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Matheus Morgatt led through only the final corners to secure his first SKUSA Pro Tour Pro Shifter victory (Photo: EKN)
What began as a wet and cloudy day at the Orlando Kart Center for the final day of action at the 2024 Superkarts! USA Pro Tour WinterNationals, the Sunday activities were greeted with warm weather and sunshine once qualifying began for the in the morning hours. The Orlando, Florida facility was wet for the opening warm-up sessions with the track drying just as the time sessions began. Those and the Prefinal runs were contested along with the Round Two main events for the Semi-Pro divisions while the Pro Show categories settled their WinterNationals with 25-lap main events at the end of the day.
The last main event of the day was the PSL Karting Pro Shifter Final, featuring 26 pilots from all over the world seeking to become the first Pro Show winner in SKUSA Pro Tour history. Prefinal winner Danny Formal (RPG / Kosmic) launched from the with Marijn Kremers (RPG / Kosmic) slotting in behind. Top contender Kyle Wick (GFC Karting) was third until he dropped to third behind a charging Matheus Morgatto (PSL / Birel ART) on lap four. Wick retired just after, suffering a mechanical issue. Morgatto – who finished the Prefinal in fourth but a penalty for contact dropped him down the order of the grid – quickly worked past Kremers for second. A few laps later, Kremers was under attack from Jacob Gulick (GFC Karting) and Kiwi Jay Urwin (PSL / Birel ART). They exited turn five with Kremers trying to hold the outside on Gulick when the two made contact, sending Kremers into the wall and out of the race with a broken front end. Urwin slipped past both to hold the third position. The action up front remained unchanged until the closing laps when Morgatto was able to close in late. On the final circuit, Formal went defensive into the turn 10 hairpin at the end of the straightaway. A slight bobble out of the corner brought on slight bumper to bumper contact, and when Formal’s power reignited it darted him to the left of the track and nearly off course. This allowed Morgatto to power away, but not before Formal dove in deep in turn 13, making hard contact with the rear bumper of Morgatto. The contact nearly sent Formal upside down, as Morgatto powered away to reach the checkered flag first for his first SKUSA Pro Tour victory in shifterkart competition. Formal continued on to second with Urwin bagging his first major podium in SKUSA competition. Gulick held onto fourth with Giorgrio Carrara (Inter MS / Kart Republic) making it five different countries represented in the top-five (Brazil – Costa Rica – New Zealand – USA – Italy).
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Three straight in KA100 Senior for Ethan Lampe (Photo: Andres Malovos - @amalovos)
The California ProKart Challenge traveled to the Santa Maria Karting Association facility over the May 18-19 weekend. The Superkarts! USA regional program contested the third round of the 2024 championship program. Enjoying the coastal weather in Santa Maria, California, the event featured one round of competition over two days of on-track action featuring a practice, qualifying, Prefinal and Final format to complete the first half of the 2024 schedule.
An increase in numbers to 30 drivers was welcomed in the KA100 Senior by P1 Engines class with the same result as the previous two rounds. Ethan Lampe came away with his third straight main event victory in the category, completing a sweep in Santa Maria. He began with the fast time in qualifying, posting a 49.137-lap and edging out Aiden Kempf by a slim 73 thousandths. The top two qualifiers exchanged the top spot in the Prefinal before a red flag ended the race after eight laps with Lampe earning the race win. It was a wire-to-wire performance in the main event as Lampe led all 24 laps to claim a third straight victory in 2024. Jackson Menchu won the battle for second over Kempf, with Keagan Kaminski placing fourth with the fast lap of the race. Izaac Gutierrez completed the top-five.
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Ryan Norberg claimed his first victory since the end of 2022 with solid run in Pro X30 (Photo: EKN)
The Superkarts! USA Winter Series kicked off the 2024 racing season on Saturday at the AMR Homestead-Miami Motorplex Presented by MG Tires with over 291 entries taking to the 0.7-mile, 12-turn in warm and windy conditions. With the mercury rising to the mid-80s in the high heat of the day and light showers making things interesting in between a few main events, Rolison Performance Group came away with a sweep of the headline Pro classes thanks to veteran performances by superstars Ryan Norberg and Danny Formal.
Heated early race action in the SpeedLab Racing Engines X30 Senior main event opened things up for a three-driver breakaway as top qualifier Ryan Norberg (Rolison Performance Group / Kosmic) led Austin Garrison (Speed Concepts Racing / Redspeed) and Alessandro de Tullio (Inter MS / Kart Republic) through the first half of the race. With Norberg beginning to stretch away from the duo as the race closed on the halfway point, de Tullio realized the situation and moved by Garrison in turn four to take up the chase. While he was able to build a little cushion on Garrison, de Tullio was just not able to reel in the five-time SKUSA Pro Tour champion. Norberg would cruise to a 1.164-second win. The fastest driver at the halfway point was top qualifier Jakob Kolar (Vice Racing / Kart Republic), who passed Canadian Thomas Nepveu (Trinity Karting Group / Kart Republic) for fourth as he put his head down to push for a podium finish.
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In the midst of these unprecedented times, I wanted to take a moment and share my open and honest thoughts with you. Needless to say, this pandemic is something that turned not only karting on its head, but also every facet of our personal lives. For many in the sport, COVID-19 has disrupted not only the thing we love, but our livliehoods and ability to provide for our families. SKUSA has weathered recessionary conditions before, most recently the financial challenges our country faced during the mortgage crisis. While we always planned and strategized for financial downturns, nobody ever envisioned a situation like this.
This entire ordeal has left more questions than answers, and regrettably I am left with the same uncertainty as a promoter that you may feel as a team, shop, or participant. The future and our ability to host any future race is largely dictated by everchanging local, state, and federal guidelines. Like you, we have no income coming in. And we empathize with everyone facing the challenges of the current situation. SKUSA employs many people, including staffers, contractors, and local event workers. We are very proud to say we have worked incredibly hard to provide our full-time employees with uninterrupted income during this period. It has not been easy, and there was no stimulus check sent our way. That said, our philosophy has always been we are only as good as the team around us. We know motorsports as a whole will undoubtedly suffer some losses or businesses being forced to close. We feel it imperative to help out those who have been paramount to our success over the years.
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One category that has continually produced excitement and drama at the SKUSA SuperNationals is Mini Swift. The class has been a category at the SuperNats since 2016 and before that as ‘TaG Cadet’ beginning in 2010. Over the course of 13 previous editions, the class has seen 13 different winners. The list of victors includes Formula One, IndyCar, and NASCAR drivers of today.
During that span, no driver has been able to defend their victory. The opportunity now sits in front of 2023 SuperNationals winner Royce Vega (Team Benik). The Texan had a successful season in 2024 that began with winning the SKUSA Winter Series championship along with the USPKS title this year. He finished with one victory and fourth in the final standings for the SKUSA Pro Tour. Vega was scheduled to compete the week before Vegas at the IAME Warrior Final in Spain, however, the flooding disaster postponed the event to post-SuperNationals at another location in Spain. With his return confirmed, this will be Vega’s second start in Mini Swift at the SuperNats. Read full story on eKartingNews.com |
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