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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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Sunday, 24 November 2019 01:00 |
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(Photo: On Track Promotions - otp.ca)
The grids are set for the Superkarts! USA SuperNationals 23 as the final round of heat races and last chance qualifiers were completed on Saturday outside the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The action heated up as drivers were fighting for either a better spot on the grid or earning their way into the main event on SuperSunday.
Penalties decided the opening heat race on the day with X30 Junior AvsB. Last year’s KA100 Junior winner James Wharton (Parolin) took the checkered flag but was handed a three-second penalty for jumping the start. That gave the win to Cristian Domenico Bertuca (PSL / Birel ART), moving Wharton to second and Jeremy Fletcher (Zanella / Tony Kart) up to third from 11th. The CvsD heat race went down to the wire with a near three-wide finish. Luke Lange (SCR / Tony Kart) came away with the win, edging out John Burke (Supertune / Tony Kart). Connor Zilisch (LAK / Tony Kart) was right there, as was Chloe Chambers (MDR / Kosmic). Zilisch will start from the pole position with Lange on the outside. Chambers is third, vying to be the first female driver to win at the SuperNationals. Read full story on eKartingNews.com |
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Saturday, 23 November 2019 01:00 |
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(Photo: On Track Promotion - otp.ca)
The competitors at the Superkarts! USA SuperNationals 23 were able to finally put the wheels together for the first two rounds of heat races outside the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The weather was the best it has been since karts hit the track on Wednesday, with clear skies, bright sunshine and no rain. Temperatures warmed up as the day went on until the sun ducked behind the towers and the lights on the Strip lit up the race track. Things went a little behind for track repair before the warm-ups began in the morning with the day ending about 40 minutes off schedule. We finally got to see who had the pace to run at front when the green flag waved on the heat races, and saw who was able to recover from qualifying woes.
Three drivers came away with wins in the X30 Junior class, first on the race track in the morning hours. SKUSA Pro Tour champion Freddie Slater (Supertune / Tony Kart) picked up the win in both of his sessions, just ahead of top qualifier Andrea Kimi Antonelli (KSNA / Kart Republic). Three USA drivers led the BvsC race as 2017 Mini Swift winner Connor Zilisch (LAK / Tony Kart) led Luca Mars (SCR / Tony Kart) and Luke Lange (SCR / Tony Kart). Chloe Chambers (MDR / Kosmic) became the first female driver to win a heat race, probably since 2012 with Sabre Cook in S2, leading inaugural Micro Swift winner Vinicius Tessaro (NF / Kosmic). Read full story on eKartingNews.com |
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Friday, 22 November 2019 01:00 |
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(Photo: On Track Promotions - otp.ca)
The Superkarts! USA SuperNationals 23 is underway at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Wednesday was a wet day and the rain continued into Thursday with the morning groups nearly all wet until qualifying. The track eventually dried as the timed sessions begin, and gave the afternoon groups a dry but cold track. Temperatures seemed to be in the 40s all day, with a spike into the 50s as the sun broke through the clouds briefly.
X30 Junior is the first class on the track and with the 76 drivers split into two groups. The unfortunate part of their qualifying sessions was the track conditions. The sun was out and it appeared to be a drying track. Some gambled with dry Evinco tires while others continued with the wet MG tires. The long 12-minute session ended with the dry tires finally coming in. The second group hit the track, all on dry tires and were more then four seconds quicker thus implementing the 101% rule. That put Q2, the slow group, to be merged with Q1 for the heat group lineup. Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli (KSNA / Kart Republic) set fast time in the Q1 with a 47.235 while Guilherme Figueirdo (HR / Tony Kart) was the fast driver in Q2 with a 51.256. The rest of the groups were merged to form the ABCD groups for the heat races, which should see a lot of shuffling for position. Read full story on eKartingNews.com |
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Thursday, 14 November 2019 09:18 |
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Billy Musgrave comes into the SuperNationals as the two-time defending S1 winner (Photo: EKN)
The renamed ‘Pro Shifter’ category made its debut at the 2018 SuperNationals as the final outing for the Honda powerplant in the headline shifterkart position under the Superkarts! USA banner. The new name marked the end of the long-running CR125, and the beginning for the IAME SSE 175cc engine for the 2019 season and beyond. SKUSA ushered in the new engine package at the SKUSA Winter Series last January with 13 drivers in the new Pro Shifter division, and that grid grew to a total number of 32 at the SKUSA SummerNationals, with a split between the Pro and Pro2 categories. While the final Stock Honda race entry mark was 50 last year, a combined 37 entries will fight in the Pro / Pro2 combined race group this time around, showing the continuing growth of the platform.
In the history books, the final Stock Honda race at the SuperNationals was won by Billy Musgrave. In fairness, the last two in the S1 division were won by the now three-time SuperNationals victor. Musgrave’s opening act at the SuperNationals ended with a victory in the S2 class back in 2012. Since then, he’s become a six-time California ProKart Challenge champion and has won multiple times on the SKUSA Pro Tour. In his six SuperNats starts in the S1 class, Musgrave finished in the top-seven in five of the events. His last two victories were aboard the Aluminos brand, however, Musgrave has been running the Croc Promotion USA brand since June and will attempt to give them their first SuperNats victory next weekend. Read full story at eKartingNews.com |
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