KA100 Senior podium

The second of nine rounds was held on yet another warm and beautiful mid-winter weekend at K1 Circuit in Winchester, California, from February 28 to March 1. The event saw triple-digit participation yet again, eclipsing the prior driver account thanks to familiar faces from Round 1 and over 40 new racers. Drivers represented the United States, Mexico, Canada, Poland, and the United Arab Emirates.

COTF America partner Kart Chaser once again provided professional broadcasts from the two-day event, complete with live commentary and interviews on their YouTube channel.

The second round saw a return visit to K1 Circuit, this time racing the Pro Track with Chicanes, and “D’s” for a new challenge.  Tire manufacturer Presa by Maxxis provided all the tires for the event with professionalism.

The second round of the 2026 season celebrated the wins of six great drivers: Carson Bishop (Mini U10), Forrest Blair (Mini), Braydon Wagner (KA100 Junior), Frankie Mossman (KA100 Senior), Ryan Casner (KA100 Heritage), and Jake Drew (X30 Pro).

MINI U10: Carson Bishop Continues To Dominate

Mini U10 podium

Despite the U10 field tripling in size since the last round, championship leader Carson Bishop (Bishop Motorsports) continued his dominating fashion, winning all three qualifying heats, including a third-place overall with the older Mini class, the Super Heat, and pole position. Bishop sailed away with the class win, finishing fifth overall amongst the older Mini class. Lyon McPhail (Kartnick) looked like they were going to take home a podium finish, but did not finish with four laps to go and had to settle for tenth. Instead, Timothy Borodavchenko inherited second, and Sebastian Matyjaszczyk (Pickle Rick Racing) took home a third-place trophy to join the second-place trophy he won last round.

Dan Duculescu (GFC) finished in fourth, Jin Vallon (Kup Gang) took fifth, Michael Dean III (Precision Works) came in sixth, Christian Dingizian (Kup Gang) finished seventh, Antle Spencer (West Coast Motorsports) came in eighth, and Isaias Vega (Speed Sense Motorsports) finished ninth.

MINI: Forrest Blair Goes From Eighth to First in Masterclass Drive

Mini podium

Round 1 podium finishers Maddox Carlucci (Nash Motorsportz), Forrest Blair (GFC), and Kendall West (Position One Motorsports) picked up where they left off, with Maddax scoring two qualifying heat wins, Forrest Blair with one qualifying heat win, and West claiming the Super Heat win following the disqualification of Blair for a technical nonconformity.

This meant Maddux started the final race from pole position with West joining him on the front row, while Round 1 winner Blair would have to start the race in eighth position.

Carlucci stormed away from the pole with West right behind him at the start. On Lap 2, West took advantage of a mistake by Carlucci to take the lead, while Blair made up four positions on the first lap to move up to fourth. By Lap 3, Blair was up to third – a gain of five spots in two laps. On the fourth lap, the Round 1 podium finishers were emerging as a class of their own, pulling away from the rest of the field. At half distance, Carlucci led West and Blair. With two to go, Blair was back up front and went on to hold off West and Carlucci to take a second consecutive win, and a carbon copy of last round’s podium. These three are looking to be the ones to beat this season.

Matthew Paciulli (HRT) finished fourth, Asher Biezonsky (Competition Speed) in fifth, Lucas Tarango (Ruthless Karting) in sixth, Canada’s Sebastian Ochi (Kartnick) in seventh, Mexico’s Matteo Gomez (Position One Motorsports) in eighth, Benjamin Tavi (Nash Motorsportz) in ninth, and Canadian William Wark (Wark Racing) in tenth.

KA100 Junior: Wagner Comes from Behind to Win Chaotic Final

KA100 Junior podium

Coming from a third-place finish in the Round 1 final, Sebastian Hauser (HRT), the local racer from Winchester, scored two heats and pole position for the final.  Cameron Johnson (Nash Motorportz) was the only other driver to win leading up to the final, with two qualifying heat victories.

