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Kevin Harvick’s
Kern Raceway
Bakersfield, California
New Years Classic
Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway, Bakersfield
January 4, 2025
Results: Steve Evans
Photos by: Diana Peebles and Dale Miller
BECKER TAKES THE WIN AT KERN IN A DAY OF FIRSTS TO START THE SPEEDWAY YEAR!
Luke Becker continued his winter dominance at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway, Bakersfield by landing the New Years Classic on a sunny January afternoon.
After two previous big championship events at the track, the New Year started with a more relaxed and less formal event as the racers on display ended the Holiday season break back on track. There were several firsts on the day related to Team USA's 2025 aspirations. Firstly, 14-year-old SGP4 World Cup winner Brady Landon was given the chance to race with the adults (albeit conceding power on his 250cc Junior bike), and he shone through with fourth place in the Main Event. Secondly, there was a 250cc Junior debut for Brandon Soto who has spent the past few years racing in the 150cc Mini class. And finally, this years SGP4 contender Riley Rearick was also racing with the 250cc juniors, albeit on a 190cc SGP4 bike, and he too did more than fine with third on the night.
Division 1 had a small entry of ten but sometimes less is more and it is fair to say that the racing from this division was as good as usual on the fast banked 1/8-mile track. Each rider had four heats which would put the top four on points into the A Final and riders 5-8 in the B Final.
Luke Becker and Max Ruml, after winning their first rides, met in the second round and though Becker had a sizable lead over the US National champ, a broken chain entering turn 1 of lap three and a safe landing into the air fence meant it was Ruml who came out on top. Ruml kept the wins coming to end the heats with four wins out of four. Becker picked up his winning ways for the rest of the heats with nine points overall, making Alex Martin the meat in the sandwich scoring ten, including two wins. It was tight on points for the final spot in the A final but Landon, despite getting out of shape and going to the back in his third ride, made the cut with a heat win earlier in the night and six points overall.
The B Final saw a good battle between rising contenders Justin Almon and Timmy Dion. Dion got the better of his rival with Jordan Vanderham coming third.
The A Final had Becker once more absolutely electric off the line with Ruml giving chase. However, an outside charge from Alex Martin coming off turn two of lap one saw the Under 21 champion take second place from Max and hold on to the position. Landon capped off a good first event with the big boys with 4th.
Landon also doubled up in the 250cc Junior class, winning both of his heats and the Main Event . Multi time Flat Track National Champ Colton Shafer returned after a four-month injury lay off with a heat win and second place in the final. Riley Rearick on his 190cc SGP4 bike was third in the final and also won the Last Chance race.
North American Champion Zaal Farhand won all four 150cc Mini Speedway races including the final. The ever-improving Brandon Kemmerly led the final but went down on turn three of lap four after an inside charge by Farhand. The referee did not see grounds to penalize Farhand and Kemmerly had no complaints about the outcome, shaking his rival by the hand as he checked up on him.
The Support Class had seven entries and served up four different race winners. Catherine Moore took a popular Main event win. Bakersfield local Isaiah Canales was runner up in the final after earlier taking two heat wins. Cameron Dalbey, third in the final, won the other heat with Antonio Coffman being the Last Chance victor.
Three Sidecars made the event with the impressive new team of Kyle Collins and Justin Zmina winning the final. Both heats were won by Wade Boyd and Eric Lindauer, but they were excluded after going over the white line and onto the infield in the final whilst in close battle with Collins & Zmina.
The speedway show ran smoothly in just over two hours and was followed by a packed Flat Track program. It was a nice end the festive period as normal life resumes following the break.
Racing at Kern is back on Feb 1st with the groundbreaking and first ever International Test Match with USA taking on World Champions Team GB. World #4 Dan Bewley will lead GB.
Results
Division 1
A Main
22 Luke Becker
30 Alex Martin
5 Max Ruml
13 Brady Landon
B Main
23 Timmy Dion
137 Justin Almon
123 Jordan Vanderham
7 Austin Novratil nonstarter
Heat Scoring:
1. Max Ruml – 12 (3,3,3,3)
2. Alex Martin – 10 (2,3,3,2)
3. Luke Becker - 9 (3,X,3,3)
4. Brady Landon - 6(2,3,0,1)
5. Justin Almon - 5 (1,2,2,0)
6. Timmy Dion - 5 (F,2,2,1)
7. Austin Novratil - 4 (2,X,ns,2)
8. Jordan Vanderham - 3 (0,2,1,0)
9. Brad Sauer - 3 (1,0,1,1)
10. Robbie Sauer - 2 (1,1,0,R)
Race by race:
1. Becker, Martin, B. Sauer, Vanderham
2. Ruml, Landon, R. Sauer, Dion fell
3. Martin, Novratil, Almon, B. Sauer
4. Ruml, Vanderham, R. Sauer, Becker fell exc (re-run)
5. Martin, Dion, B. Sauer, R. Sauer
6. Landon, Almon, Vanderham, Novratil fell exc (re-run)
7. Ruml, Dion, R. Sauer (retired), Novratil (ns)
8. Becker, Almon, B. Sauer, Landon
9. Becker, Novratil, Dion, Almon
10. Ruml, Martin, Landon, Vanderham
Support Main
123n Catherine Moore
106 Isaiah Canales
155 Cameron Dalbey
222 Antonio Coffman
Support Last Chance
222 Antonio Coffman
163 Ron Davis
400 Avant Le Garde
1776 Chucky Biddles
250 Main
13 Brady Landon
45 Colton Shafer
05 Riley Rearick (190cc SGP4 bike)
50 Wesley Rearick
250 Last Chance
05 Riley Rearick (190cc SGP4 bike)
50 Wesley Rearick
119 Caden Cavrikas
5 Brandon Soto
150 Mini Main
98 Zaal Farhand
219 Brady Wills
8 Gavin Evans-Seeley
77 William Bruce
44 Brandon Kemmerly fx
Sidecar Main
45 Kyle Collins / Justin Zmina
07 Kevin Kale / Tracey Gallagher
88 Wade Boyd / Eric Lindauer
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