On Sunday April 5th, the final points race for the 6th season of
Ken's Indoor Racing League will take place. This year over a hundred different racer's have taken the green in KIRL races at either
Chicago Indoor Racing's Buffalo Grove or Addison tracks.
In the 5 previous seasons there have only been 3 champions and 2 of them were co-champions in the inaugural season (
SONNY SCHOFFEN and
JAMES SWAN). The only other champion, BILL HARTWIG, has dominated the top of the point standings every year since. He is currently on top of the points again and normally would be a sure bet to successfully defend his title except he has no "throw-aways" this year!
In KIRL, the season is comprised of 6 point nights and for the final point standings everyone is allowed to throw away their 2 lowest point scores. The KIRL point leader and 5 time KIRL CHAMPION did not race in 2 events this year, he therefore must count whatever point score he earns on April 5th in his final points tally!
Unfortunately for BILL, this is the first year that anyone is close enough to dethrone him. BILL is a unique Karting Champion because he is over 225 pounds and 60 some years old. There isn't a KIRL racer who won't admit that BILL is an awesome wheelman. Even at his weight and age he can give any kart racer a challenge that most cannot overcome.
For this final race night there is one or maybe two KIRL racers with a chance to knock off BILL from his championship perch! The two KIRL racers with the potential both already have karting championships on their resumes and having a KIRL championship to add would be huge with BILL HARTWIG having been top KIRL gun for so long!
Amazingly the two stalkers are both in high school and both currently campaign latemodels.
Two KIRL seasons ago a mentoring effort was suggested by
JOSH NELMS and implemented so that a veteran racer would be paired up with a young racer. The point was to have the veteran impart some knowledge, advice, tips etc. to the youngster. The first "student" BILL was given is now possibly the only KIRL racer to have ever had a shot at dethroning him! The kid with all the pressure on April 5th will be
AARON KATZENBERG, son of
FIVESTAR RACECAR BODIES'S chief of engineering JIM KATZENBERG.
In the 2008-09 season, AARON has proven to be as cool as ice, he's been knocked around and lost spots, suffered with some slow karts but he is like a little Eveready Bunny just plugging away and now he sits in a position that no KIRL racer has ever been in...with a chance to win a KIRL championship that BILL HARTWIG is defending.
MICHAEL BILDERBACK cannot be forgotten he sits just 10 points behind "Little Katz" and also has a legitimate shot at the OLD MAN's title! MICHAEL has no "thow aways," both he and AARON need April 5th to be as close as possible to clean sweep nights and BILL to have some bad luck or tough competition to score enough points to overtake BILL. Every KIRL night has a maximum of 192 points to be awarded to a racer who clean sweeps (wins all 4 point races--3 qualifiers and 1 feature). BILL has never scored less than 180 points in any night this season, AARON'S highest points night was 188 and MICHAEL'S was 184. BILL must have an uncharacteristically bad night for either of the young speedsters to make KIRL history!
BILL'S Super Heavyweight class has been getting tougher and tougher each event. There has been an increasing number of super talented "big" guys racing and we expect April 5th to bring out even more. Some of the expected Super Heavyweight challengers include: TIM SWEERS,
ANTHONY DANTA,
RYAN STARZYK, JACK RABEY, BILL WIRTH, TODD LEHR, REED BARTOSEK, SONNY SCHOFFEN, TOM JONES SR and KEN JOHNSON. To say BILL faces his toughest challenge to the title is an understatement! Come out April 5th to see if OLD MAN is going to CHOKE! 2th
PRO-KIRL Top 20
1. Bill Hartwig 558
2. Aaron Katzenberg 530
3. Michael Bilderback 520
4. Nick Petska 516
t. Tony Velez 516
t. James Swan 516
7. Mike Hartwig 512
8. Josh Nelms 502
9. Andy Jones 500
10. Tim Sweers 478
11. Blake Brown 476
12. Josh Bilicki 466
t. Dave Edwards 466
14. Steve Brooks 464
15. Jack Rabey 464
16. Bill Wirth 462
17. Ken Johnson 458
18. James Thorndike 444
t. Tommy Jones 444
20. Jim Horsch 436
It's now less than a week before the final event of the KIRL season! This Sunday April 5th at Chicago Indoor Racing in Buffalo Grove, Bill Hartwig will win his 5th consecutive KIRL championship...or not! If he doesn't win, possibly Aaron Katzenberg or Michael Bilderback will be the new KIRL champ. It's also not out of the realm of possibilities for any of the 3 superstars (Petska, Swan and Velez) tied for 4th to make a run at the championship either! One thing is for certain, anything can happen.
