(Photo: EKN)

The eKartingNews.com TaG Driver Rankings presented by Skip Barber Racing School could come down to a fight for the second position. Since 2021, Ryan Norberg has led the way in the standings, and continued to improve his score throughout the 2022 season with a winning streak of 11, including SKUSA Pro Tour and United States Pro Kart Series competition. The USPKS finale is ahead with the opportunity for drivers to not only end Norberg’s streak, but also position themselves toward the closing stages of the Driver Rankings.

Norberg’s score at the top of the EKN TaG Driver Rankings improved by 48 points from his two victories at the SKUSA Pro Tour SummerNationals at New Castle. The USPKS finale is set for the Indiana facility in September, which could allow him to elevate his point total even more before defending the SKUSA SuperNationals victory in Vegas this November. The lead is now 354 points with Rolison Performance Group teammate Hayden Jones moving into the lead challenger position. The North Carolina driver is holding onto a win in his RPG debut last October at USPKS and has really put together a strong start to the second half of 2022 with multiple top-five finishes, including two podium results at the SummerNationals. That demoted Canadian Thomas Nepveu (Trinity Karting Group / Kart Republic) down to third. Nepveu, who has not competed in karting since the WinterNationals, lost points from the drop of last year’s SummerNationals results but keeps himself inside the top-three despite his focus on the Cooper Tires USF200 Championship.

With the move of Jones into second spot has also dropped Pauly Massimino down to third. After starting the season with Ryan Perry Motorsport, Massimino made his debut with Speed Concepts Racing aboard the CRG chassis at the SummerNationals. He was primed for a top-10 on Saturday before contact on the last lap put him into the wall. He finished 8th on Sunday, however, lost over 100 points from last month’s total with the departure of points for SummerNationals 2021. Jumping up to fifth, up four spots is new PSL Karting / Birel ART driver Diego Ramos. The Brazilian made his debut with the team at the USPKS Badger State Grand Prix, finishing top-five both days and added a runner-up and seventh place results from the SummerNationals to position himself only 63 points out of second in the Driver Rankings.

His advancement dropped new teammate Marijn Kremers down to sixth. The #2 in the EKN Shifterkart Driver Rankings, Kremers is the only driver to currently sit inside the top-10 in both standings. Hannah Greenemeier (RPG / LN Racing Kart) is in the top-15 in both, sitting 13th here in the TaG standings. She is the only driver to fall out of the top-10 this month, having not competed in a TaG event since this winter. Kremers was unable to break into the top-10 at the SummerNationals after a promising weekend at Road America for USPKS at the beginning of July.

One driver that also improved based on his SummerNationals results was rookie Jeremy Fletcher (Ryan Perry Motorsport / Tony Kart). Fletcher recorded a fifth-place finish on Saturday at New Castle, along with a 12th Sunday to elevate himself into the top-10, now sitting seventh in the Driver Rankings. Current USF Juniors championship contender Alessandro de Tullio (Parolin USA) falls to eighth, having not been in a kart for a few months now. The same for Nate Cicero (Rolison Performance Group / Kosmic), who is ninth with a fall of five positions. Cicero, the 2021 Mazda Motorsports Spec MX-5 Shootout winner, has focused the last few weeks on that program however will return for the USPKS finale. Rounding out the top-10 is SKUSA Winter Series champion Matheus Morgatto (AM / Exprit), who has been competing in Europe this season. Looking ahead, second thru 10th is only separated by 192 points which should see some more changes for position in the September rankings following the USPKS finale, leading up into October and November.

Upcoming EKN TaG Driver Rankings Schedule

TaG #1 – Ryan Norberg
Orlando, Florida

(Photo: On Track Promotions – otp.ca)

With each race, Ryan Norberg continues to expand his position in the record books. Since the EKN Driver Rankings was established, there has not been a perfect season with seven victories to complete their year-end point total. Norberg has already solidified that his best seven results of the 2022 will be a victory, having recorded 11 straight in SKUSA Pro Tour and USPKS competition. It will all depend on the SKUSA SuperNationals 25 finish. If the result is not a repeat victory but a higher point total then any of his victories in 2022, his average finishing position will not be a perfect season. Until then, we wait to see if he can wrap up the regular season with a 13-straight victory run with the USPKS finale ahead.

Point Breakdown

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TaG #2 – Hayden Jones
Matthews, North Carolina

(Photo: On Track Promotions – otp.ca)

Up six spots to second, Hayden Jones is having his best season in the Senior ranks. The one-year anniversary for his move to Rolison Performance Group will be in October, when he will lose the sole victory he has for his Driver Rankings total. That is not the reason for his move up to the second spot. It has been the run in July, recording two fourth-place finishes at USPKS in Elkhart Lake and his first two career podium results at the SKUSA Pro Tour in New Castle. The freshman at Virginia Tech will take a weekend off with a trip to the USPKS finale at New Castle, where he can improve his point total even more.

Point Breakdown

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TaG #3 – Thomas Nepveu
Oka, Quebec, Canada

(Photo: Trinity Karting Group)

It has been since the opening weekend of April that Thomas Nepveu has competed in a major karting event. The majority of the season has been focused on his second-year campaign of the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship program. Nepveu is currently sixth in the point standings, with his best finish in the 15th and latest round in Toronto with a runner-up result. The series concludes this weekend in Portland with the final three rounds. On the karting side, Thomas lost 111 points from the 2021 SKUSA Pro Tour being removed from the Rankings program.

Point Breakdown

EKN Driver Rankings Calculation Process
The EKN Driver Rankings are calculated using a driver’s best finishes in major North American races. Assembled using events from the previous 12 months from the current date, we use a driver’s best seven finishes in the TaG and Shifterkart categories to determine their overall current point total. With each new release, results posted from more than one year ago are discarded. To deliver our ranking list, we tabulate the results of all the national programs and selected regional programs. We have also included the results for the major one-off events such as the SKUSA SuperNationals, the Rock Island Grand Prix, and other special races.

Each race is initially weighted based on the prestige and history of the event or series with a score of ten (10) being the highest attainable base ranking. For 2022, the SKUSA SuperNationals will receive a score of 10 in its initial weighting in the TaG and Shifterkart categories. A base ranking of 9.5 is set for the SKUSA Pro Tour, while a base ranking of 9 goes to the SKUSA Winter Series, United States Pro Kart Series, Florida Winter Tour, Challenge of the Americas, ROK the RIO, Rotax Grand Nationals, Rock Island Grand Prix, and California ProKart Challenge. Other national and regional program races were given a base ranking of either 8.5 or 8.0.

The EKN staff reserves the right to adjust the rankings of each event throughout the year. A minimum entry total for any event to be considered for the Driver Rankings program is five (5). If an event does not have at least five (5) drivers starting the race, those results will not be tabulated toward the Driver Rankings.

Added to these initial rankings are two variables that help confirm the true importance of an event to the ranking process – field size and field strength. A percentage of one weighting point is added for the size of the field, while the number of existing top-50 drivers entered offers another full point or fraction of a point. The sum of these numbers becomes the overall ranking for any race.

Following a race, drivers receive points based on their finishing positions with 100 points earned for a win. Each subsequent position drops by one point with 99 points given to the second-place driver and so on throughout the field. These points are then multiplied by the overall ranking to produce a driver’s final point total from each event. Using a driver’s best seven races, we calculate each driver’s overall score and subsequent ranking.

EKN TaG Driver Rankings presented by Skip Barber Racing School – as of August 26, 2022

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