After scoring a pair of podiums at the opening round of the 2018 Challenge of the Americas, Alex Keyes (BirelART) dominated the second round of the tour, taking home both victories in the Rok Shifter category and placing himself right into the championship hunt heading into the third and final round.
An increase in entries at CalSpeed Karting was shown in the Rok Shifter class as a total of 18 shifter karts lined up on the grid, led by Keyes after Saturday Qualifying. He went untouched in the Prefinal to win by 4.5 seconds over Clinton Schoombee (Aluminos) and Enzo Prevost (CRG).
In the Saturday Final, Keyes was once again lights out, pulling away early and then cruising in the 25-lap main event. Championship contenders and race winners in Phoenix Kol Bailey (Praga) and Nicky Hayes (Ricciardo) would push forward and join Keyes on the podium.
On Sunday Schoombee closed the gap to Keyes and in the Final, he kept the race leader on his toes all race long. Keeping within a couple of kart lengths the entire race, Schoombee looked ready to pounce, but just wasn’t able to pull the trigger and had to settle for second at the finish. Hayes was in contention early too, launching to second off the start, but he was forced to retire midway through the race with a mechanical issue. Bailey secured his fourth straight podium in finishing third, to keep himself right in the championship hunt as well.
In the Rok Shifter Masters battle, Kalvin Chen (CRG) was victorious in both races. Zoli Sule and Nick Firestone joined him on the podium, swapping the second and third positions in the two Finals.
