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Friday, 18 June 2010 12:06 |
 The chase for the 2010 ProKart Challenge South titles are heating up as the series prepares for the fifth round of the six-event series. On June 25-26, the Superkarts! USA Southern California regional program will head to the Buttonwillow Raceway Park to compete on the challenging 7/10-mile kart track. The fifth round will be important for those looking to establish themselves as the championship leader, with the program counting all six rounds toward the title standings. With points counted each time the drivers hit the track, Buttonwillow will sort out the contenders from the pretenders.
As it should be, the headline category – S1 Pro Stock Moto – has the closest battle heading into Buttonwillow. SKUSA SpringNationals race winner Clinton Schoombee holds the point lead by a slim five points over Tommy Thompson. Schoombee has two feature wins to his credit, while Thompson has yet to taste victory but has been the more consistent driver over the first four rounds. Lurking behind are Brad Dunford and Peter Abba, waiting for the top two to make any mistakes and capitalize on them. TaG Senior has been just as close, with the veteran leading the young rising star. SKUSA Pro Tour championship leader Phil Giebler holds the top spot in the PKC South chase as well, holding a 28 point advantage over Kyle Shriver. Giebler has one win along two other podium finishes, while Shriver has yet to score a victory. |
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Wednesday, 16 June 2010 06:56 |
 Event after event, the ProKart Challenge program continues to provide excitement at tracks throughout the state of California. With a month to prepare for this past weekend’s fourth round of the ProKart Challenge North series, the competitors stepped up to the plate to put on a great show around the ‘Reverse National’ circuit at the Jim Russell International Karting Center at the Infineon Raceway facility. Never a disappointment is the headline categories of the S1 Pro Stock Moto and TaG Senior divisions. For a fourth straight race, the S1 group produced a different victor – this time former series champ Jason Toft taking the checkered flag, while young NorCal star Jordan Jadallah stood on the podium for the first time at a PKC North event in TaG Senior.
The hot and windy race day unfolded with a newcomer to the S1 category, former national champion Alex Speed, taking the pole position. Speed’s lap of 47.858 put him just ahead of point leader Fritz Leesmann and Toft on the time sheet. Once the wheel-to-wheel action began, Speed was shuffled back early with round two winner Nic LeDuc joining the fight. After LeDuc led the opening three laps, Toft held the point for two circuits before Leesmann secured the spot for the first heat win. From the outside row one grid spot, LeDuc once again showed the way to begin the second heat race. Speed was better in the opening lap this time around and challenged for the second spot with Leesmann. Once around him, Speed took over the lead from LeDuc on lap six, going on to take the win over Brett Felkins and Toft – who came from well back in the field after the first lap – while Leesmann fell to fourth in the order. The complexity of the main event changed after the first lap, as Speed slowed and would retire with a mechanical failure. This allowed Toft to assume the point and he would go on to lead the entire 20-lap main event for his first victory of the season. Leesmann was second with LeDuc outrunning Felkins for the final podium spot. |
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Monday, 14 June 2010 13:16 |
 With its new Pro Tour having been successfully launched back in April at Infineon Raceway with a packed paddock of happy customers, the Superkarts! USA staff has spent the last six weeks putting together plans for the second round of their national series – the Mothers’ Polish SummerNationals. The next event will be held at the wildly-popular USA International Raceway in Shawano, WI, in July and following the release of some interesting track news early last week, SKUSA was prompted to handle a minor situation, one that has already been rectified. Over the past 10 days, Superkarts! USA president Tom Kutscher has been in constant contact with the track management at USAIR after word hit the streets that the facility had been put into receivership. Thanks to this dedicated communication, SKUSA is happy to report that the SummerNationals will continue on at Shawano as scheduled.
“As we are with all of our venues, I have been in regular contact with the track staff and ownership at USA International Raceway, having visited the facility in May,” confirmed Kutscher. “This situation is unfortunate, but the receivership group is thrilled that we are coming to the track in July and they’ve pledged to welcome us with open arms. We’ve got a bunch of great things planned for the weekend, and I’m really happy that we’ll be able to maintain our program in Shawano. It’s an incredible track, and I can’t wait to see our drivers attack it in July.” |
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Thursday, 03 June 2010 07:22 |
 After a six-week break, the Superkarts! USA ProKart Challenge North is set to return to action on June 11-12 at the Jim Russell International Karting Center. The event will be the fourth round of the six-race championship with the fourth different track configuration layout, utilizing the same ‘reverse national’ layout that was used in April for the SKUSA SpringNationals. Nine categories will do battle on the track with the championship battles heating up.
The headline S1 Pro Stock Moto category has seen three different winners – but the same name at the top of the standings since the first green flag. SKUSA Pro Tour championship leader Fritz Leesmann holds the advantage in the PKC North standings, thanks to his victory in round one and runner-up last month. Round two winner Nic LeDuc has shown great potency in his first year aboard a shifterkart, and holds the challenger role with veteran Brett Buckwalter and young-gun Tommy Thompson in pursuit. The fight in S2 Semi-Pro Stock Moto remains close, as Matt Alcorn currently holds the top spot. Jared Woolf and Neil Joseph sit in the wings, waiting to overtake Alcorn. Both Alcorn and Joseph have a feature win to their credit, while Woolf is striving to claim his first trip to the top of the podium for the year. |
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Friday, 28 May 2010 06:37 |
 If you ask anyone who attended last year’s Superkarts! USA SuperNationals in Las Vegas, they will tell you that it was very likely the greatest karting event in the history of the sport here in America. The professionalism of the SKUSA staff and the cool factor of the venue, coupled with an extremely high level of competition that was multiplied exponentially by the participation of F1 hero Michael Schumacher, made sure that the race reached new heights. With that incredible event in the history books, SKUSA officials are now focused on topping last year’s race with some calculated improvements and upgrades, all aimed at making it an even more enjoyable experience for the organization’s competitors. The race to the SKUSA SuperNationals podiums will get the green flag early next week, when they open up online registration for the 14th edition of the annual event.
There were many competitors who missed out on the chance to participate in the ’09 edition by failing to enter early enough, and SKUSA is expecting to see many of the classes fill up quickly, just as they did last fall. The online registration at http://www.superkartsusa.com will go live for the SuperNationals at midnight on Monday, May 31, allowing racers to guarantee their position in the qualifying line-up when the race gets underway at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino on November 17. SKUSA is once again working on the participation of some major professional drivers, but nothing can be announced at this time. Drivers like Dan Wheldon and Raphael Matos are expected to return, and thanks to the attendance of Schumacher, Sebastien Buemi and Nelson Piquet Jr. in ’09, the SKUSA SuperNationals is certainly on the ‘A list’ of motorsports events. |
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