By James Essex

Columbus Speedway Go-Kart Racing, which conducts events at the Tony Stewart Speedway located at the Bartholomew County 4-H Fairgrounds, has announced its 2021 track champions in each of the respective divisions.

Blake Robertson captured the junior 3 division over Elijah Knoke, Keith Sinkhorn, Grant Hiler and Max Erdman.

Maverick Brison was the top driver in the rookies class over Bentley McCann.

Conner Smith took the top honors in the junior 1 division over Lynx Lawson, Jentry Cash and Brooklyn McCann.

Jacob Chadd was the point champion in the junior 2 class over Maddi Morgan, Bradley Brown and Tyler McCloud.

Calli Lucas won the pred division over Troy Cowan, Brysen Hutt and Zach Cowan.

Colton Lucas won the flatheads championship and also grabbed the title in the clone 380 class over Josh George.

P.J. Crowder was the top point driver in the clone 340 class over Sawyer Gray, and Josh Cash took the RWYB division championship.

Landon Fletcher scored the most points to win the clone 420 division over Dylan Cowan, Mike Sullivan, Travis Huber and Cooper Olmstead.

Charlotte World Finals

Brent Marks capitalized on Logan Schuchart’s tire failure to take the lead in the final laps and take the win in the Nov. 6 season finale for the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars at The Dirt Track at Charlotte as part of the 2021 World Finals.

Schuchart took off at the start of the 25-lap feature, building a nice lead over David Gravel. Schuchart hit traffic very fast, and his nice lead was gone by the eighth lap. On Lap 10, Gravel threw a slider for the lead, but Schuchart responded and held on.

Brent Marks used Gravel’s broken momentum to his advantage, getting by Gravel for second just prior to a Lap 15 red flag. After cleaning up the flipped cars of Jac Haudenschild and Paulie Colagiovanni, Schuchart resumed pace and was long gone.

Brock Zearfoss slipped by Gravel for third on the restart and then began putting pressure on Marks for second. Marks was able to hold on.

However, Schuchart was long gone out front until misfortune struck for the second night in a row. He got bit by troubles not of his doing. After having a left rear bleeder knocked off by a rock while leading last night, Schuchart blew a right rear tire with four laps to go and bounced off of the wall.

With the yellow waiving, Marks inherited the lead as Schuchart went to the pits. Marks went flawless on the final restart, giving Zearfoss little chance to make a run.

Zearfoss was left to fend off Donny Schatz after Schatz started last, plus Gravel, but Marks was clean and free out front.

With the checkered waiving, Marks claimed the win for his second win of the week.

“This place hasn’t been too nice to us in the past. Generally, we’ve been about a 15th-place car,” Marks said. “We have high hopes with this new team, so I hoped to run good. Logan was just better than us, and I was hoping to finish second, but I’m not sure what happened to him, and we were able to capitalize.”

A second chance isn’t something you associate with Jonathan Davenport. When he takes the lead in a race, it’s a rare occurrence that he loses it.

But “Superman” needed a second chance Saturday at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. He thundered past Garrett Smith for the lead a second time in Turn 3 en route to back-to-back wins at the NGK NTK World Finals with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.

Davenport initially passed Smith for the lead on Lap 11, getting by with a similar slide job to how he passed Brandon Sheppard for the win Nov. 5. His lead slipped away once he caught slower traffic five laps later.

Jason Covert broke the Blairsville, Georgia, driver’s momentum, allowing Smith to sneak up on Davenport and roar past him on the inside.

Just as it looked like Davenport’s opportunity for a weekend sweep may have slipped away, contact between his Longhorn Chassis and Covert sent the Pennsylvania driver around and brought out the caution.

That’s when Davenport knew he needed to get up on the wheel.

“I knew that the 10 had beat me the previous lap, so I said, ‘Oh no! What was I going to do?’” Davenport said. “I just kept trying the top down there. It got me to third and almost second on the first lap when everyone went for the rubber, and I just blasted the top, and it stuck somehow.”

The win is Davenport’s fifth NGK NTK World Finals victory and 10th career World of Outlaws triumph.

Smith crossed the line second, a feather in his cap for a driver who’s in his first full year of Super Late Model competition.

In the modern ages of Super DIRTcar Series racing, being competitive with only a handful of starts is extremely difficult. In only his ninth start of 2021, Brett Hearn returned to victory lane, dominating the finale of the World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte for the Big Block Modifieds.

Rocky Warner was all over early leader Hearn in the opening stages of the 30-lap feature, running the cushion as Hearn rode the middle. Warner nearly grabbed the top spot from Hearn, drawing even on Lap 6, but Hearn held on.

Warner and Peter Britten hung close to Hearn through the next handful of laps, but as soon as Warner looked to make another run on Lap 13, Warner broke and slowed.

Matt Sheppard filed into third at halfway, right on Britten’s tail. As the laps clicked off, Britten started to lose ground to Hearn. The middle, Hearn’s lane from the start, became the definitive quick groove with Hearn becoming faster as the lap counter hit 20.

As Hearn slipped away, Sheppard’s pressure on Britten grew. After laps of trying, Sheppard got under Britten and took second with a lap and a half to go. Sheppard took a solid chunk out of Hearn’s lead in the final lap, but too little and too late, as Hearn reached the checkered flag first to score win No. 920 of his career.

Jennings County go-karts racing today

Weather permitting, the Jennings County Kart Track, which holds events at the Jennings County 4-H Fairgrounds in North Vernon, will be racing today. Gates will open at 10 a.m., and the drivers meeting is set for 12:30 p.m. with hot laps at 1 p.m.

Brownstown sets banquet date

The 2021 Brownstown Speedway awards banquet will be Jan. 15 at Pewter Hall in Brownstown for the top 10 in each division and Rookie of the Year for each division.

Due to supply chain issue this year, all monies need to be turned in by Nov. 30. You must be present to receive any awards.

Interested parties need to fill out the form, which can be found online at brownstownspeedway.com in PDF format, and send in with money. If you are paying for a driver (or even multiple drivers), you will need to make sure each driver’s name you are purchasing tickets for is listed at the bottom of the form. This ensures they receive their awards.