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Thursday, 29 April 2021 14:31 |
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The 17th season of the California ProKart Challenge hosted the opening event of the season at the Buttonwillow Raceway Park. Round One of the five-event, six-round championship took place on April 24-25 at the Buttonwillow, California facility. Ideal racing weather welcomed more than 120 entries in 11 categories, as racers began their bid for a victory and endeavor toward the 2021 championship. The two-day event saw the racers take the track on Saturday for practice and qualifying, with the Prefinal and Final events held on Sunday.
The largest category of the weekend was the Nash Motorsportz KA100 Senior with 33 drivers. Qualifying saw seven drivers clock in a time within one tenth of the fastest lap, set by Dante Yu. He led the opening five laps of the Prefinal until he was eventually shuffled back to the sixth position. Colorado driver Macy Williams took over the lead and led the remainder of the 12-lap race for the win and pole position in the main event. After leading the first circuit, however, Williams lost the advantage on lap four. Blake Nash then established himself into the lead until just before the halfway point, when he was relegated back to third by Yu and Oliver Calvo. Yu led first and then Calvo, before Nash returned to the point on the penultimate lap. The three battled hard on the final circuit, with Nash able to make an exciting move from third to first in the final two corners, reaching the checkered flag for his first victory in the category. Calvo ended up second, with Yu rounding out the podium. Senior rookie Kyriakos Sioukas and Luis Perez finished fourth and fifth.
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Monday, 18 January 2021 12:54 |
As many may remember, with the reconfiguration of the IAME distribution in North America in 2014, we put forth a commitment to freeze the engine configuration for seven years. This coming 2021 racing season will be our seventh year (*after a one-year grace period for COVID-19.) We have listened to our engine builders and customers and will be offering the following changes moving forward in 2021. This introduction also comes in connection with the struggle to get these older models during COVID-19.
Before implementing these changes moving forward we want to remind everyone of the impetus for any such changes. As we pledged in 2014, reliability and customer satisfaction remain our guiding principles here at IAME USA. Any new ideas are in the interest of those two facets, and as always — the motivation for introducing any such change is always parity and value for the racer.
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Friday, 16 October 2020 08:12 |
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The ProKart Challenge closed out its 16th season with the sixth and final round of 2020. Competitors filled the paddock of the Buttonwillow Raceway Park in Buttonwillow, California for Round Six of the championship chase on September 26-27. The two days of competition around the 3/4-mile circuit gave title contenders the final chance to claim one of the 12 championships on the line.
The largest category of the weekend was the KA100 Senior division, welcoming 33 drivers. All were chasing Nick Ramirez as the 2019 SKUSA Pro Tour vice-champion swept the round. The top-five in qualifying were separated by just under one tenth, as Ramirez came away with quick time. Ramirez went on to lead all 12 laps of the Prefinal to a two-second advantage before he was challenged in the main event. Jake Drew finished second, and jumped out to the lead in the Final. The two went back and forth in the final few laps of the 22-lap feature, with Ramirez winning the race to the checkered flag. Michael Michoff completed the podium while Joey Brienza finished fourth and Kyle Hayner fifth. Championship leader Trey Brown recorded a difficult 20th place finish, but in the end recorded enough points to secure the title over Michoff and Jacob Yesnick.
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Monday, 21 September 2020 16:20 |
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The ProKart Challenge is set to close out 2020 at Buttonwillow Raceway Park on September 26-27 (Photo: DromoPhotos.com)
The 16th season for the ProKart Challenge is set to conclude this weekend at the Buttonwillow Raceway Park. The 2020 championship chase began at the Buttonwillow, California facility at the end of February, before COVID-19 sent the series, the entire country, and the world into what has been a unique and very challenging year. The series finale is scheduled for September 26-27, contesting the 3/4-mile course in the counter-clockwise direction.
The two-day event allows for move-in beginning Friday, September 25. On-track action begins on Saturday, September 26 with five rounds of practice before qualifying wraps up the day for the eight race groups. Sunday, September 27 begins with warm-ups preamble the Prefinal and Finals to be contested and decide the 2020 ProKart Challenge champions.
Billy Musgrave has a chance to lock up another PKC championship in Pro Shifter. Musgrave leads by 160 points over Robert Heck Jr. going into the finale, and is looking to earn his seventh title in eight years for the headline shifterkart category. Three wins and two runner-up finishes have Vicente Salas locking up the Pro Shifter 2 title before the final round. Kailey Meris will attempt to extend her win streak to six in the S5 Junior Stock Moto division. Meris has swept the action on-track except for one qualifying session in the five rounds, locking up the series championship early. The fight in Shifter Senior is close, as four-time winner Jacob Yesnick has a 30-point advantage over Round Three winner Luca Bortone going into the championship finale.
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Thursday, 20 August 2020 10:54 |
After what can only be described as a crazy and unprecedented racing season, Superkarts! USA has confirmed an official venue change for their 6th and final round of the 2020 ProKart Challenge California series championship.
Regrettably, Lancaster city officials have confirmed they will not be able to conduct the popular Lancaster Grand Prix season-ending street race and city-wide festival, due to Los Angeles County pandemic mandates and mitigation restrictions. However, SKUSA has managed to book the final regional event for the same weekend at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in Buttonwillow, California.
“There’s no sugar-coating it,” remarked a disappointed Tom Kutscher. “The Streets of Lancaster Grand Prix has been the highlight of the ProKart Challenge regional calendar for many years. To say that COVID-19 has disrupted this year’s racing schedule would be an understatement. That said, the show must go on – and we realize there are championships to decide and teams and racers that rely on us to conduct and promote top-level events. In compliance with county and state officials, we are more than confident in our ability to hold a successful season finale at Buttonwillow Raceway.”
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Regional 