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| June 26, 2009 News |
| EKN Trackside: Championship Karting International Grand Prix of New Jersey - Preview |
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The Championships Karting International (CKI) series has invaded the New Jersey Motorsports Park for the second round of the newly created program. The F1 New Jersey circuit inside the Millville, New Jersey facility is 1.03-miles long and sits on the infield of the ‘Lightning’ road course. The series is putting up another cash and prize package worth over $25,000 with the purse expanded to include the top-five winners in selected classes.
Gary Carlton will look to extend his KZ2 championship lead this weekend in New Jersey. The SSC East/CRG pilot and current number one driver in the eKartingNews.com Driver Rankings for ICC swept the action in New Castle. Alex Speed - runner-up to Carlton - will be absent this round, leaving the challenger role to Leading Edge Motorsports’ Gregory Liefooghe. The Intrepid driver ran third in New Castle and sits in the same position in the point standings. Joining the fray will be PSL Karting’s Fritz Leesmann. Making his return to the seat for the first time since March, the Californian will be looking to shake the rust off quickly to challenge Carlton and Liefooghe. Missing from the action will be Kartel Motorsports Ryan Phinny. The KZ2 rookie is still recovering from a shoulder blade injury suffered at the New Castle event and will look to return at the CalSpeed event in August.
The KF2 division will be absent round one winner Simo Puhakka who will not return to the states from his native Finland. The New Jersey round will see the rest of the podium return as Arie Ouimet and Chris Wehrheim now sit in the driver’s seat of the championship chase. Ouimet (SSC East) won the Prefinal in New Castle but finished second in the main while Wehrheim (Team Top Kart USA) ran third in the feature. They are separated by just eight points heading into the weekend. J3 Competition teammates Richard Benitez and Jeremy Nelson return as well, sitting fourth and fifth currently in the standings and looking to stand on the podium this weekend.
IAME Senior New Castle winner Mason Marotta leads the 18-kart field into New Jersey. The Leading Edge Motorsports driver won a thrilling main event in New Castle with a dramatic final corner that saw Marotta winning through the grass. Team PKS pilot Neil McCoy was on the bad end of the action through that final corner but came away with a fourth place finish and sits second coming into this weekend. Kartel Motorsports teammates Neil Alberico and Michael Hogg showed the speed in New Castle but missed out on the final podium, both looking to finish there on Sunday. Second place finisher Joe Patterson (Team PBIR/Screaming Talent) comes in seventh in the standings with a poor Prefinal and will be among the quick drivers in NJ. Kyle Wiegand (Team Top Kart USA), privateer Michael Politis (Tony Kart), and Remo Ruscitti (Italian Motors) will also be on hand and in the mix this weekend.
 | | F1 New Jersey |
The KF3 battle will see seven drivers battling on the weekend. Tristan DeGrand (J3 Competition) comes in as the championship leader with his victory at the inaugural CKI event. The Missouri driver is recovering however from a tough wreck in Genk, Belgium but should be able to tough it out through the weekend. Taylor Miinch (Team Top Kart USA) is coming in trailing DeGrand by eight points and is switching powerplants from the Comer engine to the Vortex. Madeline Komar (Maranello North America) and Shawn Sharkey (Merlin USA) both nearly pulled out podium finishes in New Castle but will look to get there on Sunday. Phil DeLaO (SSC East) will look to bounce back from a disqualification and return up front once again.
The ‘flipping’ Shawn Sharkey is riding high of his IAME Junior victory at round one. The Merlin USA driver benefitted from a early retirement of Taylor Miinch to go unchallenged to the victory. Sharkey is competing in his home state and would like nothing more than to earn the second straight win. Miinch will be among those battling this weekend along with podium finishers Tyler Thomas (Team Top Kart USA) privateer Camden Geise (CRG). Raquel Martinez (Team PKS) showed speed in New Castle and comes into New Jersey fourth in the standings. Trent Hindman (Merlin USA), Phil DeLaO (SSC East) and Mason Chelootz (Team Top Kart USA) will be others to watch.
The Cadet division will see an increase in numbers for New Jersey with a few more local entries on hand. Austin Schoonmaker won in New Castle and holds the standings lead. Josh Saurino, Gresham Wagner, Santino Ferrucci, and Ashley Rogero will be among the challengers during the weekend.
A local option Rotax Masters class was added to the event schedule to allow those not familiar with the CKI to experience a weekend aboard their Rotax Max Challenge USA legal packages. CKI will be handing out $1,500 in cash to the top-five.
The event will see the mechanics get involved more on-track Saturday with the CKI New Jersey Tuner Challenge. Taking place after the heat racing action is complete, the 0.5-mile Avenger Course will open up for the mechanics aboard F1 New Jersey’s Rimo Karts powered by Honda 9-hp motors. With a $100 entry fee, CKI will award the winner a $500 check for his/her effort. Following the mechanics race, CKI will host a Hamburger & Hot Dog Cookout for all the teams and drivers present.
eKartingNews.com will be providing complete coverage along with RaceFanRadio.com and SpeedCastTV.com who will be providing audio and live video. RaceFanRadio will carry the qualifying action from Friday along with the three rounds of heat racing action on Saturday. A sixty minute trackside video program, “Bench Racing Live” will air at 6pm EST Saturday evening complete with the weekend’s activities and comments from those making the headlines. Sunday’s live videocast will air all Prefinal and Finals plus a post-race ‘F1-style debrief’ of all classes represented on the weekend.
The complete entry list for can be found HERE. Watch for updates throughout today in the Official Discussion Thread |
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