious subs and pizza) we provided open practice till 5:00 pm. with the grid steward controlling the amount of karts on the trackat a time.

The forecast for Friday showed rain so we got an early start with practice open from 8:30-9:30 am. We posted the starting line-ups and held a quick drivers meeting at 9:45. The first group to enter the track for heat #1 at 10:15 was the Sportsman Rear accompanied by a Karman Jobe (junior) and Nick Wiel in the straight axle S/W. Two more groups were able to run heat # 1 prior to the rain setting in till noon. About a two hour process of drying the track followed lunch and by 2:30 the sportsman S/W and 4 cycle stock group completed their first heat. Two more groups completed heat #1 before more rain came to end the on track activities for the day.

Saturday morning a steady rain was drenching the facility at 103rd St. Jacksonville. After talking with the people at the track, and a few already packing up to leave, we decided to officially call the Saturday activity as a rain-out. The few people that were interested in participating in the kart show did not even want to get their karts out in the rain. We presented awards based on first heat finishing order (12 classes) and by order of registration (5 classes). Karman Jobe assisted us by drawing Todd Horton’s name as winner of the 50/50 raffle. Todd and the VKA were presented $155.00 each from the proceeds of the raffle. Thank you to Jim Hindery, NFKC President, and the entire NFKC & GSKA team for a well-run event! Thank you to all the Vintage Karters (58 competition plus 2 practice only entries)for participating at this event. Come join us at Barnesville March 25ththru 27th where we hope for better weather conditions.

The Jacksonville circuit is well suited to C/Opens like this B-Bomb-powered rig with a nice set of overhead pipes.
The Bennett crew had plenty of room to spread out under the pines.
Scott Nagel with the family C/Open. His dad Jerry runs the beast every chance he gets.
Several dual Yamahas showed up for Jacksonville. Seems to be a growing class everywhere in the VKA.
Old Skool – gear-drive dual carb Mac rear engine entry. Still amazing little powerplants.
Ron Jones was selling some good stuff including a pair of Corsair rotaries and a Sirio. Elsewhere in the pits was a restored Hartman sprinter for sale.
Rob Rizzuto and Tony Severino make some last minute adjustments on Rob’s Dart.
Part of Team Haddock – Charlie Groeteke starts Pete Vetter in an HPV-powered Margay SR-16.
Engine builder/tuner Steve Jamison gets Scott Nagle prepared to go on track. BM130s supply the power.
Mike Giessen drives the dual Yamaha “FreddyVader” for the Haddock team. Kart runs strong and Mike’s driving and tuning skills are as good as it gets!
Craig Bennett dual sidewinder carries the “Intimidator” livery of Dale Earnhardt. Super clean with overhead pipes.
Donald Southerland (foreground) and Sean Collins #9 getting ready to go out for some fast laps.
Father and son team of Kurt and Karman Jobe came out to run the Jeff Brown-tuned Yamaha.
More nice karts – Jesse James’ #84 and Don Renton’s #88 sportsman sidewinders plus Scott Klinger’s #421 8.2 Rear.
This photo of Penelope Giessen sums up the weather for Jacksonville this year – COLD!
The business end of Haddock’s dual Yamaha – Lynn says “spec” pipes make these karts very low maintenance in the clutch department, and they are easier to drive with lower clutch engagement speeds.
Trevor Lotz’s 6.1 Rear SAE is truly a time capsule with its GEM V-12 “Y” intake setup.
A big group of Sportsman Sidewinders fire up for a heat.
Morgan Healy drives this pristine ’67 Bug Sprint 8.2 for Lynn Haddock.
Unidentified 8.2 Sidewinder looks perfect in every way.
The Haddock fleet numbered 8 karts at Jacksonville – or nearly 15% of the total entries. Now that’s a lot of work.
It takes a lot to keep 8 karts running. Here’s some of the crew…(L-R) Nick Weil, Lynn Haddock, Shane Davis, Jeff Clounch and Mike Giessen.
Lynn and his young protégé, Morgan Healey.
Race promoter/engine builder Jeff Brown came south for some warm weather and to tune the Jobes’ Yamaha. Well at least it was warmer than where he lives!