Grace Church AWANA Grand Prix Central

2009 Grand Prix Results

2009-03-25T23:35:00.007-06:00

AWANA Grand Prix moves into the choir room
Our event this year finally hit the 'Big Time'. We were able to change locations and held this year's Grand Prix in the stadium-style seating of the choir room. We had lots of room, excellent sound system, and fabulous sight-lines to watch great racing action. Over 45 boys placed their car making skills on the line, looking for that speed or design trophy. There were some classic races in the 3rd grade as many of the boys in this grade were racing for the first time. It was Logan Fisco taking home the 3rd grade speed title. In the 4th grade we saw the top four cars battling very closely for the speed title, but it was Shane Krikke edging out Zac Larson for the 4th grade speed title. Wyatt Dritz took third as these top 3 cars had a .05 second difference in the 4 race total in the second round of racing....We were lucky to have a computer system doing the timing!

2008 Grand Prix Results

2008-05-07T15:49:00.021-06:00

Fastest Overall: JJ Swenson (3rd Grade)

3rd Grade
1st Place Speed: JJ Swenson
2nd Place Speed: Zac Larson
3rd Place Speed: Shane Krikke
4th Place Speed: Joe Mendyke

1st Place Design: Benjamin Larson
2nd Place Design: Zac Larson
3rd Place Design: Ryder Hutton
4th Place Design: Tanner Eiswald

4th Grade
1st Place Speed: Christian Magalis
2nd Place Speed: Kyle Loomis
3rd Place Speed: Jacob Allen
4th Place Speed: Anson Allard

1st Place Design: Ben Nordstrom
2nd Place Design: John Gardner
3rd Place Design: Will Graves
4th Place Design: Tyler Joas

Winners Circle

The Cars

'New-look' track highlights this year's Grand Prix
An overdue painting of our AWANA Grand Prix track made this year's times a bit off from last year. Fastest times were several tenths of a second behind many of the times posted in 2007. Most likely due to the fresh paint, but the track should be good for many more years of racing. Josh Miller can breath easy as we don't anticipate having a track record set anytime soon.

4th Grade:
A few familiar faces held off the competition to repeat in the Winner's Circle this year. Christian Magalis, John Gardner, and Will Graves all repeated in the trophy round as they did last year. With the number of 4th grade racers way down this year, the racing action started off with each racer having a good chance at a trophy. After some technical difficulties with the racing software, it was Christian Magalis barely beating Kyle Loomis and Jacob Allen to move into the Grand Finals. Unfortunately for Christian, that is where his winning stopped as he was soundly beat in the Grand Finals by 3rd grade Speed winner JJ Swenson.

3rd Grade:
Many boys tested their car making skills as well as their dad's skills, in what seemed to be a record number of racers entered in the field for 3rd grade. The action was fast-paced and after a string of rerun races due to crashes it was newcomer JJ Swenson that lit the track on fire this year! His sleek green car zipped through the 3rd grade competition and easily moved into the Grand Finals. In the Grand Finals JJ's car won all 8 races, a feat never before accomplished, against the 4th grade Speed winner Christian Magalis. Big things will be expected of JJ next year in his quest for the elusive Triple Crown.

2007 Grand Prix Results

2007-04-19T14:00:00.006-06:00

Fastest Overall: Jacob Larson (4th Grade)

3rd Grade
1st Place Speed: Luke Barrett-Bettcher
2nd Place Speed: Tyler Hurley
3rd Place Speed: Henry Reine
4th Place Speed: Jonathon Shirley

1st Place Design: John Gardner
2nd Place Design: Luke Barett-Bettcher
3rd Place Design: Christian Magalis
4th Place Design: William Graves

4th Grade
1st Place Speed: Jacob Larson
2nd Place Speed: Josh Miller
3rd Place Speed: Peter Augdahl
4th Place Speed: Luke San Hamel

1st Place Design: Joel Myers
2nd Place Design: Luke San Hamel
3rd Place Design: Sam Nawrocki
4th Place Design: Steven Mendyke

Familiar names dominate 2007 Grand Prix
This year's event was another great success...especially for those families familiar with the Winner's Circle. Yes, you know the names: Augdahl, Larson, Miller, Myers, Nawrocki, San Hamel. Over the years these names have been spoken often at our Grand Prix event as well as cheered during the Awards Ceremonies. And as predicted...this year was no exception. There was however quite a stir as 3rd Grader Luke Barrett-Betcher came very close to achieving what has only been done once ever! And that was done back in 1995.....12 years ago by Fletcher Barnhill.....the elusive Triple Crown (First place in both speed and design events as well as capturing the overall fastest trophy).

4th Grade:
The big boys battled in what will go down as the best speed event in 20 years. Many of the cars making it to the second round of racing were posting times that would have won trophies in previous years. Times were within .001-.003 seconds from 1st place to 3rd place. And there were even 5 cars that posted times better than the track record set last year by Daniel Shultz and Simon Larson! With the track hot from the 3rd grade racing, there were many crashes and race re-runs as cars were leaping off the track or hitting each other as they flew down the track in an effort to win their heat and advance to the finals. Josh Miller set the fastest time of the night (3.272 seconds at 182.3 mph) and placed himself in the history books as the new track record holder. Heading in to the trophy round, the final four was set: Augdahl, Larson, Miller and San Hamel. Great racing action ensued and when the dust finally settled it was Jacob Larson edging out Josh Miller for the 1st Place Speed trophy for his grade.

3rd Grade:
The crowd in attendance took notice early in the night as Luke Barrett-Bettcher set a new track record in one of his early heats. The racing of the 3rd graders set the tone as many cars lit the track with their speed. But in the end one car stood-out and Luke easily snatched the 1st Place Speed trophy for his grade. His car also finished in 2nd Place in the Design event. He then topped-off the night with a good showing in the Grand Finals. Very impressive for a 3rd grader and he should again be a force to deal with in next year's event. Is the Triple Crown in his future???? We'll have to wait until next year.

2006 Grand Prix Results

2006-04-16T13:32:00.000-06:00

Fastest Overall: Simon Larson / Daniel Shultz (4th Graders)

3rd Grade
1st Place Speed: Ben Lahner / Matt Carson
2nd Place Speed: Austin Buyse / Sam Nawrocki
3rd Place Speed: Maxon Hutton / Jacob Larson
4th Place Speed: Josh Miller

1st Place Design: Joel Myers
2nd Place Design: Sam Nawrocki
3rd Place Design: Riley Johnson
4th Place Design: Joshua Larson

4th Grade
1st Place Speed: Simon Larson / Daniel Shultz
2nd Place Speed: Peter Gardner / Simon Larson
3rd Place Speed: Noah Mendez / Matt Zalusky
4th Place Speed: Graeme Isaak / David Cullen

1st Place Design: Jake Weems
2nd Place Design: Matt Gundershaug
3rd Place Design: Harrison and Jullian Barber
4th Place Design: Jacob Olson

(Ties due to software timing issues in the ranking of the cars for the final round races)