---

Minnesota Missile Monday: Bullring Nationals 2019

Minnesota Missile Monday: Bullring Nationals 2019
(Plessis Motor Speedway; Hartley, IA)
September 23, 2019

A strong field of karts made the tow to Plessis Motor Speedway for a chance to win the coveted championship belt at the 2019 Bullring Nationals. With the support of Dustin Haggard, a sponsor was found to support the BP (builder prepared) class being added to the show. This meant that KC was going to have two opportunities to take home a belt as he would complete in the cadet class and the BP class.

Cadet:
The class of winged karts had seven drivers in competition with KC drawing the third pill draw for the heat race line-ups. Taver West and Micah Haugen paced the field for the opening heat with West pulling off the heat win ahead of KC Sparks, Haugen, Nixon Heiderscheidt,and Kaecyn Jones. With a field invert for the second heat, Koltin Hofer and Jones led the field to green with Jones picking up the heat win ahead of Heiderscheidt, Sparks, and West.

The heat finishes lined up the feature event which was a 30 lap extended feature for “The Belt”. West and Sparks started out front with Heiderscheidt and Jones in row two. On the initial start, Haugen and Sparks got together bringing out the caution and resetting the field for a complete restart. On the restart, West jumped to the early lead with Sparks and Heiderscheidt side by side going into turn one. Heiderscheidt jumped the inside disc and had is kart on two wheels. He was able to safely bring the kart back down but after a couple laps realized something was broken and retired from the event. West and Sparks pulled away from the rest of the field and on lap 5, Sparks moved past West down the back stretch. Sparks paced the field out front with West within striking distance and on lap 11, West drove to the inside of Sparks and had the position through the corner to retake the lead. When the lead duo caught lap traffic, the slower karts lined up perfectly for West to move past without breaking speed. Sparks followed West through the traffic and chased the leader in open track for several laps, making charges but unable to make the pass. After navigating traffic once more, West went on to be the Bullring Nationals Champion for 2019. Sparks came home second and after a post-race disqualification for failing to go to tech, third place went to Kaecyn Jones, fourth was Micah Haugen and Wyatt Schutte was credited with fifth.

BP Wing:
The Builder Prepared class had only competed at the bullring once this season but after some legwork, the class was brought back to compete for the Bullring Nationals. Five drivers signed in representing Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. KC drew the outside front row for the heat and was able to lead most of the heat before Kamdyn Haggard moved ahead on the final lap. The second heat had KC fighting from the back. Tyler Alton drove from the pole to take the lead, Haggard took second.

The feature line up had Haggard and Alton on the front row with KC Sparks and Carter Evans in row two. Being the Bullring Nationals, the drivers were scheduled for a 50 lap event with a break at 25 laps for fuel, tire pressure, and driver drinks. KC was on the throttle at the drop of the green and tailed Haggard into second position. Sparks and Haggard had a slight edge over Evans and Alton while Donovan Brady was fighting handling issues. Sparks’s kart was faster that Haggard, but the bullring was difficult to pass on so Sparks would bump Haggard lap after lap trying to get him to mess up. After following Haggard for several laps, Sparks tried to time an inside move in the corner but the timing failed, resulting in Haggard spinning and Sparks being sent to the tail of the field. On the restart, Haggard was again out front with Evans and Alton in tow. Sparks quickly moved around Brady and chased down the lead trio. With a few laps to go before the halfway break, Sparks tried to move under Alton for third but got them both out of shape and bringing out another caution. Haggard maintained the lead until break with Evans, Alton, Sparks, and Brady all on the lead lap and continuing on for the second half.

At the start of the second half, Haggard continued to lead with Evans charging hard. Evans tried the same move as Sparks had earlier to get ahead of Haggard but didn’t have the track position causing the top two to spin with Sparks coming in late and hitting the back of the Evans kart. Everyone was able to continue with Evans going to the tail for causing the caution. Haggard was able to get some extra space on the final run to the checkers while Alton fought off challenges from Sparks for the runner up position. As the checkers flew over the field, Haggard was crowned the Bullring Nationals Champion with Alton, Sparks, Evans, and Brady finishing out the field.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Saturday 9/28: King of the Corn; Newton Kart Klub - Restricted box award and money classes

SPONSOR APPRECIATION:
Autoland; Sioux Falls, SD
Heser Auto and Detailing; Jackson, MN
Last Deck LLC; Jackson, MN
Jared Bailey Photography; Carlisle, IA
DRE; Boyden, IA
MyRacePass.com #TeamMRP #GetTheApp

YTD STATS:
Features: 36
Wins: 14
Top 5: 32
Top 10: 36

---

Article Media

Back to News