Rickert Racing - 2005 Season


November, 2005, Jacksonville, FL - The last race of the North Florida Kart Club's 2005 season put a cap on Nick's Jr Sportsman karting days as he once again repeated as the Yamaha Jr Sportsman Track Champion. He also repeated as the SCCA Southeast Division Solo Formula Junior Champion. Nick now moves on to the Junior ranks since he turns 13 in January 2006. Nick finished the State series in third position with two wins, two poles and one second. The crowning achievement of Nick's Jr Sportsman career was the new track record at the 103rd St Sports Complex!
	November 5, 2005, Charlotte, NC - Lowes Motor Speedway was the site of the final WKA Gold Cup for 2005. Nick accepted a ride in the Mike Greiner owned Coyote Wide Track LE once again amidst a Margay domination. Nick ran four classes this weekend and was disappointed in the outcome. With motor problems ailing him all weekend in both flat head and Animal the not so great qualifying efforts were only the beginning. With a best qualiying spot of 16th, the best Nick could do was a 21st place finish. The flat head ended up having a cracked pickup tube which meant in the last right hand turn of the track the motor would shut off from fuel starvation after the third lap. So every position he would pickup at the end of the long straight he'd loose two in the right hander. The Animal just never ran right all weekend and the problem was traced to a loose valve seal. Many thanks go out to Mike Greiner and team Margay for all their help over the weekend!
	September 3, 2005, Jacksonville, FL - The North Florida Kart Club hosted their local race #10 at the 103rd St Sports Complex, were Nick competed in 3 classes and pulled off two wins and a second! Nick raced Yamaha Jr Supercan and pulled away to a 15 second lead in the final to take the win in his first race in this class. He also competed in Briggs Jr Unrestricted, thanks to Mike Greiner. Nick piloted the Coyote Wide Track LE to two heat wins and a second place finish in the final. This class has really taken off and is becoming one of the largest classes at the track. Watch for Nick to compete more and more in this class as he has already accepted the ride for the upcoming WKA Gold Cup National at Lowe's Motor Speedway in November.
August 28-29, 2005, Dothan, AL - The Wiregrass Region of the SCCA hosted round four of the Evolution Performance / RFR Race Parts Southeast Division Solo2 Series at Hunt Stage Army Airfield. No other Formula Junior 4 competition showed up to play on this weekend as Nick took another win and a fourth win in the class, was 3rd quick overall and 1st in PAX. Only the shifter karts were quicker.
	July 30-31, 2005, Nashville, TN - The Tennessee Region hosted round three of the Evolution Performance / RFR Race Parts Southeast Division Solo2 Series at the Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, TN. Nick started off slow as his opening shot at Saturdays course of 61.023 was some 4 seconds slower than the first run of Shelton Wright and some 2 seconds slower than Matthew Brueck. But, by the end of day one Nick held a slim .2 second lead over Wright. Sunday however was a bit better as Nick's opening shot was enough to clinch his third Southeast Divisional FJ4 Championship in as many years. Nick's final run of the day was his quickest and good enough for the 4th quickest time of the day, bested only by the three F125 drivers. Rickert Racing's other Birel kart driven by Matthew Brueck came in third and boasted the 2nd quickest FJ4 time on Sunday, only .460 behind Nick. Round four will be held at Hunt Stage Army Airfield in Ozark, AL, hosted by the Wiregrass Region.
June 18-19, 2005, Lawrenceville, GA - The Altanta Region of the SCCA hosted round two of the Evolution Performance / RFR Race Parts Southeast Division Solo2 Series at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds. Both Saturday and Sunday's courses proved to be very challenging and rough for karts as parts seemed to break after almost every run on some karts. Nick started off as the first kart on course by virtue of his low kart number and knocked off a run of 55.699 besting competitors Shelton Wright and Matthew Brueck first runs, but by third runs, found himself behind Alabama driver Shelton Wright by a little over 0.2. Local driver, Matthew Brueck struggled from the start, and had to stay on his first run time of a 55.9. Wright opened up Sunday's portion with a blistering 49.7, a second and a half faster than Nick, and 2.7 seconds faster than Brueck, but never improved. While Brueck only managed a total time of 107.094 for the weekend, Nick brought in a 49.136 on his second run, but clipped a cone. With one run left, he still ran fast - a 49.435 - and with no cone calls, it was quick enough to take the overall win by just over a tenth. Nick was able to claim FTD on Sunday and overall PAX FTD for the event. Round three will be held at the Nashville SuperSpeedway in Nashville, TN, hosted by the Tennessee Valley Region. If Nick can win here he will clinch the series championship. Stay tuned for details.
