Among them was a contingency of Sussex County racers, three of whom were feature winners that night. Bringing home turkeys and 10 percent of the $12,000 total purse were Reese White of Lincoln, Carson Wright of Georgetown and Rehoboth Beach-based J.B. Loomis. Each pocketed $400 for his win.

Nine-year-old Carson was on the throttle in Junior Sportsman II Blue Sprint. He whipped around the quarter-mile clay oval in 13.587 seconds for the pole. Evan Dennis went high into the first turn for the early lead. Carson quickly worked by him next time around.

After escaping his early pursuers and gaining an edge on the competition, a lap-five caution flag closed the gap again. Carson led the restart and had to shake off Evan and another racer before building another small lead over them while they scrapped over second.

Like Carson, Reese had to fight off challenges from for Junior 1 Sprint’s early lead. Evan dominated qualifying with a 14.009 seconds rounding. Carson was second fastest at 14.046 seconds. When the initial green flag flew, so did Evan. Evan led them around twice and was building on his momentum when his advantage was erased by the first of two caution flags.

Reese roared by Evan on the restart and quickly stretched out the lead.

He took the mid-race signal with a very comfortable lead. Next time around, the caution flag canceled his lead. Reese, who pilots a Southern Express Racing Engine-powered Falcon kart, roared away with the lead when racing resumed. After several laps he began threading his way through the field. He was still lapping traffic when he took the checkered flag, with Evan trailing in the distance.

“Evan’s dad told Evan to come up on the start, and I passed him going into the turn, and I led the race all the next laps from there,” said the 9-year-old winner.

“The kart was good and the Southern Express motor was fast. I want to thank my dad, Mike, Chad Reed, my mom, Shot by Shannon, Ad Art, Blue Hen and Jonathan Keller Racing Engines.”

J.B. struggled in Restricted Heavy qualifying. The 14-year-old HP Speed Shop-powered Phantom Icon kart pilot qualified ninth of 21 entries. Bradley Sacra spun a 13.462 seconds pole-winning lap that was 0.222 seconds faster than Loomis’s 13.684 seconds rounding.

Back at his pit area, J.B.’s crew worked on the kart to make the kart faster for the feature. Their hard work paid off. J.B. quickly threaded his way through the field to the front, which he captured in time to take the checkered flag. The only thing slowing him down were several late-race cautions.

According to J.B., “It was awesome. I was hooked up the whole time. But the cautions worried me. At the end my kart started going away from me, and I was sliding all over the track, but I still held it with two laps to go. It handled great the whole race except for after that long caution.”

AKRA racers will get a little break before heading out to the Volusia Speedway Park near Barberville, Fla. Dec. 27-28 for the fifth annual American Kart Racing Association ‘Christmas in Dixie’ race.