Senior Sportsman was on life-support last season with no entries at all until the penultimate round. Another season like that and the class would disappear from the club championship.

But this season has seen a resurgence and Senior Sportsman now sports the largest grids of any class and some of the best racing at PKRA. October 26th was no exception with 13 racers taking the grid.

The field included a good mixture of perennial Sportsman racers including the current and past champions, some Sportsman novices and even a cameo appearance by Darryl Stone. Among the Sportsman novices was PKRA Training Director Joshua Lyon who would have a very eventful day.
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Qualifying

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Qualifying saw Andrew Snyder on pole followed by Justin Miller, Chad Brassfield and Lucas Barnett. Full qualifying results can be viewed by clicking here.
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Heat Race (8 laps)

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In the heat race, Justin Miller got a good start. He and Lucas Barnett led pole sitter Andrew Snyder at the end of the first lap. But Andrew fought back to the lead in lap 2. In lap 4 Lucas got around Justin to move into 2nd. Lap 5 saw Andrew fall to 3rd again as Lucas and Justin took over the first two spots. Meanwhile with the problem that marred his qualifying fixed before the heat, Joshua Lyon had steadily moved up from his 8th starting position to 4th while turning the fastest laps of the weekend. By lap 7, he was right behind the lead trio.

Joshua got around Andrew for 3rd place in lap 7 but Andrew outbraked himself trying to regain the position at the end of the back straight ending both of their runs. This photo by Clayton Peck just missed their exit, capturing only the dust trail. Andrew took responsibility after the heat but Josh said it was just a racing incident and that he really enjoyed dicing with Andrew and the other Senior Sportsman racers.

Lucas Barnett continued on to win the heat from his 4th place qualifying spot. Justin Miller, Chad Brassfield and Matt Jackson were close behind. Full heat results can be viewed by clicking here.
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The Main (12 laps)

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The main promised some action with the fast qualifier starting next to last and the fastest driver from the heat by himself in the last row.

As in the heat, Justin moved into the lead in the first lap. Meanwhile Ed Bush spun while avoiding contact in turn 2 and dropped to last place.

By the start of the 2nd lap, Andrew had moved from 12th to 10th and Joshua had moved up from 13th to 8th.

In lap 4, Joshua moved to 6th while Andrew moved up to 8th with Jorge Ledesma Jr. between them.

Josh passed Darryl Stone for 5th in lap 5 at turn 2 and the next lap passed Matt Jackson in turn 5 to take 4th place as Andrew Snyder settled into 7th behind Darryl Stone where he would finish the race but not before setting fastest lap of the main and tying fastest for the day.

Justin looked comfortable up front pulling a few kart lengths on Lucas in the middle of the race, but Lucas was able to close the gap later in the race. With the exception of Josh and Andrew the rest of the order had stayed fairly constant.

It took till lap 9 for Joshua to catch and pass Chad Brassfield in turn 2 to move up to 3rd.

With a gap to 1st and 2nd and only 3 laps left, it seemed that Joshua may have moved up as far as he would. But Joshua managed to catch and outbrake Lucas into turn 2 on lap 10 and take 2nd. The pass put Joshua off line, hurting his speed down the long back straight which allowed Justin to extend his lead a bit.

Joshua put his head down and closed back up on Justin for the final run down the back straight. It was now or never and Joshua leaned his motor to the limit and swooped past Justin in turn 5 to take the lead.

It was a close finish with Justin, Lucas and Chad all within a second of Josh at the checkered flag.

Full race results can be viewed by clicking here.

Race winner Joshua Lyon commented after the race that he doesn’t know a lot about Yamahas yet but is enjoying racing in this class as he has racing Shifters and TaG.

Senior Sportsman is this season’s largest class, and Rookie Sportsman is the only other class with double digit grids for every race. Both are providing good, hard fought racing at low costs.

More than 30 years after its introduction to kart racing, the Yamaha KT100 is still going strong.

All photos courtesy of NboundZ Racing. All of NboundZ race 5 photos can be viewed by clicking here.