	Nick Wins Again in Jacksonville June 5, 2005, Jacksonville, FL - The North Florida Kart Club was the site of round #5 of the Florida State Championship Series. Nick fought back from a 3rd place qualifying effort in Yamaha Jr Sportsman at the 103rd St Sports Complex to win his second Florida State WKA event in as many months. Nick was able to run only three events out of five in the Divisional series this year, but finished with two poles, 2 wins and a second! This event caps off Nick's Jr Sportsman year in the Florida WKA Division as he will make the move up to Jr classes locally and then nationally for Daytona in December. We would like to thank all of our sponsors whom have helped us make this a very successful year! And welcome each and everyone of you to come out to any of our scheduled races and meet Nick. We welcome your continued support. Photo Credit ©2005 Lourdes De Jesus
	Nick Wins in Ocala May 15, 2005, Ocala, FL - The Ocala Gran Prix was the site of round #4 of the Florida State Championship Series. Nick was unable to attend the Friday practice and showed up early Sunday morning for the two practice sessions preceeding qualifying. Nick took full advantage of the sessions to get familiarized with the track which he had not seen since October of 2003. At the end of qualifying Nick had won pole by a mere .030 over Yamaha Jr Sportsman rival, Nick Neri. This was Nick's second pole in as many Florida State Championship Series races. Nick finished the pre-final heat race in second, behind home track driver Sean Rayhall, whom had troubles in qualifying, but quickly found the right stuff. On the third lap of the final racer Steven Krupa was ejected from his kart in a last turn incident that sent him to the sidelines and caused a red flag. After the restart Nick took over the lead for a half dozen laps before dicing with Rayhall and Neri for the lead multilpe times in the closing laps. Nick made a last lap, last turn cut under Rayhall for a drag race to the finish, were Nick was declared the winner by inches! Photo Credit ©2005 Lourdes De Jesus
	April 22-24, 2005, BeaveRun, PA - Nick attended the 2nd round of the WKA George Kugler Manufacturer's Cup race at BeaveRun, PA this past weekend. Nick had planned to run both Yamaha Jr Sportsman and HPV Jr Sportsman, but due to worsening weather only Saturday's classes were run. On Saturday Nick was able to qualify his Doug Fleming powered, Birel, HPV Jr Sportsman 8th, in the 24 kart field in the rain and went on to finish 9th in the slick conditions at the BeaveRun Motorsports Complex. This was Nick's first attempt at running the very competitive HPV Jr Sportsman class and if it's up to Nick will not be the last. With the remaining classes getting rain points for Sunday's classes, Nick also moved into 8th place overall in the National points for Yamaha Jr Sportsman. Next stop for Rickert Racing will be the 3rd round of the George Kugler Manufacturer's Cup will be in South Bend, IN, July 14-17, 2005. Photo Credit ©2005 Fred Voit
	March 19-20, 2005, Jacksonville, FL - Whitehouse Airfield was the backdrop for the first event of the Evolution Performance / RFR Race Parts Southeast Division Solo2 Series. The new "spec" tire rule was implemented for this event, as now all competitors must use a tire with a durometer reading of 58 or higher, the Bridgestone YHC was the tire of choice for Rickert Racing. Nick was not able to do any testing on the new tire combination due to school, but was able to take a commanding lead on day one over 2004 Red Bull finalist Matthew Brueck, with a 3rd run time of 35.790 to Brueck's best 38.524. Nick's time was also good enough for FTD (Fastest Time of the Day) and PAX FTD on Saturday. Nick continued his dominance on Sunday, starting with a 38.273; four full seconds better than Brueck's opening shot. Nick's third run of 37.583 gave him a total of 73.373 for the weekend, good for the win and for second quickest overall time and fastest indexed time! Brueck took home second place with his 40.694 Sunday best. Photo Credit ©2005 Joanne K. Albaneze
	Nick Sets New Track Record! February 19-20, 2005, Jacksonville, FL - The second round of the Florida State Championship Series was held at the 103rd St Sports Complex in Jacksonville, FL. Nick attended Friday practice and imediately started running quick laps, with drafting help from Evan Kalogiannis of Sharon, CT. Both Evan and Nick were able to run laps under the track record in Yamaha Jr Sportsman set last year at the WKA Manufacturers Cup in March of 2004 of 40.100. Nick accepted an Easykart 60 ride from Terrance McKeever late Friday night and was able to break-in a rebuilt motor that evening. On Saturday morning the Easykart proved not to be so easy as it did not want to run. After a quick fix on the carburetor we were off and running. With only a single practice session in the kart and using several race old tires, Nick was able to produce a 7th place qualifying position. Seventeen karts took the field for the pre-final and only a few came out of turn one in their original position. Nick was punted to 15th in turn one and hit by three different karts. After several valiant passes he fought back to 9th and would start the final there. In the final amazingly everyone made it through turns one and two without incident, but the start was very controversial as several drivers made multiple kart passes as the green flag was thrown. After 12 laps Nick was able to claim a 5th place finish, proving he can be competitive in an unfamiliar kart. Yamaha Jr Sportsman ran on Sunday and Nick was pumped and ready. Once again Evan and Nick hooked up in practice and ran even quicker laps than on Friday. At the end of qualifying three drivers had run laps under the track record with Nick coming out in top with a 39.83 second lap. Nick finished the pre-final in second position and had to start on the outside pole for the final. At the start Nick was freight trained in turn one and started 6th. Fighting back he passed 5th place in lap one, 4th place on lap two and then hooked up with local racer Sean Rahall to run down 2nd place Kalogiannis. At half way Nick and Rahall caught Kalogiannis on the back straight and Nick pulled in behind Evan and took over third position. In classic Jacksonville style Nick made a last lap pass going into turn one to take a second place finish. Many a thanks go out to the staff of the Florida Championship Series for a wonderful event.