Now into its seventh season, GFC Karting is hitting a new era for the brand. 2025 marks its first season under CIK-FIA homologation certification with the brand’s continued focus on expanding into the international circuit. That began what was a busy opening three months of the 2025 season, a schedule that included multiple events.

Keagan Kaminski brought two wins for GFC at Challenge of the Americas K1 Circuit event (Photo: EKN)

Racing for the GFC crew began at the Challenge of the Americas in Tucson in February before calling K1 Circuit home two weeks in March for the ProKart Challenge and COTA programs. A trip to Texas for the Superkarts! USA Pro Tour WinterNationals wrapped up the travel for the official GFC Karting race team, although team owner Gary Carlton supported many other dealers and events from January to March to begin the year.

“GFC Karting has been stretching the throttle cables during the first quarter of the 2025 race season,” stated Carlton in a team’s email update. “We are doing our best to meet the needs of our customers, from the very new local drivers, up to our national race team program. Our 2025 season started off under a lot of pressure, but we kept grinding and we look forward to the upcoming events.”

To begin the second quarter of 2025, GFC was part of the ROK Sonoma season opener at Sonoma Raceway.

“We had a number of new faces under the tent,” added Carlton. “It was a great chance for our veterans to introduce themselves to our new teammates and help them acclimate to a new environment. Atmosphere under the GFC tent is a very high priority, and we believe it has helped us succeed since starting this team.”

Formula Works is celebrating a great first quarter in 2025 (Photo: Formula Works)

The next events on the calendar for the GFC Karting race team include the third stop for Challenge of the Americas on April 25-27 at Sonoma Raceway. The following weekend is the second round for the ROK Sonoma program to wrap up back-to-back weekends at their home track. The team then travels to Batavia, Ohio on May 22-25 for the Superkarts! USA Pro Tour SpringNationals at the Motorsports Country Club of Cincinnati.

“Since day one, I have had the vision of making GFC a nationally recognized brand in the karting industry. Last year, we finalized a couple of chassis for homologation, which is a huge commitment and step for an international karting company. However, at the season opener of the ROK Sonoma, I found myself having a great time seeing new faces under my tent, and throughout the paddock. I keep reflecting on those moments and it brings a smile to my face, knowing we are creating new memories for new karters.”

The success from the GFC Karting racing team stems into the dealers and their racing squads across the country and the globe.

Formula Works, based in Corona, California, is welcoming another expansion in 2025 with drivers and staff under the tent. Keagan Kaminski has won five races in a row, including both main events for Challenge of the Americas at K1 Circuit and the first three rounds of the ProKart Challenge series. In his second year with FW, Senior rookie Johnie Stamps has two podiums on the year in COTA and PKC competition. Wes Witt is in his first year at the Junior level, enjoying the on and off coaching and development with Formula Works. He transitioned that into a podium at Challenge of the Americas at K1 Circuit. Also in his first Junior season, Cadet champion Braydon Wagner has a podium result as well at the Challenge after pushing hard to learn as much as possible in the short season thus far. A broken thumb at the SKUSA WinterNationals however will have him on the sidelines for a few weeks. Matthew Cagle has two wins already in 2025 to begin his second year in the Junior category, including a wire-to-wire victory at the recent ProKart Challenge weekend.

Ragan Saville grabbed victory in 206 Senior for Trackside Karting Services (Photo: Ken Johnson – Studio52.us)

The addition of Jake Drew to the Formula Works operation full time is another new component for 2025. Drew is multi-time race winner and champion in karting who advanced up the motorsports ranks into NASCAR. In addition to competing in the Pro X30 division on the SKUSA Pro Tour, the former SKUSA SuperNationals top qualifier is working in the shop during the week and driver coaching with the race team while trackside.

Up in the Pacific Northwest, the Wicked Racing operation kicked off their 2025 season with the NWKA Super Cup Series opening weekend in Tri City Kart Club. The Auburn, Washington-based team led by former EKN Driver of the Year and SKUSA Pro Tour champion Kyle Wick picked up seven wins across shifter, TaG, and Briggs 206 categories. Among the winners included two for Jake Drew (TaG Light), two for Cole Hegar (Shifter Heavy), Connor Chinn (206 Senior), Will Beightol (TaG Heavy) and Jacob Gulick (Shifter Light). In total, the Wicked Racing team brought home 15 podium finishes.

In Costa Rica, Advanced Karting is providing quality exposure and success for the GFC Karting brand. The Formal family have helped drivers to win and secure the track record in VLR Senior along with multiple wins and podiums in the Mini ROK division with the GFC RR5.

Wicked Racing opened up the NWKA Super Cup Series with great success (Photo: Wicked Racing)

Scuderia Littel in Salt Lake City, Utah is just getting their 2025 season started, welcoming 21 karts joining their driver development class this past weekend. This year also marked the start of their travel program, with Evan Concepcion earning his first Challenge of the Americas podium in Senior Shifter. 2024 Utah Motorsports Campus Karting Challenge 100cc Junior champion Brody McQuarrie is making the advancement to shifter in 2025, with the race season beginning the first weekend of May.

Texas based Trackside Karting Services opened up the 2025 season at the Speedsportz Racing Park for the Texas Sprint Racing Series program. Picking up a victory for TKS was Ragan Saville in the 206 Senior class while Tyler Morewiec added a runner-up result on 206 Cadet. Davis Henry posted a top five result in KA100 Junior while Gage Bailey, Marshal Steves and Jacob Oliver all had top 10 finishes. Action returns for TKS at Amarillo Kart Complex on May 29-June 1.

Carlton concluded, “Here at GFC we are building a dealer network that doesn’t just include great reliable products to sell, but more importantly strong driving coaching and amazing customer service to go along with our GFC chassis line. In karting we believe the service and atmosphere are just as important, if not more, than the products we sell. We have worked extremely closely with our dealer network to combine everyone’s knowledge and strengths together as one. It’s been very special to see GFC karts being raced in all corners of the globe over a single weekend and all of them having success.”

GFC Links:

Website: gfckarting.com
Facebook: gfckarting
Instagram: gfckarting

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