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California ProKart Challenge
| Dunford and Johnson Begin ProKart Challenge Title Chase with Victories |
| Wednesday, 15 February 2012 10:25 |
 Buttonwillow Raceway Park was the location for the opening round of the Superkarts! USA ProKart Challenge this past weekend (February 10-11), and the place was packed. The California regional program welcomed over 100 drivers from up and down the coast, as well as several surrounding states, kicking off the year in style. With SKUSA providing its largest prize purse for the series in its eight-year history, drivers were looking to start their championship chase on the right path. Included in the nine categories competing on the weekend, the Pro divisions saw familiar faces at the top of the podium during the sunset trophy presentation ceremonies, as Brad Dunford and Matt Johnson were the big winners.The Extreme Karting S1 Pro Stock Moto category welcomed a healthy field of drivers, including two former series champions and three new S1 rookies. Also joining the fray for 2012 is defending SKUSA Pro Tour S4 Master Stock Moto driver Jimmy McNeil. The 38-year-old is a former S1 driver who spent the last few seasons dominating the Master category. Primed for a title run against the best SKUSA has to offer, McNeil showed his strength right off the trailer by setting the fast lap in qualifying. His 47.057-second lap put him clear of 2010 series champ Clinton Schoombee by one-tenth - with defending titlist Dunford in third. The order remained unchanged through the two heat races, as McNeil led both 10-lap motos over the two former champs to set the grid for the main. The feature was the complete opposite, however, as McNeil would not see the checker. McNeil began the race leading the way, but Schoombee was putting on the pressure. Finally, Schoombee led for the first time by slipping past on lap five, putting McNeil in the challenger’s position. Running that way until lap 14, McNeil attempted a pass on Schoombee for the lead when the two made contact. The incident took them both out of the lead, dropping Schoombee back to fourth while McNeil eventually pulled off track, allowing Dunford to inherit the lead. At the checkered, Dunford scored the victory by two seconds over rookie Cory Milne as Schoombee ended the day in third. Last year’s S2 champion Nicky Freytag took fourth in his S1 debut, coming home ahead of reigning S2 Pro Tour title winner Kyle Hathcox. With the graduation of these great drivers, S1 will be incredible to watch in 2012. In 2011, the Phil Giebler Racing-sponsored S2 Semi-Pro Stock Moto division was stacked with numbers, but pretty much dominated by one person. This season could be a repeat of that, though with a different driver at the helm. Matias Podboj finished third in the overall S2 standings one year ago, but he is poised to make a run at the championship this season following the event sweep in Buttonwillow. Podboj posted a 47.306-second lap in qualifying to secure the S2 pole position by a healthy margin and was third overall combined with the S1 field. With sizable wins in the heat races, Matias continued on in the main event, driving away to a six-second victory over Vivek Tandon and Jamie Wilson. Michael Leib took fourth, ahead of PKC-newcomer Fauzi Dib Saad.  The largest field of the weekend was the Leading Edge Motorsports-sponsored TaG Senior division, with 25 drivers starting their charge toward the regional crown. Much of the driver roster were young pilots, entering their first or second season at the Senior level, but in the end experienced shined through as Matt Johnson scored the victory, earning the lead in the title chase. Youth prevailed early with Camden Geise posting the quickest lap of the qualifying session (48.220), well clear of the times set by Enzo Mestre, defending series champ Travis Lowe and 2011 PKC North champion Austin Elliott. Heat 1 began with Geise holding onto the point until Johnson worked his way up to the front by lap eight, scoring the win by a close margin over Lowe - with Geise back to third. Johnson led all 10 laps of heat two with Geise on his bumper; that is until Lowe swung around for the spot in the final lap, setting the tone for the battle into the main event. Johnson led early in the feature, until a charging Geise retook control of the field on lap five. Mestre and Lowe also stepped into the dice and the four battled hard for a number of laps until one incident put Lowe outside the top-five. Johnson finally secured the position and pulled away for a nearly two-second victory. Geise finished second in his PKC TaG Senior debut, while 2011 Pro Tour TaG Junior champion Jake Craig also joined him on the podium in his TaG Senior debut, driving up from 17th to push Mestre back to fourth. SKUSA Pro Tour vice-champion Dakota Dickerson was fifth in the final tally. With McNeil moving up to the S1 category for 2012, the 20 drivers in the Pure Karting-sponsored S4 Masters Stock Moto class saw the top step of the podium as an open target. 