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| June 10, 2005 News |
| EKN Trackside: United States Superkart Challenge – RA Preview |
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 | Series organizer and FE champion JR Osborne
(Photo: Bill Kistler) |
The new era will continue this weekend for 250cc superkart racers as the second round of the United States Superkart Championship East returns to the 4-mile Road America circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The USSC teams will travel to the rolling hills of eastern Wisconsin to run in conjunction with Badger Kart Club’s Road America Supernationals. The event normally draws over 1000 entries from all over North America.
Formula E (FE) round one winner J.R. Osborne (P-1/Yamaha TZ) and Johnny West (Stockman/Honda RS) will lead the way this weekend as they did last year. The duo battled for last year’s win at RA as they did this year at the first round at the Barber Motorsports Park event. Osborne will try to keep his ride together as he was unable to during the early stages of the Barber weekend. The Colorado resident rented West’s number one package, which was sidelined for a small fire after the first Friday practice session, forcing West to run his MSR back-up car. The duo worked together the rest of the weekend, helping both turn quicker lap times and ran one-two during the final.
This weekend they will be joined by a few new competitors that hope to mix up the top spots. Aboard a PVP machine and making his USSC debut for the ’05 season will be BRC Engineering’s Riley Will. Will has been working extremely long hours since his BRC250 FE engine package has been approved for CIK Superkart competition. Will made a trip to Germany during the early part of May for the first round of the European Superkart Championship to oversee the drivers who recently made the switch to the BRC powerplant. Great Britain superkart veteran Mark Owens, aboard his Zip/BRC250 FE package, was able to post a ninth place finish in race two of the weekend along with the quickest lap of the race. BRC also took the first win in the Western division as reigning SKI Road Racer of the Year Chris Hegar piloted the BRC package to the FE win during the Portland event a few weeks ago.
 | Andy Kiker running just ahead of Derek Eastty in the early stages of the Barber Prefinal
(Photo: Dennis Lathem) |
Making the move from the Intercontinental E (ICE) division to the FE group this weekend will be Derek Eastty. Driving the American-made Nemesis Superkart, Eastty took the win in ICE at the first round. He switched to the twin-cylinder division and will challenge for the FE championship title. Eastty battled last year’s ICE champion Andy Kiker (Anderson/Honda CR) all weekend at the first round at Barber. The duo swapped the lead position throughout the final until a broken water hose clamp with two laps to go sidelined Kiker, handing the win to Eastty. Eastty will be a force in the FE division as the Nemesis kart has proven to be a competitive ride.
In the ICE division, Kiker will defend last year’s Road America race victory and possibly regain the point lead with Eastty moving up to the FE division. The task may be a challenge as defending World Karting Association Unlimited champion Randy Domikis (Anderson/Honda CR) and James Ingram (PVP/Gas Gas) will be on hand to battle for the win. Domikis is coming off two victories at the WKA National Road Race Series Grand Nationals at the Virginia International Raceway over the Memorial Day holiday and should be strong this weekend as well. Ingram was quick at the first event this year and battled for the lead in both the Prefinal and Final until mechanical problems forced him out of competition. Look for them and possibly others to be in the hunt for the win this weekend.
EKN web manager David Cole, along with EKN and Super Kart Illustrated publisher Rob Howden, will be at Road America to collect all the happenings throughout the weekend. The duo will post qualifying, Prefinal, and Final results alongside quick updates in an official USSC thread on the EKN 250 Forum. |
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