It was a race full of lead changes, contact, and dramatic swings in fortune from start to finish. Hauser led from pole, while Johnson passed Bronson Koustas (Kartnick) for second on the opening lap. Round 1 winner Braydon Wagner (Formula Works Racing), starting fourth, dropped seven spots on lap one looked out of contention early.

The chaos continued on lap two when Hauser ran wide at Turn 13, falling to fifth and handing the lead to Johnson. Wes Witt (Formula Works) moved into second on lap three, and by lap six, Hauser had clawed his way back into the top three. On lap eight, Hauser retook the lead after Johnson locked up and ran wide at Turn 6, dropping to third. Wagner steadily recovered to fourth by lap 11, while Witt’s race unraveled with a drop to 15th at Rocky Moran.

Tyren Scott (HRT) charged forward, gaining six positions and taking over the lead on Lap 13. In the closing laps he executed a bold over-under move on the top two and appeared to secure the win amid a frantic fight with Wagner and Keegan Ellsworth (Formula Works). Ellsworth, who started sixth and had earlier fallen down the order after a mid-race incident, mounted an impressive comeback. On the final corner of the last lap, Johnson made contact with Koustas allowing Ellsworth to captialize and cross the line in a podium position.

However, the drama wasn’t over. Scott was handed a five-second penalty for causing an incident that stripped him of the victory. That decision handed the win to Wagner in a remarkable turnaround drive, with Ellsworth classified second, Hauser promoted to third to cap a wildly chaotic race.

Alejandro Gonzalez (HRT) would finish fourth, Johnson would have to settle for fifth, Diesel Biezonsky (Competition Speed) made up five positions to finish sixth, Henry Escalette (HRT) would finish seventh, Troy Ferguson (Kartnick) would make up an impressive 12 positions to finish eighth, Alek Dininski (Kartnick) finished ninth. Scott, after the post-race penalty, was classified as tenth.

KA100 Senior – Mossman Concludes Karting Career in Style

COTF America newcomer Frankie Mossman (Kartnick), the decorated kart racer, arrived determined to finish his karting career on top as he moves on to the world of car racing this year. In the heat races, Mossman won two qualifying heats and a Super Heat on his way to pole position for the final. Round 1 winner Johnie Stamps (Formula Works) kept his momentum going with two heat wins to join Mossman on the front row. Jackson Menchu (Calvo Driver Development) scored a qualifying heat and Super Heat win to start third.

Mossman was overtaken at the start of the race by Stamps and Archer Eversman (Axis Kartsport), who took the lead of the race on Lap 2 ahead of Stamps and Mossman. At the start of lap 4, Stamps tried to retake the lead on the inside of Turn 1, but lost momentum approaching Rocky Moran Corner, losing several positions by the time he exited the banked turn and dropping to fifth. This placed Spencer Smith (Pantano) into the third position. The trio of Mossman, Eversman, and Smith would shuffle positions over the next handful of laps, with Mossman never staying out of the lead for long. By the end of lap 10, Mexico’s Gerardo Peralta (2B Racing) would replace Eversman in third. With two to go, Mossman has stretched out a  1.4 seconds over Smith and Peralta, who were engaged in a tight battle for second, with Stamps putting heavy pressure. Stamps went for a move on Peralta exiting Turn 6, but the two touched, allowing Matthew Cagle (Formula Works) to overtake teammate Stamps and take over fourth. Peralta, on the first corner of the last lap, lost two positions to drop to fifth, promoting Cagle to third. Mossman then soared to victory with a healthy 3-second gap over Smith and Cagle.

Stamps would finish just outside the podium in fourth, Peralta in fifth, and Menchu in sixth. Henry Falls-Hand (Precision Karting), in his first COTF America race, made up three positions to finish seventh, Eversman crossed the line eighth, Luis Perez (Mike Manning Karting) in ninth, and Stephen Eisert (Speedsense) made up seven positions to finish in the top ten.