This will be the last opportunity for anyone to participate in either a Casual or Pro KIRL race until next November. Please RSVP your choice of participating in either or both races as soon as possible to drtwoth@comcast.net or 773.719.9559.
Casual KIRL race participants will sign up by 3pm and Pro KIRL by 4:15pm. Casual racers pay $55 and Pro pay $85 (unless using prepay discount and save up to $20).
Casual race will be 2 qualifiers (10 laps) and 1 final (20 laps). Pro race will be 3 qualifiers (14 laps), 1 final (30 laps) and a bonus super final (30 laps) for the top 16.
Event #5 NEWS
CURRENT POINTS: CLICK THIS
Tommy Jones tops 52 racers to bring home his second consecutive SUPER FINAL victory!
Top 3 in 3-1-09 KIRL SUPER FINAL: Tony Velez second, Sara Horsch, TJ first, and Jim Thorndike third! 
Becca Kasten lines up for her final
Michael Bilderback and Mike Noyce
Super Final lined up
21 daring participants raced in the Casual KIRL race, the beginners were given driving lessons by some veterans including Eddie Hoffman and Michael Bilderback!
Event #4 NEWS
48 racers, their friends and families came out to the 6th annual KIRL SUPER BOWL SUNDAY RACE!
Tommy Jones, son of ASA legend Tom Jones, parlayed his provisional start from deep in the field into his first PRO-KIRL SUPER FINAL win in his racing career. Dad was real proud of both his sons as younger brother Andy put on an awesome show with karting ace Josh Bilicki by winning the Lightweight Final, tied Aaron Katzenberger for Lightweight top qualifier and setting quick time of the night.
The trophy, however, went to big brother Tommy Jones who worked his way into the lead on lap 8 and never looked back. In fact, Tommy put on a clinic in kart racing for the rest of the field of 20. Second place Blake Brown had a mirror full of Tony Velez near the end of the race but they were nearly half a lap behind Tommy Jones.
Anthony Danta paced the field to the start and actually put on quite a lead for himself early on until Tommy broke free of the pack and mowed him down. The SUPER FINAL field was loaded with short track racing stars who chose to skip the Super Bowl and do what they love--race!
To see a short video of the Pro-KIRL Super Final field go by on the parade lap CLICK THIS.
Josh Nelms put together an amazing night at the new track by winning several qualifiers and being the top racer in the heavyweight division going into his weight class 30 lap feature. The invert put him into a kart which started acting up early on and his finish did not qualify him for a start in the SUPER FINAL. A provisional start and good kart was all he needed to come from the middle of the field to a 4th place finish.
A blanket could have been put over Josh and the 3 racers behind him, Ryan Finley, Kyle Shear and Aaron Katzenberg. James Thorndike, Aaron Phillips and Andy Jones were next across the stripe well ahead of tenth place Nick Petska who started 19th and had his hands full racing from the rear.
The rest of the field was at one time or another involved in incidents which may or may not have worked out in their favor. For example, Mike Bilicki pulled off on lap 20 after a spin sent him into last place. Vern Fagerberg was in 11th behind Petska and ahead of the pack of Josh Bilicki, Michael Bilderback, Steven Brooks, James Swan, Bill Wirth. Tim Sweers and Anthony Danta.
Super Heavyweights were waiting for their feature to start.
Jim Bucher and Chris Johnson left the comfort of the dirt to try some pavement racing.
Bill Wirth an IRA SPRINT Car regular has found a home at the top of almost every KIRL race he runs.
Michael Bilderback and Matt Noyce were both wondering where the heck Becca Kasten was tonight?
Results of all the races are available by clicking any of the following links:
Pro-KIRL Super Final,
Superheavyweight Feature,
SHW qualifier 1,
SHW qualifier 2,
SHW qualifier 3,
Heavyweight Feature,
HW q 1,
HW q 2,
HW q 3,
Middleweight Feature,
MW q 1,
MW q 2,
MW q 3,
Lightweight Feature,
LW q 1,
LW q 2,
LW q 3.
Current Point Standings: CLICK THIS
