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Wednesday, 15 January 2020 10:30 |
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Hannah Greenemeier earned her first SKUSA victory in the X30 Senior class to close out the opening weekend in Homestead (Photo: On Track Promotions - otp.ca)
Superkarts! USA threw the green flag on its 2020 season this past weekend at the AMR Homestead-Miami Motorplex Presented by MG Tires, kicking off the third edition of the organization’s Winter Series in south Florida. The event set an series attendance record with over 240 entries, including the new inclusion of the popular Margay Ignite program. Warm temperatures in the high-70s and low-80s were accompanied by significant winds and a brief rain shower on Sunday, and the competition was good as it’s been with some truly epic battles for race wins. Canadian Patrick Woods-Toth (Prime / Birel ART) outgunned X30 Senior National #1 Ryan Norberg (RPG / Kosmic) in Saturday’s main event to score the win, while RPG’s Hannah Greenemeier (Kosmic) turned in a career performance to star in Sunday’s final. In the premier gearbox category – Pro Shifter – Mike Rolison’s lead shifterkart driver Kyle Wick ( RPG / Tony Kart) proved his worthiness of running the #1 plate by beating four-time SKUSA SuperNationals winner Bill Musgrave (MRC / Croc Promotion) to win both Saturday and Sunday main events. The Sunday final was particularly thrilling. More on that later.
A massive field of 53 drivers took the track for Saturday’s split X30 Senior qualifying sessions and Norberg came out of the gate on fire, winning the overall pole and then topping his Prefinal to lead the field to the green flag in the 22-lap main event. SKUSA split the X30 field into two Prefinals after qualifying, transferring 15 drivers directly to the main event. The remaining drivers ran a 10-lap Last Chance Qualifier, with 14 drivers extending their day into the final. Sebastian Montoya (Tony Kart) won the first Prefinal on Saturday over Thomas Nepveu (Birel ART) and Bryson Morris (Kosmic). Norberg was followed to the checkered in his Prefinal by Woods-Toth and Greenemeier. Read full story on eKartingNews.com |
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Thursday, 09 January 2020 01:00 |
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Defending series champion Ryan Norberg begins training for his ‘drive for five’ in 2020 (Photo: EKN)
The first major event of the 2020 season is set for this weekend in the sunshine state. The Superkarts! USA will welcome racers to the AMR Motorplex in Homestead, Florida for the opening weekend of the 2020 SKUSA Winter Series. A pre-entry total of 229 drivers in 13 categories are set to tackle the 7/10-mile course outside the Homestead-Miami Speedway for two rounds of competition on the weekend.
Wednesday and Thursday were unofficial practice with Friday hosting five official sessions for testing. Round 1 is set for Saturday, including qualifying, Prefinal and Final. Round 2 is a repeat format on Sunday.
The largest category entering the weekend is the X30 Senior class at 50 drivers. It was a year ago that Ryan Norberg was making his debut with the Rolison Performance Group operation aboard a Kosmic. It eventually led to a SKUSA Winter Series championship off three wins and a fourth-straight SKUSA Pro Tour title with three wins in six rounds. The effort to put ‘one on the thumb’ and complete a five-year streak of Pro Tour titles begins this weekend. The bulls eye has grown even larger on the back of Norberg with 49 others in the field. There are numerous drivers that will be in the hunt. Notable international stars include Brits Taylor Barnard (KSNA / Kart Republic) and Louie Westover (Solo Kart USA). Defending SuperNationals winner Zachary Claman-Demelo (REM / Kosmic) is set to compete. He will not be the only driver with IndyCar experience, as 2019 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year Santino Ferrucci is set to make his return to SKUSA competition. Ferrucci (CRM / Swiss Hutless) raced at the recent WKA Daytona KartWeek and was upfront all weekend. One of the stories to watch is the graduation of Junior drivers making their Senior debuts. Four of the top-six from last year’s SKUSA Winter Series are in the field; Luca Mars (SCR / Redspeed), Diego Contecha (Orsolon / Tony Kart), Luke Lange (SCR / Redspeed), and Branyon Tiner (RPG / Kosmic). Read full story on eKartingNews.com |
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Written by John Motley - National Tech Director
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Friday, 27 December 2019 14:07 |
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We use a Fuel Testing Laboratory with no Motorsports connection to preserve anonymity.
