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| Features |
| EKN Constructors’ Championship - Stars of Karting Division Openers |
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 | Taylor Miinch and Tyler Thomas helped put Top Kart on top of the EKN Constructors' Championship
(Photo: On Track Promotions - otp.ca) |
The opening round of the Snap-on Stars of Karting series are in the books following events at the Ocala Gran Prix in March and the Jim Russell International Karting Center two weeks ago in Sonoma, California. At the Eastern Division opener, Tony Kart showed the way with by earning the most points while on the West it was Top Kart that produced more points then any other make, also moving themselves to the top of the Constructors’ Championship standings.
The Ocala event saw only three different chassis manufactures earn victories with CRG earning the most at five however it was Tony Kart that put in a better overall performance to top the standings from the Eastern opener. With the exception of Junior National, Tony Kart scored points in every division - led by KF2 driver Cody Hodgson (Tony Kart USA). The Californian put in a weekend sweep in the first ever Stars KF2 event. His Tony Kart teammate - Alex Speed (Wunder-Bar Racing) - ran double duty to contest the KZ2 and KF2 category. He won the KZ2 Prefinal and finished third in the Final while adding a runner-up in the KF2 Prefinal to Hodgson. Victor Pedrosa (Ocala Gran Prix) put in a fourth place run in the KF2 Final. Will Martindale (Wunder-Bar Racing) - another Californian - added 17 points with his runner-up in the Prefinal and an eighth place finish in the feature. Nick Neri was a solid third in the KF3 division on the weekend while Ocala Gran Prix teammates Jack West and Dore Chaponick included finishes of seventh and eighth.
Despite not earning a victory, Top Kart was second at the Eastern opener with points coming from all five categories counted. Taylor Miinch (Team Top Kart USA) was the top point earner for the blue with 38 points while competing in the Junior National and KF3 divisions. Third in the order in Ocala was defending champion CRG with four wins via Phil DeLaO as he swept the KF3 and Junior National divisions. Fourth place Italkart earned two feature wins with the KZ2 and Senior National victories behind Florida’s Hayden Duerson and longtime team drive David Jurca - who also won the Prefinal. Completing the top-five from Ocala was Kosmic, who had just two drivers on hand - Shinnosuke Iguchi, Tristan DeGrand and Hunter Short. Iguchi stood on the podium in KF2 with Short adding in points in Senior National while DeGrand was a double podium finisher in KF3 and Junior National.
Top Kart fielded a number of drivers at the Sonoma circuit and posted consistent results all weekend. Their first victory of the year came from Miinch in the Junior National while Tyler Thomas (Team Top Kart USA), Kartel Motorsports’ Brendan Phinny and Nigel Saurino, and Miinch himself added more podium finishes. Kartel’s Alex Grandahl (KZ2), Neil Alberico (Senior National), James Michael Sullivan (Junior National), Jess Peterson (Senior National) and Mason Chelootz (Team Top Kart USA) also added in top-10 finishes in Sonoma.
CRG was the only manufacturer with over 100 at the Western opener to end the weekend second. Veteran Ron White (SSC East) added the KZ2 sweep to add in 30 more points while Phil DeLaO (SSC East) did the same in KF3. Third in the Sonoma order went to Kosmic behind the two-division performance of Alessandra Madrigal. The rising young star scored the Junior National Prefinal win and runner-up finish in the Final while running second in KF3 all weekend. A close fourth was the Intrepid brand, which went scoreless at the Eastern opener. Leading Edge Motorsports driver Gregory Liefooghe was the top scorer with 22 points while Bermuda pilot and teammate Brandon Frank was their lone podium finisher in KZ2. Rounding out the top-five in Sonoma was Italkart. Under the Cameron Motorsports banner, Brett Buckwalter took both the Prefinal and Final victories to help add points to their overall total.
Inside the Number
0
Points earned by PCR and Trackmagic, the only makes to compete and not score points (each had one driver at Sonoma event)
2
Fewest amount of points scored in a weekend (Tony Kart - Sonoma)
5
Number of brands that scored zero points in one of the two opening rounds (Intrepid, Maranello, Merlin, Energy, First Kart)
63
Margin between Top Kart and CRG after the division openers
160
Most points scored in a weekend (Top Kart - Sonoma)
EKN Constructors’ Championship - Stars of Karting
The eKartingNews.com Constructors’ Championship is calculated using only the top ten finishes in the KZ2, KF2, Senior National, KF3, and Junior National divisions. Each constructor will count their top two finishes in each class for both the Prefinal and Final. Points will be awarded with a first place finish earning 10 points, down to a single point for a tenth place result in the Prefinal. The points double for the Final with 20 points awarded to the first place finisher with 10 points given for a tenth place result.
EKN Constructors' Championship Standings - Stars of Karting Division Openers
| Pos. | Prev. | Chassis | Total | East T. | West T. | Ocala PF | Ocala F | Sonoma PF | Sonoma F| 1 | 2 | Top Kart | 276 | 116 | 160 | 38 | 78 | 54 | 106 | | 2 | 3 | CRG | 213 | 109 | 104 | 37 | 72 | 38 | 66 | | 3 | 4 | Italkart | 147 | 93 | 54 | 31 | 62 | 16 | 38 | | 4 | 5 | Kosmic | 134 | 60 | 74 | 10 | 50 | 26 | 48 | | 5 | 1 | Tony Kart | 130 | 128 | 2 | 50 | 78 | 2 | 0 | | 6 | - | Intrepid | 72 | 0 | 72 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 56 | | 7 | 8 | Birel | 57 | 33 | 24 | 13 | 20 | 2 | 22 | | 8 | 9 | Arrow | 43 | 31 | 12 | 9 | 22 | 6 | 6 | | 9 | 6 | Maranello | 41 | 41 | 0 | 16 | 25 | 0 | 0 | | 10 | 7 | Merlin | 34 | 34 | 0 | 8 | 26 | 0 | 0 | | 11 | 10 | Energy | 13 | 13 | 0 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | | 12 | 11 | First Kart | 6 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
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