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| July 28, 2005 News |
| EKN Trackside: United States Superkart Championship - Preview |
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 | Defending champion J.R. Osborne wil hope to add his second victory of the year this weekend
(Photo: Super Kart Illustrated) |
This weekend will mark the halfway point in this year’s United States Superkart Championship as the teams will travel again to the Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama this weekend. The USSC will headline the Pro Kart Invitational, a support program made up of karting classes that is on the docket for the Grand American Series Porsche 250 Presented by Bradley Arant.
The weekend format will not be as it was in the previous two rounds. This weekend’s schedule will not include a Prefinal and will incorporate qualifying and the final race on the same day. Since Prefinal results count toward the year end standings, additional points will be awarded during the final in the absence of the Prefinal.
In the Formula E (FE) category, reigning champion and current point’s leader J.R. Osborne will be one of the favorites to win round three. The Colorado resident took the first round victory at Barber with a rented kart from second place in points, Johnny West (Stockman/Honda RS). Osborne is coming off a disappointing couple of events, including round two at Road America. The driver who has been running consistently well is West. The 250cc Superkart veteran has earned two runner-up finishes in the first two rounds and will be looking to score his first win of the season this weekend. Chasing both of them will be newcomer Derek Eastty (Nemesis/FPE). Eastty made the switch from Intercontinental E (ICE) to FE before the second round. The Nemesis Superkart Team showed signs of quickness but were unable to sort out the problems in time for the final. After more testing and track time, the new package will be looking to earn its first FE win of the year.
 | The duo of Andy Kiker and James Ingram will lead the charge in the ICE division
(Photo: Super Kart Illustrated) |
A battle that will continue is the ICE points chase between defending champion Andy Kiker (Anderson/Honda CR) and James Ingram (PVP/GasGas). Kiker currently leads Ingram with a third and first place finish in the first two rounds and is coming off a victory at the WKA Road Race Series at Summit Point Raceway last weekend. Ingram has been strong in both events, earning the Prefinal victory at Road America but has been hampered with mechanical troubles in the final races. The Texan will hope to put away that trouble in hopes of gaining some valuable points in the chase for the title as well as his first final victory. Chasing the duo will be a handful of competitors including Randy Domikis (Anderson/Honda CR), who missed the second round but finished second the first round at Barber. Tim Richardson (Anderson/Honda CR) will make his USSC debut this weekend. The 125 shifter pilot ran the October event at Barber last year and finished second overall. Also making his debut this weekend will be Marc Miller. The Carhartt CASCAR driver will debut the Project SKI GP 250, a two year process of rebuilding an older Anderson chassis with a newer Honda CR.
EKN will be trackside and provide updates throughout the weekend. |
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