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Written by eKartingNews.com
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Tuesday, 03 May 2011 13:53 |
The final day of the Superkarts! USA Honda Racing/HPD SpringNationals completed a near perfect start to the 2011 SKUSA Pro Tour. The Musselman Honda Circuit in Tucson, Arizona and the nearly 170 drivers on hand provided an exciting show from the morning hours in qualifying to the last corner of the final main event of the day. The weather was the best it had been all weekend with comfortable temperatures and a slight wind. Leaving the weekend, eight drivers have put themselves in the best position at claiming the Pro Tour championship, including a couple double winners on the weekend.
 TaG Senior
The qualifying session for TaG Senior was an open pit lane, but no one waited to take the track for the 12-minute run as all 33 karts hit the track. Louie Pagano (Birel) was the provisional pole holder early until SKUSA SuperNationals winner Andre Nicastro (Italkart) took the position from him. Five minutes in, the top driver from Saturday’s qualifying session - Mason Marotta (Tony Kart) - moved to the top spot. Nearly every driver came into the pit lane to make changes, looking for some extra speed but it appeared that no one was able to better their own personal best. That was until Matt Johnson (Tony Kart) found Marotta on track and used him as a rabbit. Johnson jumped to P3 to move Pagano down to fourth. Marotta’s 49.777 was best and he would end the session with another pole position on the weekend with Nicastro starting outside row one of heat one. Adam Isman (Italkart) had a great session, posting the fifth fastest lap to complete the fast-five.
Marotta kept his P1 position as the TaG Senior field was clean through the start of heat one. Johnson shuffled Nicastro back to third, while Pagano and Devin Lindsey (Tony Kart) were right there. The group was busy with Nicastro back up into second and a host of others fighting for third. Saturday winner Brett Felkins (Intrepid) was the driver on the move from his sixth starting spot. By the halfway mark, he was on the bumper of Pagano looking for a way by for the third spot. Nicastro kept close to Marotta with two to go as Felkins now was into the third position and closing in on the front two. Nicastro looked at the big picture and did not make an advance on Marotta, who would score the win. Felkins was a close third with Pagano and Johnson capping off the top-five.
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Written by eKartingNews.com
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Sunday, 01 May 2011 00:00 |
The Honda Racing/HPD SpringNationals kicked off the start of the 2011 Superkarts! USA Pro Tour season, putting in the first round of results into the books Saturday at the Musselman Honda Circuit in Tucson, Arizona. After battling hash weather conditions during Friday’s practice, including high temperatures and strong wind gusts that damaged tents throughout the paddock, Saturday was a warm welcome to comfortable racing conditions. With roughly 170 drivers in attendance and the fields stacked with talent, the racing on track was phenomenal as the nearly 8/10-mile circuit provided the perfect backdrop for exciting wheel-to-wheel action. At the end of the day, the first 2011 Pro Tour winners were established with a number of drivers earning their first ever series victory.
 S1
With the pro drivers of the S1 category, track time was limited to what they needed to post the fast lap. For Brad Dunford (CRG), he did it on his out lap early on. The SoCal driver set the bar with a 48.453 and returned to pit lane after a few more laps to see where he stood. Happy with the result, he watched as the veterans took to the track. Kiwi driver Daniel Bray (GP) posted the second best lap of the session and was unable to better Dunford’s time. Defending champion Fritz Leesmann (CRG) ended the session in third with Clinton Schoombee (DR Kart) in fourth while S1 rookie Ryon Beachner (Tony Kart) capped off the fast-five. Two-time SKUSA SuperNationals winner Tom Dyer (GP) made his first lap without a transponder, and once equipped with one he was only able to post the sixth fastest lap.