June 25, 2008 – by Brian Rasmussen

With record high temperatures being recorded during the month of June, the Superkarts! USA Desert Kart Challenge racers braved the brutal conditions to close out the 2008 season on June 21 at the P1 Karting Circuit in Tucson, AZ. Record numbers were also found on the track at the sixth and final round of the series, as the grid reached its highest kart count of the year. Highlighting the on-track battles was double winner Bud Grossenbacher, who bagged a pair of victories, one of which earned him the TaG Senior championship.

Grossenbacher was locked with rival James Rooke at the top of the TaG division standings heading into the final round. The duo has been the class of the field all year long and this continued last Saturday. Rooke had the advantage over Grossenbacher in qualifying, 0.116-seconds to be exact, setting up for a 1-2 battle throughout the day. Grossenbacher got the jump on Rooke at the start of heat one, holding him off for the win while Rooke retaliated in heat two to earn the pole for the main. Entering the feature race, Rooke had a 10-point advantage by virtue of the top qualifier honor, however, the winner of the final race would take home the championship.

The 20-lap final was a nail-biter as Rooke led Grossenbacher around the 8/10-mile circuit, nose-to-tail. Grossenbacher seemed to be buying his time, looking for the right opportunity and he waited until the white flag was displayed before making his move. Getting a last lap pass to stick, Grossenbacher took the checkered flag by 0.234-seconds over Rooke to earn the TaG Senior championship by 20 points with the addition of the fast lap award. Taylor Monnig finished third in both the feature and the final tally in the standings. All in all, it was a terrific battle that bodes well for the future of TaG racing in the Desert Kart Challenge.

Grossenbacher wasn’t done yet as he was chasing Peter Workum for the S1 championship as well. Needing to sweep the weekend to tie Workum in the standings at the end of the day, Grossenbacher put his ride on the pole for the opening heat race. Cruising to the victory in heat one, Grossenbacher looked to be on the same path in heat two until a slip-up put him off-track and allowed Workum to slide through for the race win. Bouncing back from his mistake, Grossenbacher stormed through and led all 20 laps of the feature. It would not be enough, as Workum took second and earned the championship by just five points in the process.

S3 saw a tight point battle between two drivers as well, with Paul Flori holding the advantage over rookie Harley Owen heading into round six. Flori posted the fastest lap in qualifying, but that would be the last time Flori was at the front of the class as Owen took home both heat wins and the feature victory. Flori came home second in each of the three races, giving him enough points to earn the S3 title by 40 points. Abraham Jones made his first DKC start in the S3 class, finishing the main event on the podium in third.

Dave Van Gordon nearly completed another perfect weekend en route to the S4 championship. Joe Johnson spoiled Van Gordon’s perfect day, as he edged the eventual champion by just 0.040-seconds in qualifying. That fueled the fire under Van Gordon’s seat – as he would go on to dominate the remainder of the day with over 10-second victories in the two heat races and the main event. Johnson won the battle for second over Pete Pittman, who finished the year second in the standings.

TaG Masters earned the honor of the highest kart count of the weekend, entitling the winner to receive a $300 track credit and a membership to the P1 facility, which includes two free practice sessions. This brought on a frenzy at the front of the field as multiple drivers sat at the point throughout the day. Michael Zuieback was the top qualifier, but he would be edged by Mike McKinney in the opening heat race by just 0.312 seconds. Neither would find themselves at the point in heat two as Scott Waters worked himself from fourth to first, holding off Byron Teats and Zuieback as McKinney retired on lap four after leading the opening laps. Waters and Teats would lead the field to the green in the 20-lap feature event with Zuieback and Brian Rasmussen making it a quartet up front. Waters held the top spot for the first four laps before Rasmussen and Zuieback each took the point over the next nine laps. This shuffling allowed McKinney to work himself through the field and back up to the lead group. On lap 14, as Zuieback retired from the race, McKinney went around Rasmussen to take over first place. McKinney would stretch out to a six-second advantage to take the victory. Rasmussen held off Teats for the runner-up spot, while Waters was fourth ahead of new class champion Roger Culver.

