(St. Louis, MO - October 24th, 2005) -- After a year long battle with tough competitor Sam Miles, Shane Walters has taken the 2005 SLKA points championship by less than 20 points. Both competitors are tied with 4 wins this season which always makes for a very exciting points chase. Evan Walters, just to make things more exciting took 3 wins this season but, would still come in third in the points chase. Together Walters Motorsports has 7 wins of the 11 and we missed 2 of the races this season as we were racing other events. Shane will be at the SLKA Banquet January 4th to pick up the first place trophy while Evan will pick up the third place trophy.
We knew the points championship could be won or lost with our performance at the final SLKA race of the season. After leading the points race all year long Shane had lost it going into the final race of the season to Sam Miles. He now trailed her by only 5 points in the Points Championship. Evan was as well only 60 points out of first place so, we knew we could come out of this event pretty happy. We knew whoever finished in front of each other would win the championship.
During Saturday practice we ran into a ton of problems on Shane's kart. We bent 3 sprockets and lost 3 chains all in one day. We also, had a very lucky thing happen to us. As Shane was going down the long straightaway his brakes would completely go out as his pads came off the kart. There is a 90 deg. turn at the end of the straightaway and he was going over 60 mph when his brakes went out. Quickly, he made a decision to drive straight off the track but, within 100 feet there was a fence at the end of the property which he soon caught. He then was forced to turn right down a muddy wet hill and drive over a ditch. We ended up tearing up a lot of stuff and ended up staying at the track until 9:00 fixing it in the dark and in the rain.
On Race Day, We would start off the day pretty good but, as soon as it was time to qualify it began to rain. We quickly had to put on rain tires and qualify in the rain. Evan would grab the pole while Shane took second by only 0.06 seconds while Sam Miles the points leader qualified 3rd. Trouble would strike in the Pr-Final, They has been switching on and off between Rain Tires and Slicks. On top of this they called our class to the grid wrong as they actually called the class after us before us. So we thought we had plenty of time but, as it turns out the quickly corrected us and told us we had 90 seconds until the start of the race. We had 90 seconds to change 4 tires, and do some other major adjustments on both karts. We got mine done just a few seconds to late as we got the grid they just through the green flag and they would not let us into the race. Both Shane and Evan would not start the race giving the win to Sam Miles.
In the final, Miles would be on the pole after qualifying 3rd, while Shane and Evan were forced to line up by points since they both missed qualifying. Shane would now be sitting in 2nd place on the start of the race. This was the final race for the 2005 SLKA Points Championship and it would come down to whoever could finish in front. Going into the first corner Shane and Miles would be dead even but, coming off the corner Miles would drift up into Shane pushing half of his kart into the grass. Since there was a loss of sunlight after all the rain and sleet delays during the day Shane would bottom out on the edge of the track shooting sparks all over the track. Sam would take the lead down the first straight away but, Shane would tuck right in behind her drafting her and as they went into turn 2 Shane would dive under her and take the lead. Miles would put on a tough battle for the lead for most of the race but, as the race went on Shane slowly began to pull away. While all this was taking place Evan would be sitting in third with motor problem as his motor would badly bog down on him coming off the corners he also said he took it easy not wanting to get in the middle of the Points Championship race. Shane would go on to win SLKA Event number 11 and regain the points lead giving him the 2005 SLKA Points Championship by less than 20 points over Sam Miles. Evan did not gain any ground in the points chase giving him third. We are very excited about both Walters Motorsports karts finishing in the top three overall this season. We look forward to next season even though we have yet to race 3 or 4 kart races this season.
Media Contact: Walters Motorsports -
ShaneWaltersMotorsports@msn.com
www.WaltersMotorsports.com