As many of you know we took fuel samples from competitors at the last two Pro Tour events and submitted them to various lab tests. At SuperNats 23 we took 10 samples, mostly from the winners but in some cases farther back in the field. A sample, mixed by us to the correct ratio was also included for comparison.
All samples tested identical to the mandated fuel/oil required.
As background on the testing used, it is a procedure called Mass Spectrometry – which is the same process that Formula One and MotoGP uses for their tests. This allows the sample to be compared to a known sample to determine conformity to our rules. Note that in addition we have also sent samples of supposedly undetectable additives to the lab who easily detected their use – some of these additives contained banned carcinogens. |
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Sunday, 15 December 2019 21:37 |
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As part of an ongoing campaign to improve and enhance SKUSA kart racing, the nation’s premier organization is pleased to announce they will begin using Elf Racing oils for all sanctioned events, beginning with the SKUSA Winter Series in Florida.
Effective immediately, SKUSA will mandate Elf HTX909 SAE 50, which is widely considered to be the very best karting oil on the planet. Furthermore, SKUSA will revert the spec fuel back to the VP MS98 in an effort to promote engine longevity and cost efficiencies for racers.
“This has been a long time coming,” remarked SKUSA’s Tom Kutscher. “It’s no secret that we have been eager to find an oil that not only met, but exceeded the quality we’ve been using. All signs pointed to Elf, which many refer to as the absolute best in the game.”
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Read more...
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Monday, 25 November 2019 01:00 |
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Billy Musgrave joined the four-win club at the SuperNationals with a dominating performance in Pro Shifter (Photo: EKN)
For the 23rd time, the Superkarts! USA hosted the big daddy of them all – the SuperNationals. SuperSunday was conducted outside the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino for the 10 race groups, 12 categories after four days of work on and off the track. Throughout the week, over 500 different stories were written, highlighted by personal triumphs or dreams dashed. The dust has settled and for 12 drivers, their story are in the history books as winners of the SKUSA SuperNationals 23.
SuperSunday opened up with one of the categories we knew was going to provide some great drama for 20 laps – KA100 Senior. It went down to the wire last year, and went past the checkered flag this year to decide the second winner of the class. The focus was on pole position driver Brandon Lemke (Franklin / Merlin). Three heat wins put him P1 with Pauly Massimino (MDR / Kosmic) on the outside. The field worked through the opening corners clean until turn 4. Third-place starter Oliver Calvo (LEM / Praga) made a late move inside Lemke, and drove over the front end of the Merlin. The contact dropped Lemke to 13th and we thought out of the race for the victory. The contact put Massimino into the lead, where he paced the field until Aussie Scott Foster (KSNA / KF Kart) took over with Calvo eventually getting up to second. Meanwhile, Lemke was on the charge, reaching the top-five with fast laps of the race and put himself into third, running down the leaders. In the last two laps, Lemke was able to go from third to first, and was able to hold the lead through the final corners to reach the checkered flag first for an amazing comeback performance. Unfortunately, due to what we believe was the opening lap contact, Lemke suffered a pushback bumper penalty of five seconds, dropping him to fifth in the order. This promoted Massimino to the top of the podium for his first SuperNationals victory. Contact between Foster and Calvo in turn eight took them out of the top-five, promoting top qualifier Jake Drew (FW / CompKart) to second, SKUSA Pro Tour champion Austin Osborne (IRM / Tony Kart) to third and Michael Michoff (RPG / Kosmic) to fourth. Hard charger went to Michael Geringer up 25 spots to 10th. His run put three Franklin / Merlin machines in the top-10 with Josh Hotz ninth. Read full story on eKartingNews.com |
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