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| January 12, 2012 News |
| Superkarts! USA Returns to Pacific Northwest |
| Article by: Superkarts! USA |
For many racers in the Pacific Northwest, the annual November pilgrimage to the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas is the culmination of a season’s worth of hard work and preparation. In response to the growing field of SKUSA racers in the PNW, the promoters of this new program are proud to announce the formation of the Northwest Karting Challenge. The program will be a five-weekend, 10-race series hosted by two of the northwest’s premier karting facilities, Pat’s Acres Racing Complex and PGP Motorsports Park.
“I am very excited to be back to where it all started, Superkarts! USA,” offered Pat’s Acres owner and series promoter Chris Egger. “I’m thrilled to be back under the SKUSA umbrella for our series and our shifterkart customers. SKUSA has a lot to offer right now and we are glad to be a part of it. Having been involved in the shifterkart explosion back in the late 90's, I‘m looking forward to being part of the regional resurgence that is happening around the country. This is a big step for the shifterkart pilots in our region!”
"The Northwest Karting Challenge will again be focusing on our Rotax customer base, as well,” Egger continued. “Last year, 17 of our series regulars participated in the Rotax US Grand Nationals and Pan American Challenge. Stepanova Nekeel, the highest finishing American in the Rotax Senior class at the World Finals, also called our series ‘home’. With that kind of local Rotax horsepower, you can see why we pride ourselves on the level of our competition.”
This announcement will begin a stream of some exciting news from the SKUSA camp, which is riding the momentum created by a successful 2011 season, as major growth in their Pro Tour and SuperNationals has lit a fire all over the nation.
“We are fielding a great deal of interest from all over the country in regards to regional expansion, and to be able to kick-start our growth in 2012 by announcing a new relationship with Chris Egger and Paul Zalud makes me very excited,” SKUSA’s Tom Kutscher added. “These guys have been around since the original days of Superkarts! USA and the ProMoto Tour and they both have that deep understanding of what it meant to the community. For us to now partner for the future can only mean good things for karting in the Pacific Northwest. I expect that we’ll see a good percentage of their racers in Las Vegas in November!”
The series will kick off on April 13-15 at the beautiful Pat’s Acres Racing Complex in Canby, OR. Once a stop on the famed SKUSA ProMoto tour, Pat’s Acres provides an excellent venue to launch a season of hard racing. The series will then head north on May 18-20 to PGP Motorsports Park in Kent, WA. The state-of-the-art 8/10th mile facility is located just outside of Seattle and has raised the bar for all kart tracks nationwide. From there, the racers will challenge the inaugural ‘Northwest Street Championship’ on June 8-10, which will be a temporary circuit race designed to both level the playing field and provide excellent temp circuit training for the season-ending SuperNationals. The July 6-8 event will be the midway point in the season and will bring competitors back to PGP. The series then returns to Pat’s for the August 24-26 finale, as the program finishes before the start of the school year to minimize interruption of school time for our younger racers.
The class structure will embrace the popular SKUSA and Rotax Max Challenge categories. For SKUSA, the series will feature the S2 Semi-Pro, S4 Master and S5 Junior Stock Moto classes, as well as the TaG categories, as supported by the community. SKUSA classes will all be run using the outstanding MG White ‘SKUSA’ tire, allowing competitors to race throughout the year on the same tires they will be racing in Vegas next November. Rotax racers will have the choice of Micro Max, Mini Max, Junior, Senior and Masters. The RMAX Challenge classes will compete on MOJO tires.
There are some incredibly lucrative benefits will be available thanks to the program’s association with Superkarts! USA. All of the series point champions in the SKUSA categories will be awarded with what has become an invaluable prize. The class champions in these classes will receive a guaranteed starting spot in the main event on SuperSunday at the SuperNationals. With the huge fields that are attracted for the SuperNats, a majority of which are expected to top the 80-driver mark in 2012, just making the main event has become a huge accomplishment. To have a guaranteed pass into the field would be priceless, especially for a driver aimed at winning the SKUSA Pro Tour championship. In addition, SKUSA will be initiating a new preferred registration program for the SuperNationals this year, in an effort to deal with the overwhelming onslaught of competitors trying to be part of the action in Las Vegas. Racers who take part in the full Northwest Karting Challenge will be offered an exclusive opportunity to enter the event before registration is opened to the public.
The Rotax classes will run as an official RMAX Challenge series, allowing the racers to qualify directly for the 2012 Rotax Grand Nationals in August. These events will also count as ‘punches’ for the Pan-American Challenge event, which will be held in September at a location to be announced.
“With so many of our racers already making the annual trek to Las Vegas for the SuperNationals, we are very excited to be involved in the SKUSA program”, commented PGP General Manager Scott Cowell. “In the days of the SKUSA ProMoto Tour, some of the nation’s top shifter pilots came out of the Northwest. We look forward to being involved in developing the next generation of SKUSA superstars. The prize package that SKUSA has laid out for the series champions is an awesome opportunity for racers to lock their spot in the final on SuperSunday in Vegas. We firmly believe there is no stronger banner for our shifterkart racers to be under than SKUSA.”
In effort to save the competitors money, all events will feature a non-interrupted, exclusive practice session for the competitors on the Friday starting at 11:00 am and running to 6:00 pm. This will allow competitors to sleep in their own beds on Thursday night, saving the expense of a Thursday night hotel room. This policy will be in place for both facilities, PGP and PARC.
2012 SKUSA Northwest Karting Challenge
April 13-15: Pat's Acres Racing Complex - Canby, OR
May 18-20: PGP Motorsports Park - Seattle, WA
June 8-10: “Northwest Street Championship” - TBA
July 6-8: PGP Motorsports Park - Seattle, WA
Aug 24-26: Pat's Acres Racing Complex - Canby, OR
Stay tuned for more info regarding series details, incentives, new website links and updates in the near future. |
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