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California ProKart Challenge
| PKC South Announces 2011 Champions and Rok Cup Shootout Winner |
| Saturday, 27 August 2011 09:09 |
 The completion of the Superkarts! USA ProKart Challenge West Coast Shootout signified the end of the 2011 season for the South regional program. The sixth and final event of the year helped to crown the champions for 11 categories that make up the series, counting the best five results on the season. Taking home the championships in the headline categories were Brad Dunford in S1 Pro Stock Moto and Travis Lowe in TaG Senior, each earning their first career SKUSA regional title. Also, thanks to their performances on the year, the champions for the TaG Senior, TaG Junior and TaG Cadet classes already have guaranteed starting spots on the SuperSunday grid at the Superkarts! SuperNationals XV in Las Vegas on November 16-20.Dunford clinched the championship in Extreme Karting-sponsored S1 with his fourth victory of the season at the recent West Coast Shootout. Ending the season with three straight main event wins, Dunford was able to outscore last year’s champion Clinton Schoombee by 85 points. Ryon Beachner, the 2010 S2 champion, ended the year third in the S1 title chase as he edged out Peter Abba in the final standings. Beachner and Schoombee recorded one feature win on the season each. “Winning the championship means a great deal to me,” replied S1 champion Brad Dunford. “It's something that myself, my dad, and the guys at Aluminos have been working towards for a long time. We've been running the stock moto package in PKC competition for four years now. There have been countless testing days, and we just keep chipping away at it, trying to learn something every time we raced. We felt that after the SuperNats last year that we were fast enough to really compete with these guys, and I think that really helped boost my confidence going into the year. After the first win back at Adams in February everything seemed to be coming together and it was an awesome feeling. I am very excited about winning the title, and still sometimes can't believe I actually did it. Now we are looking towards Vegas, with our sights set on winning more races.”  The Tony Kart West-sponsored TaG Senior category was a tight battle to the end for the championship. Lowe began the season as the driver to beat, earning two feature wins in the first two rounds. From there, Lowe experienced some ups and downs in the final four events. In the end, he managed to remain at the top of the standings for his first SKUSA regional title. Closing on Lowe in the final two rounds was Devin Lindsey. Runner-up to Lowe at round one, Lindsey suffered two tough outings before winning at the Streets of Willow – which set him on the right path again. Ending the year with two addition podium finishes, Lindsey came up just 38 points short of the title. Veteran karter Billy Cleavelin, who finished last year second in points, ended 2011 in third. Defending SKUSA Pro Tour champion and 2010 PKC South titlist Phil Giebler ended the season with two straight feature wins, with Mason Marotta the fourth feature winner of the year.“It was a fun and exciting season racing against the best in southern California, and I appreciate all of my competitors,” stated TaG Senior champion Travis Lowe. “After the SuperNats last year, I didn’t know if we were going to be able to continue racing, but with help from D Power Racing Engines and Tony Kart West, we were able to race this season. So honestly, I owe this championship all to them. Thanks to all the hard work invested in this season, we were able to win the championship in the end. My mom has been battling breast cancer for three years now, and this really gave her something to be happy and proud about. That means more to me than anything. She really gives me the motivation and drive to succeed and continue following my dreams, so everything I do is all for her.”  Consistency helped Nicky Freytag conquer the 2 Wild Karting-sponsored S2 Semi-Pro Stock Moto class title for 2011. Starting out the year with two runner-up finishes, Freytag broke through with a victory at Buttonwillow. Another second place performance and victory followed, for all intents and purposes locking up the title for Freytag heading into the West Coast Shootout. A fifth place finish in a stacked field helped earn Freytag the championship by 201 points over Vivek Tandon – moving up one position from the final standings in 2010. S5 graduate Matias Podboj ended the year third in the final order, recording one feature win along with Tandon, Race Liberante, and Bobby Legate.Jimmy McNeil powered through the season to earn the title in the G-Phactory-sponsored S4 Master Stock Moto division, the second highest participated class of the year next to TaG Senior. Nearly unstoppable for much of the season, McNeil earned four feature wins on the year – Including two perfect weekends by sweeping all on-track sessions. The only driver to beat McNeil in a feature race was Robert Marks. A victory at round one and the season finale at the PKC Shootout, Marks finished up the year second in the standings to McNeil. Randy McKee missed the final round but earned enough points to finish third in the championship. Marc Lewis scored the S4 Magnum Stock Moto title over Robert Morales.  The championship for the Leading Edge Motorsports-sponsored TaG Master class went to Steve Wiener. Finishing fourth one year ago, Wiener recorded four top-five finishes en route to the 2011 championship. Will Jadiker completed the year second just 35 points behind, with Kim Ryan winning the battle for third over Allan Svela. Wrapping up the Master divisions, Peter Workum earned his first regional title with the championship in the G1 class.The Select Shifter/DR Kart-sponsored S3 Novice Stock Moto category certainly went down to the wire. Jessica Sollberger and Kellen Guthrie were evenly matched throughout the season, heading into round six with two feature wins each to their credit. While Sollberger was on her way to victory in the feature before she retired, the overall performance was enough to help her score the championship by a mere 18 points over Guthrie. Round one winner Sebastian Scaglia completed the season third in the standings, with NorCal driver Ryan Rasberry the other feature winner on the year for his Shootout performance. Completing the shifterkart categories, Micah Hendricks earned the title in the EUSI-sponsored S5 Junior Stock Moto class. Carter Williams completed his first full season in the EUSI-sponsored TaG Junior category – and turned that into a championship. With five podium finishes, including victory in the last three rounds, Williams secured the title by a healthy margin. Willy Axton ended the year in second, with Austin Dement in the third spot. Each scored a feature win along with Brennen Mankin. Colton Herta turned four wins on the year into the inaugural championship in the Phil Giebler Racing-sponsored TaG Cadet division. The defending SKUSA Pro Tour champion was solid all through the PKC South season. Christian Brooks and Noah Grey finished second and third. Jacob Drew and Davey Manthei Jr. were feature winners on the year, as well. Also on the line at the season finale for TaG Cadet was the Rok Cup International Final Shootout, a mini-series counting the final four rounds of the series championship. In the end, Christian Brooks earned the most points to help him earn an invitation to compete at the South Garda Karting facility in Lonato, Italy on the October 16 weekend. The top three champions in each class will be officially crowned and recognized at the ProKart Challenge South banquet scheduled for September 17 – with exciting raffle prizes to be shared between all attendees, both racers and guests. The event will be held at the Riverside International Automotive Museum (riversideinternational.org) from 6pm-10pm. All racers, guests and ProKart Challenge supporters are welcome to attend the celebration and festivities for just $39/person – children 5 and under are free. To purchase your tickets, visit skusastore.com. Deadline to RSVP and buy tickets is Monday, September 12 at Midnight. Next up on-track for SKUSA will be the completion of the ProKart Challenge North program in Atwater, Califorina on September 9-10, followed by the Streets of Lancaster Grand Prix – which is sure to include a number of the PKC series champions – set for October 8-9 in Lancaster, California. Information on both events can be found at http://www.superkartsusa.com |