SuperNats XXVII

229DAYS

2025 Winter Series

2025 TBA

2024 Pro Tour

77DAYS

SKUSA Mexico

14DAYS

2024 PKC

22DAYS

2024 TSRS

35DAYS

Next ProKart Challenge Event


PRE-REG OPENS TODAY at 7 PM
Will close April 16 at 11:59 PM PDT
 

Round 2 - Buttonwillow (Reverse) April 20-21, 2024
Buttonwillow Raceway Park
24551 Lerdo Highway
Buttonwillow, CA 93206
(661) 764-5333
buttonwillowraceway.com
Google Maps
Please contact the facility for Kart Track hours.  No Friday practice.

California ProKart Challenge

ProKart Challenge Set to Kick Off '08 Schedule
Thursday, 20 March 2008 21:19
Superkarts! USA in expansion mode with new series to debut

FONTANA, CA (March 20, 2008) – The 2008 season is expected to be a very exciting one for the growing Superkarts! USA organization, which will take a number of major steps forward in re-releasing the brand onto the American karting community. The new ownership of Tom and Patti Kutscher have been busy in the off-season laying out plans to expand their program, using their ultra-successful ProKart Challenge (PKC) model to pull the cover off of three new regional series in ’08. As the flagship series under the SKUSA banner, the ProKart Challenge will kick off its new season on the March 28-29 weekend at the CalSpeed karting facility, which is located just outside the track walls of Auto Club Speedway (formerly California Speedway) in Fontana, California.  Once again delivering the best in shifterkart and TaG sprint racing, the PKC has a handful of new announcements to make as well, including a brand new website and minimum age adjustments in G1 and TaG Masters.

The opening round of the six-race ProKart Challenge season on the final week of March will feature SKUSA’s trademark Stock Moto classes, with the expected packed house of drivers requiring split weight classes (Light and Heavy) in both the S3 ‘Expert’ and S4 ‘Novice/Intermediate’ categories.  The S1 class for drivers with race-prepped ICC engines is also on the dance card, joining the G1 Masters category that is always filled with extremely quick pilots, many former teenage stars in their youth.  The PKC is also a major supporter of the TaG program, and last year’s series attracted a who’s who of California sprint karting.  If you want to take on the best, the ProKart Challenge is the place to race.  Capping off the line-up is the new S5 Jr. class, which brings the magic of Stock Moto racing to the junior set.  The class made an impressive debut at last year’s SKUSA SuperNationals, although it remains to be seen how many regional competitors embrace the new concept.

After carefully studying the demographic of his clientele, Kutscher has also decided on a significant adjustment to the minimum ages in the G1 and TaG Masters classes, both of which are aimed at increasing both the number and quality of the entries.  In G1, the minimum age will drop from 35 to 32, addressing the simple fact that the average age of drivers in the pro classes had dropped considerably over the last few years, leaving many competitors on the sidelines, waiting for their magic 35th birthday to re-enter a suitable class.  TaG Masters will see a decrease to 30 years of age, although pilots over 200 lbs. will remain eligible to run in the regional competitions without the age restriction.  At the SuperNationals, all TaG Masters drivers must be 30 years of age or older to enter.

“We have had a lot of guys getting out of the sport because they just don’t have a place to race competitively,” explains Kutscher, who took over the SKUSA program in 2006. “A 34 year-old guy is now racing with a 15 year old. He could be his father!  By lowering the minimum age for these guys, we should be able to keep them in the game and coming back for more.”

Last year, Kutscher ventured out from his PKC foundation to brand his first new regional series, the Desert Kart Challenge, which runs out of the beautiful P1 Kart Circuit in Tucson, AZ.  This year, he will take his crew on the road to launch the new ProKart Challenge North, which will run a six-race program at the Infineon Raceway karting facility, beginning on April 12.  Kutscher is very excited about heading into Northern California and really wants the region’s drivers to come sample the kind of program he and his crew can offer.

“I’m very excited about NorCal,” Kutscher explains. “We have been talking to a lot of drivers in an effort to accommodate them into the appropriate classes, and I’m very thankful for the opportunity that the Jim Russell Racing School has given us to enjoy one of the best tracks on the West Coast.  I know that we get a lot of NorCal drivers out for the SuperNationals every year and I’d love to see them come out and try our regional deal.  I’m offering a money-back guarantee on their entry fee.  If they’re not pleased, I’ll refund their entry. I just want them to enjoy the experience and I trust in my crew and our product that they will.”

A pair of new Kart Challenge series are also in the works and will be ready for announcement soon, and both will cover the large Midwest region of the United States.  And to support all of this new growth and what will be a rapidly-expanding membership, SKUSA has launched a new website for the ProKart Challenge that will be followed by upgraded sites for both the organization and the SuperNationals, the biggest race of the year.  The new PKC site does a stellar job in outlining the entire SKUSA and PKC programs, and is designed to be a very user-friendly interface to streamline the race entry process.  SKUSA members will now be able to view all of the details of an event on a single page and enter the event from that same page.  Offering a stronger online connection with their customers, SKUSA is very pleased with this new Internet presence.

For more information, contact Tom Kutscher @ 951-491-0808 and to check out the line-up of year-end prizes available to ProKart Challenge competitors, check out the new website @ www.prokartchallenge.com.

About Superkarts! USA:
Established in 1995, Superkarts! USA is dedicated to shifterkart racing and is the leader in the field, currently promoting three regional racing series located on the West Coast, with challenging racing program running in Southern California, Northern California and Arizona.  These programs all lead to the annual SKUSA SuperNationals, the biggest shifter kart race in the world, held every November in Las Vegas, NV.  For more information on SKUSA, please visit www.superkartsusa.com