2011 vice-champion Robert Marks put that to rest for Buttonwillow as he performed a ‘McNeil-like’ sweep on the day to start the year out perfectly. Marks laid down a monster lap in qualifying - a 47.588 that would have put him fifth in the S1 category. Setting the tone for the day early, Marks kept the field chasing him throughout the two heat races and into the feature, where he drove away to a five-second victory. Former PKC champion PP Mastro was second, with Fernando Diaz completing the podium over Doug Hayashi and Randy McKee.The solid TaG Master fields from the SKUSA Pro Tour events in 2011 have continued into 2012, starting out at the regional level as 13 drivers made up the Buddy Rice Karting-sponsored field in Buttonwillow. The regional stars, however, stood out early with NorCal driver Randy Froom setting the pace in qualifying, followed by SoCal’s Paul Bonilla and PKC North champion Glenn McKinnon, all within 0.15 seconds of each other’s fast lap. Heat 1 witnessed some opening lap shuffling that sent Froom and Bonilla out of the front, allowing McKinnon to slide through for the top position and the win over Paul Hohlbein and Ethan Wilson. The order remained the same in Heat 2, with McKinnon pacing the field for all 10 laps. In the main event, Wilson found some extra speed early and was into the lead by lap two. From there, Wilson set a torrid pace to score the feature victory by over four seconds. Bonilla recovered from the tough heat results to finish second - with SKUSA Pro Tour vice-champion David Harwin up to third over McKinnon. Steve Ryckebosch earned the victory in the S3 Novice Stock Moto category - sponsored by Select Shifter & DR Racing - outrunning John Morgan and Todd Wilson in the feature race, while Daryl Choby ran uncontested in the local option G1 division.  Sophomore TaG Junior driver Curtis Paul made a statement in Buttonwillow by completing a weekend sweep. Finishing fourth in last year’s class point standings for NorCal, Paul was in his own zip code on Saturday. Qualifying was a close contest in the category sponsored by Russell Karting Specialties with defending PKC champ Carter Williams nearly stealing the top spot from Paul, just 0.022 seconds off his fast time. After heat wins by one second and two seconds, respectively, Curtis wrapped up the sweep with a four-second victory in the 20-lap main event. The battle behind Paul was incredible to watch and bodes well for how exciting the season will be, as the Junior field raced hard and clean all day. Williams fought back after dropping off in heat two to finish second in the feature, while two-time PKC TaG Cadet champion Colton Herta took a well-deserved third place podium finish in his TaG Junior debut. Blaine Rocha and Garrett Dixon rounded out the top-five.The final sweep of the weekend came via the Sunshine Daydream Creations-sponsored TaG Cadet class with Jacob Drew at the wheel. While the class is no stranger to weekend sweeps, 2012 is a new year thanks to the fact that Herta has now moved up in the ranks. Drew stepped into the role quickly with a solid qualifying performance, posting a 53.798-second lap. Leading flag-to-flag in both heat races with wins by three seconds, Drew continued that same pace in the main event. With a fast lap just under two-tenths off his qualifying time, Jake scored the victory by eight seconds. The battle to watch on track was for second, as Jack von Quilich edged out Hunter Kelly and Christian Brooks for the runner-up position in what was a great finish. Next on the docket for the ProKart Challenge is round two at the Willow Springs Kart Track in Rosamond, California on March 23-24. Stay tuned to http://www.superkartsusa.com for more information regarding the event and the rest of the 2012 season. |