It was a two-driver show in TaG Junior as Landon Cling and Kolton Griffon paced the class throughout the day. Cling took top honors in qualifying and heat one after shuffling around with Griffon during the first 10-lap race. The second heat race saw Cling retire early on lap eight, allowing Griffon to go on unchallenged for the heat win. With Cling starting from the tail of the field, Griffon had clear sailing in the front for the 20-lap feature race to lead green-to-checkered for the five-second victory. Cling advanced up to second by the halfway mark, but was unable to close the gap with Bailey Murphy, series champion Tyler Cerbo, and Chance Stephens completing the top five.

Season Final Points can be viewed via the PKRA Points page.

6/14/08

Tonight,

The crew from Innovative Karting along with the Yerkovich Racing Team decided to go out to spread the word about the sport we love. For those that don’t know, it is Karting at PKRA. Contacting management at Manzanita Speedway in Central Phoenix, we put together a few karts and some PKRA information to bring our karts to the public with a great display of karts on the midway. They were running the Hank Arnold Memorial event with the ASCS Sprint cars, AZ Midgets, and AZ Mini Sprints on the 1/2 and 3/8 mile dirt ovals. There were many former PKRA members running that night that can say that their experience gained racing karts at PKRA was very beneficial to here they are now. Jeremy Regales, Nathan High, Seainn Hendricsen, Nick Aiuto, Paul Martin were just a few that were running.

We made some great contacts and handed out many PKRA flyers to a good amount of interested future racers. We brought out a kid kart, TaG kart and an HPV kart to show the depth of our sport.

Thank you Pete, Brenda, Petie and Tommy Yerkovich along with my wife Melissa, and son Matthew along with Discount tire and the fine staff at Manzanita speedway for supporting the sport we love.

Curtis Ruth
WWW.INNOVATIVEKARTING.COM
WWW.TIRES.COM
WWW.MANZANITASPEEDWAY.US
WWW.PKRA.COM

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BlueBayou Motorsports is giving one lucky Arizona State Championship racer a half day kart racing class ($300 value)!

Winner will be selected by drawing at season end. The more races you enter, the better your chances. You must register once by December 10, 2008 to be eligible. Click here to register via email for the drawing. Click here to register via forum post. Click here to see a list of registered racers and additional information.

The instructor is professional driving coach, reigning SKUSA DKC and Arizona State Shifter champion and multiple time PKRA Shifter and TaG champion, Joshua Lyon.

Fine print mumbo-jumbo: Registered racers will have one chance for every event of the 2008 State Championship they entered. Class champions will NOT be eligible (they wouldn’t admit needing it anyway). The training class will be at a mutually agreed upon date and time at the State Championship track closest to the winner’s residence (or mutually agreed alternative). The winner will provide a kart and safety equipment meeting track standards as well as support equipment and supplies. The State Championship tracks are donating the track fees for the session. BlueBayou Motorsports will provide lunch for the student. The training session is NOT transferable to another party.

After Friday’s official timed sessions, De La O looked like the driver to beat as he topped the official time sheets with a time of 58.668, more then three tenths of a second ahead of his closest rival. Though practice does not count towards the championship, De La O showed that his time was no fluke as he took the Junior Intercontinental A (JICA) Gatorz Pole Position on Saturday morning with a solid 58.799 lap as he was the only driver under the 59 second barrier.

With the heat race format, Phil De La O would start all three of his heat races on the inside of the front row pacing the field to the green flag. Heat one and two went exactly as planned as De La O got a jump on the field and led after the opening trio of corners. Setting a blistering pace, the Arizona pilot began to pull away from the stacked JICA filed to claim both heat race victories in Saturday’s action.

“Ending Saturday leading the points towards the pole position is a great feeling,” explained Phil De La O after the day’s events. “Tomorrow is the big day with the final heat race and then both finals. I am looking forward to the challenge of trying to make it a perfect weekend.”

Sunday morning’s third and final heat race did not go as planned for De La O as he found himself in the gravel before even making it to the first corner. Luckily a jump start by the outside pole sitter caused a complete re-start and De La O was able to regain his position at the front of the grid. The second start attempt was perfect and De La O took the lead on the opening lap. Looking to make it three for three in the heat races, Phil was overtaken by a fellow competitor but was able to garner a second place result and the pole position for both main events.

