National QUICK LINKS
Supernats Menu
SUPERNATS SPONSORS
SKUSA Partners
SEARCH
Supernationals
| EKN Trackside: SKUSA SuperNationals XIV – Friday Report |
| Written by ekartingnews.com |
| Friday, 19 November 2010 01:00 |
|
If the first day of official action is an appetizer for what’s to come in the final two days of the SKUSA SuperNationals XIV, this year’s event will go down as the best ever. A record number of entries took to the track on Friday for the first official day of action at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino for Qualifying and the first round of Heat races. While the first half of the day was full of sunshine and comfortable weather, the wind picked up and the sun fell leaving the afternoon groups some interesting track conditions for under the lights. No major incidents occurred as the SKUSA staff kept things on schedule much to the liking of the competitors.
TaG Junior TaG Juniors were the first to take the track in the morning session. In the early parts of the session, Austin Self and Joseph Mawson traded the top of the timing charts. As the session drew closer to its conclusion, Mawson and Self found themselves sitting on identical times of 43.414 with Mawson ahead based on his second best lap. As the session timed-out, Joao Ricardo Queiroz Vieira jumped to the top of the charts with a lap of 43.392. The top five positions were covered by one-tenth of a second. Both starts to the heat races in round one began with major pile-ups in the opening corner. The A vs. B was much larger with a number of contenders in the mix. Escaping the skirmish was Vieira and Joel Jens. The two pulled out to the lead and went on to finish 1-2 in the 12-lap run. Yurik Carvalho was third in the order with Zachary Claman-DeMelo and Marcos Vieira completing the top-five as Mawson ran outside the top-10 until climbing back to eighth, only to be penalized to 11th for an on-track issue. C vs. D was a three driver show as Dennis Olsen, Tristan DeGrand and Self mixed it up for the top spot. They would finishing in that order with Karl Weber chasing them down and Logan Bearden completing the top-five. G1 Defending race winner Antonio Dettori, Fabrizio Nannini and Emilo Padron exchanged the top spot in the qualifying session until American Kelly Baker joined the mix. In the end, Dettori took the pole with a 40.979-lap as the only driver into the 41s. Nannini was second with Baker splitting up the international drivers with Padron and Eduardo Martins completing the fast-five. The opening heat race witnessed lots of contact throughout the field as the drivers shuffled for position. Dettori came away with the lead at the lights while Baker and Nannini led the chase. The front three broke away from the rest of the field as they cycled the fast lap between them. Dettori would take the win after 12 laps with Baker and Nannini crossing behind. Padron was fourth with the fast lap honor as Nick Firestone and Martins swapped positions. KF2 The Energy 1-2 of Joel Johansson and Nicolaj Moller-Madsen led the way in KF2 qualifying. Johansson’s 41.618 was best with NMM just 54-thousandths back and Canadian Phillip Orcic under a tenth back as well. Californian Brett Felkins held the top spot briefly but was shuffled back to fourth at the end of the session with Jake Lloyd completing the fast-five. A large pile up in turn two started the scrambling for position in the KF2 heat race, taking Nick Johnston and Joey Wimsett out of contention. Orcic was able to break away following the opening lap ciaos and drove away to a six-second victory. Moller-Madsen came away with second after a race-long battle that saw Emanuele Pagani advance up to third over Lloyd and Marco Tulio. Felkins retired on lap three after contact during the intense 12-lap run, hurting his chances for a strong starting spot in Sunday’s main. S2 The S2 qualifying session was a great 12-minute run with the drivers taking up the entire time trying to put down their best lap. Derek Crockett needed only three circuits before putting down his best lap of 41.317 to secure the pole positions. Jake French tried to better his time, only to come up two-thousandths short. Nicky Freytag held the provisional pole but ended up third with SKUSA Pro Tour point leader Matt Alcorn into fourth over Adam Booker. Crockett led the entire way from the lights to checkers. French, Freytag and Alcorn shuffled around behind him until French was knocked out in turn two thanks to contact resulting in a bent axle. Freytag went on to finish second over Alcorn with Cody Diede on a charge to fourth, placing ahead of Josh Lane. TaG Cadet Showing just how close the drivers were in the new TaG Cadet division, the top 24 ended the session within a second of each other. In the end, SKUSA Pro Tour leader Colton Herta held the provisional pole until he was removed after tech for an engine-related issue. This put Flinn Lazier to the top spot ahead of Austin Osborne, Logan Sargeant, Christian Brooks and Parker Thompson. Following the opening lap shuffling, Brooks came away with the lead that is until Lazier worked is way back to the point by lap three. Sargeant then advanced to the lead as a number of drivers joined the lead group with some exciting three-wide action. With two laps to go, Devlin DeFrancesco took over the lead and went on to hold it by 0.037-seconds over Patricio O’Ward, Sargeant, Lazier, and Anthony Gangi Jr. KZ2 A number of drivers held the provisional pole position in the KZ2 qualifying session including international stars Anthony Abasse, Rick Dreezen and female driver Beitske Visser. American Gary Carlton however was able to find clear track and put down a smoking lap. That was until Simo Puhakka snuck up with an even fast lap of 39.888 to break under the 40-second mark. Carlton would get pushed back to second with Vegas native Matt Jaskol an impressive third in the session. Dreezen ended up fourth with Abasse. Grabbing the holeshot, Carlton lead as the lights went out for the 12-lap heat race. Carlton was able to lead the entire way, but slowed his pace in the closing laps. Marco Ardigo – the 2007 winner – drove his way forward to end the heat in second over Puhakka and Dreezen while Jaskol was able to come away with fifth after Abasse was penalized for contact and placed sixth. TaG Master Early on, David Harwin took the provisional pole in the TaG Master qualifying session. Putting down a best lap of 43.912, the NorCal driver took the pole position. Kip Foster and JP Cadoux