Track Records Smashed at 2017 SKR Grand Prix

This past weekend the Saskatoon Kart Racers hosted their annual SKR Grand Prix event at Martensville Speedway. On the schedule was practice all day Friday, followed by two separate days of racing for total points to determine the weekend winners who took home the custom trophies.

With out of town drivers and teams showing up for the Friday practice it looked to be a great start to the event but then the weather did not say the same thing. It ended up raining three times and shortened up the day for everyone. Half a dozen drivers ended the day on a wet track to just put some laps in.

Saturday brought an image right out of Days of Thunder.

After the fog cleared it was a perfect day for racing. Everyone was registered and ready to hit the track in blazing speed. First up was Briggs Jr 1 & 2 with Townes Allen laying down a heater of a lap to set a new track record of 51.381 seconds with the previous record set in 2009 at 51.431. Next up was Briggs Light and the trend continued. John Buzza set a new track record at 50.556 seconds, beating the old record set in 2007 at 50.784. Then to everyone’s eyes the next group on track was Briggs Masters and Jason McCumber would one-up his own track record he set two weeks earlier of 52.143 with a heater of 51.844. That would end the trend of track records on the day.

Photo by: Scott Campbell

The Prefinals would see some great racing in all classes setting the grids for the finals. In the finals Townes Allen would walk away with things in the Briggs Jr class followed by Easton Hudson and Liam Allan.

John Buzza would do the same thing in Briggs Light winning by 9.395 seconds over Coltin McCaughan who had Andrew Kerenyi right on his tail. The third track record holder Jason McCumber would continue the dominance winning by 11.166 seconds over Gene Elash and Mark Banks. The Rotax grid was small with Curtis Veselinovich winning over Colby Wallace and Matthew Taskinen. Then the final group was shifter. K&K West brought out five shifters for the event and tried to put on a show for everyone. In the end Ryan Martin would come out on top followed by Jimmy Gregory and Andrew Kerenyi.

Everyone would pack up for the night to be ready to do it all again on Sunday.

When arriving to the track on Sunday the skies showed some rain but by the time the third group hit the track for practice the track would dry up and then the sun came back out of another great day of racing. With all the Briggs running on the same set of tires from Saturday no one was able to touch any track records in qualifying. The grids were set with some new and same faces up front.

Photo by: Scott Campbell

In the final in Briggs Jr Townes Allen was absent so Oliver Wilson-O’Reilly would fill the gap after losing a chain with two laps to go on the Saturday Final while in second place. Oliver would win in dominating fashion with a 21.792-second lead over Kohl MacLaggan and Easton Hudson.

John Buzza would close out the perfect weekend winning all races. John again would win handily over Coltin McCaughan, Andrew Kerenyi , Matthew Taskinen and Colby Wallace. In the Briggs Masters class Carlo Triolo would finish out his perfect day by winning over Jason McCumber, Gene Elash, Mark Banks and Jeff Pfeifer.

Again the Rotax grid was small but Matthew Taskinen had to hold off Curtis Veselinovich the entire race followed by Colby Wallace. Then the shifters would round out the weekend of racing with Blair Kerenyi taking the win followed by Justin Goerz, Jimmy Gregory and Ryan Martin. Then Jimmy Gregory would lay down some donuts at the start finish line to leave a great reminder to everyone about the great of racing.

After all the points were added up for the entire weekend the trophies were handed out to the podium finishers.

Briggs Jr 1
1st Liam Allen
2nd Cole Banks

Briggs Jr 2
1st Oliver Wilson-O’Reilly
2nd Kohl MacLaggan
3rd Easton Hudson

Briggs Light
1st John Buzza
2nd Coltin McCaughan
3rd Andrew Kerenyi

Briggs Masters
1st Jason McCumber
2nd Gene Elash
3rd Carlo Triolo

Rotax Jr
1st Curtis Veselinovich
2nd Colby Wallace

Rotax Sr
1st Matthew Taskinen
2nd Tavneer Deen

Shifter
1st Blair Kerenyi
2nd Ryan Martin
3rd Justin Goerz

The Saskatoon Kart Racers would like to thank everyone that came out to the event to make it a great success with a total entry of 45 karts. 21 of those entries came from out of province. It was nothing like the 100 entries the track had back in the Western Canadian Championships days but it is the beginning of the new chapter and the 2018 event on Canada Day weekend is already in the works to be bigger and better.

Contact Saskatoon Kart Racers at info@saskatoonkartracers.com for more information.