KA100 Heritage: Casner Wins Three-Way Battle in COTF Debut

KA100 Heritage podium

Since Round 1 winner Austin Elliott, team principal of Speedsense, decided to return to his day job, the top step of the podium was all to play for in Round 2. Paul Bonilla (Phil Giebler Racing) looked just as strong as he did in Round 1, winning three heats and pole position. Ryan Casner (Casner Racing Development) was the only other heat winner leading up to the final race.

The final was a three-horse race for the win between Joshua Daley (Nash Motorsportz), Casner, and Bonilla. Joshua Daley got a great start on the inside of Bonilla with Casner right behind, displacing the polesitter to third at the end of the first lap. The top three quickly built up a two second gap after two laps as teammates Tony Gomez (Lakeside Karting) and Shane Hawkins (Lakeside Karting) battled for fourth. By Lap 11, the trio had built up a near 5-second gap to fourth position, despite swapping positions throughout the race. At Turn 1 of the last lap, Casner dove into the inside of Daley at Turn 1, taking the lead and forcing Daley wide, which allowed Bonilla to take second, but Daley went side-by-side with Bonilla at the first “D” and took second, challenging for first. Slight contact between Bonilla and Daley unsettled the two drivers, but Daley held on to second, with Bonilla third. They’d remain in those three positions as Casner took his first win of the season.  With just two-tenths of a second separating the three-kart frontrunners at the finish, the three veterans put on a great show for those in attendance. However, post-race, Daley was found at fault for causing the incident with Bonilla and was handed a five-second penalty. Thanks to their sizeable gap to fourth position, Daley was able to hold on to a podium finish in third, advancing Bonilla into second place. Hawkins would finish in fourth, just four-tenths behind Daley after the penalty. In fifth was Kyle Armstrong (Speedsense), sixth went to Gomez, seventh went to Johnny Huang, and Craig Vasquez (Mike Manning Karting) endured another difficult weekend to finish in eighth.

X30 Pro: Déjà Vu for Drew, Doan and Karamseili

X30 Pro podium

After only scoring one heat win in Round 1, Jake Drew (Formula Works) turned things up for Round 2, sweeping all heats and earning pole position for the final. But the cooler evening temperatures would ensure that Drew wouldn’t be able to storm away from his two closest competitors from Round 1, Erik Doan (West Coast Motorsports) and Sergei Karamseili (Formula Works).

At the start, Doan made a slow getaway and dropped to third by Turn 1, with Drew in first and Karamseili in third. Three laps later, Doan passed Karamseili at Turn 1 to take over second. The following lap, Doan made an inside move on Drew at Turn 6 and took over the lead briefly before Drew returned the favor on the next lap at the same turn. But Doan wasn’t content to stick around in second, and on Lap 11, he dove into the inside of Drew at Turn 2, taking the lead by the time they hit Rocky Moran Corner. But Drew retook the lead from Doan again into the next turn. That would be the last change for the lead for the remainder of the race, as Jake Drew took a second consecutive win and Doan, appearing to struggle with his tires, was able to hold off Karamseili for second, in a carbon copy of last event’s podium. Daniel Perez (Speedsense) would finish fourth, 2.4 seconds behind the podium racers, while Mateo Calderon (Axis Kartsport) would finish fifth, and Anthony Freese (West Coast Motorsports) would finish sixth after only completing half distance.

Just Three Weeks Until Round Three!

Round 3 of the Champions of the Future America series takes place back at K1 Circuit, but with a considerable twist – for the first time in the track’s history, K1 Circuit will run a race in reverse. The track layout will be the same used for Round 2, but with the reverse direction, it will feel like a completely different circuit for these racers. You won’t want to miss it, as a racer or spectator. Registration opens soon for the event that runs March 21-22, with open practice on March 20.

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