put down great laps but were unable to break into the 43s. SKUSA Pro Tour point leader Ethan Wilson came away with the fourth spot while Jim Russell Jr. made the right changes to gain the fifth starting spot. The first heat race for the Master drivers was a bumpy one. While the drivers showed respect for one another, there was still plenty of contact and hard racing up front. The front did see some casualties with Wilson spinning on his own early on while Cadoux retired after contact and a broken front end. Harwin would go on to lead the entire way with Foster able to regain the second spot after Larry Fraser held it briefly. Two-time defending race winner Billy Cleavelin worked his way to fourth with Fernando Guzzi placing fifth. S5 SKUSA Pro Tour race winner Daniel Langon led the way in the qualifying session, posting a 42.409 to secure the pole for the heat races. Miguel Lopez ended up second with Christian Schureman and Ryan Rudolph making late charges to end up third and fourth. That dropped Luis Tyrrell and Mason Chelootz – who spun in the session – to fifth and sixth. Langon was able get a great holeshot and was able to drive away to a two-second victory. Behind him, the top five mixed it up cleanly with Schureman able to get around Lopez in the closing laps for second. Austin Schimmel was able to advance to fourth over Rudolph and Chelootz as Tyrrell fell victim to contact and fell to the tail of the order. Last year’s winner Kiel Spaulding was the driver on the move, coming from 27th to seventh after issues in qualifying. S1 The big dogs of Superkarts! USA shifterkart racing took to the track for their qualifying session. Many of the big names sat on pit road in the early portion until midway when they hit the track. Alex Speed got to the track late after issues with the radiator but it didn’t matter as the NorCal driver took the pole position as the only driver under the 41-second mark with a 40.899. Indy Dontje continued to mix things up, making his first Stock Moto start of his career to finish second in the order. SKUSA Pro Tour point leader Fritz Leesmann was third followed by Daniel Bray and two-time winner Tom Dyer. Under the lights for the first heat, Speed got a good launch of the lights and led the field through the first turn. With a late braking move into the left-hand turn two, Fritz Leesmann took over the point. A couple laps later, Speed made a move to the inside of Leesmann going into bthe first turn. The drivers battled side-by-side all the way to the second corner when Leesmann, on the inside held the lead. The next lap, Speed made the same move to take the lead for the final time. Taking the first heat win was Speed followed by Dontje and Leesman. TaG Senior This year’s TaG Senior field may be the deepest in the history of the class since it began running at the SuperNationals. The field was split into two groups for qualify based on practice times from earlier in the week. First to take to the track was Group 2. After running into problems, former winner Emanuele Pagani found himself in the slower first group and set the fast lap early taking the pole with a 42. 931. Behind him were Joao Camara, Troy Diede, Marcus Brodie and Ty Matta. Many of the class heavy-hitters were in group one. Among them there was a strong Italian Motors team including Remo Ruscitti and Michael Valiante. They hooked up in a train and at one point as they flashed across the timing a scoring stripe nose to tale, the pole was traded between Valiante, Riscitti and Andre Nicastro. As the session moved on, Austin Self began improving his times before moving into the front. Laying down a lap of 42.520, Self took the pole, followed by Niocastro, Ruscitti, Gustavo Menezes and David Sera. The first heat race saw the A and B flights face off. After the first start attempt was waivbed off, Sera took the lead as Self dropped as far back as ninth. Early in the race, Self was working the carb trying to get his engine at the maximum. Sera settled into the lead with Nicastro, Valiante and Miller chasing. Orcic worked his way back throught the fiueld eventually catching on to the group with Miller, Valiante and Alberico. Taking the white flag, Orcic dove into the first turn hitting the back of Miller’s Kosmic putting them both into the wall and out of the race. Sera took the win followed by Valiante, Dan Wheldon was third, Alberico fourth and Chris Wehrheim rounded out the top five. Off the flag in the C vs D pairing, there was a lot of contact through the field as they settled into the rhythm of the heat. Taking the lead was Ruscitti followed by Menezes. In the early running the top six were covered by a scant 1.5 seconds. Eventually, Menezes overhaul Ruscitti for the lead and held on for the win. Bruno Ferreira finished second followed by Joao Carara with Ruscitti and Phil Giebler rounding out the top five. S4 The large field of S4 drivers were split into two groups for qualifying the Group 2 hitting the track first. Setting the fast lap early was Mark Swetman with a lap of 42.405. Sergio Aguilera was second and Alex Keith third. Rounding out the top five were Jason Campbell and Jonathon Allen. Group one hit the track later and with the air and track cooler it took the drivers longer to get their tires up to temperature. Taking the point early in the session was Doug Hayashi but as the session drew to a close, Jimmy McNeil ran a fast lap of 41.703 to take the pole followed by Eddie Olpin and Mike Jones. Mike Smith and Rob Logan rounded out the top five. The first round of heat racing pitted the A and B flights against each other. McNeil was slow off the line Olpin took the lead. Through the course of the 12 laps, Olpin, McNeil and Jeff Littrell ran close with McNeil taking over the lead and Olpin and Littrell swapping the second spot. At the checkers, McNeil crossed first with Olpin and Littrell close behind. Jeff Smith and Rob Logan rounded out the top 5. The C vs. D pairing got off to a start with plenty of contact through the field in the first two corners. Mike Jones took the lead with Carlos Fernandez in second. As the heat ran down the top 6 were running in pairs with a second or two between each two-some. In the closing laps, Fernandez closed but was unable to get past Jones. Adolfo Anguiano was third and Ryan Pool and Mike Smith rounded out the top 5. The first day of action was in the books. Major weather changes are on tap for the weekend with high winds and rain predicted for both Saturday and Sunday. |