Bray was able to grab the holeshot to begin heat one as he darted just in front of Dunford as they entered the opening corner. Schoombee worked by Dunford through the opening lap, exchanging positions once again as they began lap two. Bray got away on the cold tires and the shuffling going on behind him helped his cause. Schoombee continued to fall back, losing third to Leesmann and eventually dropping to sixth at the end. The top two ran unchallenged for the remainder of the race with Bray taking the win by over a second. Leesmann fell to fourth as Dyer was able to take the spot in the closing laps, with Ryan Phinny (Wild Kart) charging to fifth.
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Monday, 25 April 2011 06:35 |
Sorry! The SKUSA staff is closing their books and loading to leave for Tucson! You will have to plan to register at the track, starting at noon on Thursday, Apr. 28th.
It's also a good idea to send an email to
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that you are planning to register at the track, so that we can have a sufficient supply of tires and fuel on hand to accommodate your walk-up entry. |
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Friday, 22 April 2011 09:39 |
 This year’s Superkarts! USA Pro Tour is fast becoming one of the bright spots of American karting for 2011, as our sport is now rebounding from being hard hit by the recent economic recession. Despite the continuing issues with the national economy, karting is certainly fighting back as entry numbers in the primary regional series have been extremely encouraging, and SKUSA is part of this recovery. There is positive momentum building all over the country and SKUSA’s West Coast-centric ‘Pro Tour’ is enjoying significant buzz regarding good fields in virtually all of its classes. The opening round of the SKUSA Pro Tour – the Honda Racing/HPD SpringNationals in Tucson, AZ - is now less than a week away and the research performed by the EKN staff shows that this program will see significant growth for 2011. The inaugural Pro Tour launched last spring at Infineon Raceway with just over 100 participants and the forecasted numbers for this year’s opener are north of 170.
The 2011 SKUSA Pro Tour will consist of three events, anchored by the granddaddy of them all, the SuperNationals in Las Vegas in November. The season kicks off on the April 29 – May 1 weekend in Tucson, Arizona for the second running of the SpringNationals. As recently announced on EKN, Honda Racing and Honda Performance Development (HPD) have signed on as the title sponsor for the event, helping to raise the bar for an event that SKUSA’s Tom Kutscher is aimed at making into a “mini SuperNats”.
SKUSA’s return to the S1-S2-S3-S4-S5 class structure in 2010 has provided a clear ladder for drivers looking to advance in their gearbox categories and the Pro Tour will provide a great look at this program in action. Several drivers have made the move to the next level of competition, namely the class champions from both the S2 Semi-Pro Stock Moto and S5 Junior Stock Moto classes. The one major change to the shifter dance card has been the departure of G1, as the class drew only minimal support through SKUSA’s multiple offers to reserve a place for the class on the Tour. The organization’s TaG class approach is equally as clean, with drivers moving from Cadet to Junior and eventually into the Senior class, anchored by a growing Master division.
To read the full story including provisional entry lists, please visit eKartingNews.com. |
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Friday, 22 April 2011 09:30 |
Pre-Entry Deadline for SpringNationals is THIS Sunday night!
Register online now for your SKUSA membership, entry fees, race and practice tires, fuel and oil, even spectator and hot pit passes. But don't wait! The ONLINE STORE closes for entries on Sunday, April 24th at midnight. After that, the price goes up $150 to register at the track, and that's if there is still room in your class to race!
Pre-Order or Pre-Purchase your Practice Tires and Fuel/Oil Products NOW!
SKUSA can only guarantee that practice tires and fuel products will be available for pickup at the track if you pre-purchase or pre-order them by this Sunday, April 24th. You can purchase them online HERE. If you want to pre-order them for pickup AND PAY AT THE TRACK, please send an email to
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with the driver name, team name (if applicable), and the type(s) and quantities of your pre-order. You must receive an email confirmation in order to verify that we have you on the list.
SKUSA Needs FINAL Requests for Pit Spots and RV/Camping Spots!
SKUSA has posted the details about how to reserve pit spots, rent tents and camp on site for this event. Click HERE for those details. We can only guarantee that you can get in to pit for this event if you send in a specific request by this Sunday, and ALL pit spots will cost $.30/SF. Camping on site is a flat $50. |
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