As the opening ceremonies came to a close and the tension mounted, De La O was at ease in his machine. The talented junior pilot was anticipating the start of the event and when the green flag fell, he was determined to stand atop the podium. De La O drove a mistake free race with fast consistent race laps to pull away from the field of independent and factory supported drivers. De La O took his first career Stars of Karting victory by 1.648 seconds while turning the fastest race lap.

Looking to repeat his success in final two, De La O got another great start and led the majority of the race. As the race neared its end, De La O was overtaken by a fellow competitor but managed to secure the second step of the podium and a share of the Snap-on Stars Karting presented by IndyCar Series Western division points lead.

Phil would like to thank his current sponsors and supporters for a successful 2008 season to date: Advanced Karting, High-Rev Engines, Northwest Floor and Wall as well as his family.

For sponsorship opportunities and more information on Phil de La O and De La O Racing, please contact Phil De La O Sr. at 602.697.1255 or via e-mail at Phil@Northwestfloorandwall.com

Published with permision of EKN-Rob Howden

Superkarts! USA regional program lights up the night in Tucson

TUCSON, AZ (April 19, 2008) – The SKUSA Desert Kart Challenge (DKC) hosted its fourth round this past weekend, racing at the P1 Kart Circuit in Tucson, Arizona. Bud Grossenbacher earned his second straight TaG Senior victory in DKC competition, sweeping the on-track sessions for the class. The feat was no easy task as he was hounded all day long, from qualifying through the main event. James Rooke and Taylor Monning applied the pressure in the two heat races and the final, as well. Monning earned the second spot in the final, just under a second behind Grossenbacher with Rooke finishing third.

Three shifterkart classes and three TaG categories battled under the lights at the 8/10-mile track, which is a replica of the famous Suzuka Kart Circuit in Japan, and the entries were up from the last round, signaling the growing popularity of this new SKUSA series. TaG Masters saw another class sweep, this time by Jim Flynn, as he led all the sessions on the day, including a flag-to-flag win in the final. Flynn held off Helmar Beregszaszy, who drove from fifth to second in both of the heat races, in the final by just 0.664-seconds at the line. Close behind all day, and in the final, was third place finisher Sean Kingston.

TaG Junior had the best kart count of the year with seven drivers in the paddock, but only one pilot rose above the rest and he it was Kolton Griffin. Making his DKC debut, Griffin was fast all day, putting in a dominating performance by sweeping all on-track action. Scoring maximum points on the day, including the fast lap of 50.935 seconds, Griffin stretched out to a 16-second victory over championship leaders Tyler Cerbo and Chance Stephens.

In the shifter categories, all three classes ran on-track together, providing great excitement with S1, S3, and S4 all battling each other for position. Grossenbacher, who was running double duty in TaG and S1, had the overall final victory all but wrapped up until an engine failure with five laps to go put him on the sidelines. This gave the overall lead to S3 class leader Harley Owen, who earned his second straight victory. Mike Jimenez and Paul Flori completed the S3 class and overall podium. With Grossenbacher out, Curtis Ruth was handed the S1 lead and the victory ahead of Peter Workum in second. In S4, Dave Van Gordon made it four-for-four on the year with another win in the Stock Moto class. Tommy Baker and Joe Johnson stood alongside Van Gordon on the podium.

The series will continue with Round #5 scheduled for May 3 at the Phoenix Kart Racing Association facility in Phoenix, AZ. For results and point standings, visit www.p1kartcircuit.com or contact Charles Quiroz by email at Charlie@p1kartcircuit.com

About Superkarts! USA:

Established in 1995, Superkarts! USA is dedicated to shifterkart racing and is the leader in the field, currently promoting three regional racing series located on the West Coast, with challenging racing program running in Southern California, Northern California and Arizona. These programs all lead to the annual SKUSA SuperNationals, the biggest shifter kart race in the world, held every November in Las Vegas, NV. For more information on SKUSA, please visit http://www.superkartsusa.com/

About the Desert Kart Challenge:

The Desert Kart Challenge series debuted last year as the first new regional program under the Superkarts! USA banner, bringing high-quality shifter kart and TaG racing to Arizona. The series consists of six racing events at P1 Kart Circuit in Tucson and the Phoenix Kart Racing Association facility in Phoenix.

Rob Howden
EKartingnews.com