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| August 15, 2008 News |
| EKN Trackside: WKA Manufacturer’s Cup Series - Round 5 Preview |
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After nine months of competition, the World Karting Association George Kugler/Bridgestone Manufacturer’s Cup Series Driven by Mazda will contest the fifth and final round this weekend. The Zoom Zoom Nationals will take place at the New Castle Motorsports Park in New Castle, Indiana - just 45-minutes east of downtown Indy. The weekend will be the final round of the five event program with the provisional class champions decided until all the divisional programs complete their schedules and the full point totals can be tabulated for the 15 classes that make up the Manufacturer’s Cup Series.
This weekend will mark the second visit for the series to the NCMP circuit. Added to the 2007 schedule at the suggestion of many members, the event proved to be a success with 528 entries. With the pre-entry total reaching 322 for this coming weekend, the second time around is shaping up to be even bigger. The 15-turn, 1-mile circuit is among the best facilities in North America. Built at the end of 2003 by the Mark Dismore family, NCMP began hosting events in 2004 and has become a popular stop by national and regional programs. New Castle hosted the WKA Great Lakes Sprint Series with many of the Man. Cup drivers taking the advantage of racing one weekend early for extra track time.
With the structure of the Manufacturer’s Cup Series point system, drivers will count the best four of five events however or the best three national and one divisional finish (best seven of ten or best six and one divisional finish for the Cadet Jr. Sportsman and TaG divisions). With that in mind, the championship points shuffle when considering the drop.
Heading into the final round, Chris Larson is the only driver to hold the championship lead in two divisions, including the popular TaG class and Yamaha Sr. Sportsman Lite. The Florida pilot is tied with fellow two time winner Travis Firing when counting three drops. Firing missed the opening round in Daytona but has run up front since, excluding his DNF in Norway. Larson had a DNF in Norway as well and needed a relief driver Sunday after a rib injury in the Sportsman race on Saturday. His relief driver, Brandon Adkins, ran to a fifth place run after starting from the back of the field in the Prefinal. Thirty points back of them is another two-time winner, Caleb Loniewski. The longtime Man. Cup driver had a DNF in Norway as well but should be in the hunt as he is always fast in New Castle, as is Firing - the Ironman 150 winner previously ran this year, and Larson - the 2007 RoboPong 200 co-winner.
In the Sportsman Lite class, Larson is the point leader calculating the drop however Mark Dismore Jr. is the current point leader. With the drop, Dismore falls to third with former Triple Crown winner Corey Reeves into second, 11 points back of Larson and four points in front of Dismore. Larson suffered a rib injury in the Final at the Norway event but is scheduled to run both classes on the weekend.
 | | New Castle Motorsports Park |
The other Sportsman class is led by veteran Kevin Nelson who has a 71-point advantage over CJ Lintner with Reeves just two points behind in third. Reeves is on top in the Yamaha Heavy division with EKN June Driver of the Month Jason Foley sitting second, 23 points back with Ryan Stewart in third. After his victory in Norway, Tony Jump has a comfortable lead in Yamaha Lite, 87 points in front of David Kraeer with TJ Koyen five points back in third. Stewart sits second in both the HPV categories with Koyen leading the Light division with Firing ahead by five points in the Heavy class when counting the drop. Jeff Jewell is looking to earn his second straight Yamaha Masters title, leading John Dixon by 50 points heading into New Castle.
In the Junior categories, two drivers have a strangle hold on the four divisions with Tommy Andersen leading the HPV categories and Zack Busch ahead in the Yamaha classes. Andersen has a 120-point advantage in the HPV Light category over Busch with three wins on the year. The gap in the HPV Heavy class is just one between Andersen and Busch when counting the drop, leaving the final race of the year to decide the championship. Busch is just 28 points ahead when counting the drop in Yamaha Jr. SuperCan Heavy, ahead of Cody Robinson who will return to the driver’s seat after recovering from a broken leg in a non-karting accident. Counting the drop, Busch moves to the top in Yamaha Jr. SuperCan Lite with an 85-point advantage over Dakota Pesek.
In Cadet, three drivers hold the lead in as many categories. Cadet Jr. Sportsman has Jake Cole leading Logan Bearden and Austin Self with 74 points separating the three. Self has a 64-point gap over Cole in HPV Jr. Sportsman with Kyle Kalish thirty points back. Kalish however leads the Yamaha Jr. Sportsman by 45 points over Cole with Jeremy Remick sitting third.
The standings for the Manufacturer’s Championship Trophy presented by Custom Trophy saw the top of the standings change hand following Norway with Birel moving to P1 with six wins on the weekend to bring the total to 18. Margay, earning three on at round four, sits with 16 wins while Merlin holds third with 13 victories. Arrow moved to fourth with four wins (nine total), dropping First Kart to fifth with six. With the fight up at the top so close, expect both Birel and Margay to bring out their A-games for that extra win.
eKartingNews.com will be providing Trackside Live race coverage throughout the weekend. Friday will see forum updates in the Official Discussion Thread with news from the paddock during the practice day followed by a new photo gallery. Continuing Saturday and Sunday will be unofficial top-10 results posted in the Discussion as they sit on the scale line after each on-track session along with daily reports, full results and photos from Go Racing Magazine available in the Official Event Page.
In addition to the online coverage provided by eKartingNews.com, RaceFanRadio.com will be on hand for a second year in a row. Fans can log on and catch every lap of action in the Prefinals and Finals with Buddy Long, WKA’s Director of Operations and the voice of several NASCAR Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series races on MRN Radio, anchoring the broadcast. In addition to the lap by lap action, the broadcast will include interviews with many drivers and industry leaders in the sport. |
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