Greco Surprises with DD2 Pole-Position; Qualifying Complete at US Open of Las Vegas

All nine classes hit the temporary track at the RIO all Suites Hotel and Casino on Thursday for Qualifying, setting the grids for the heat races in the season final of the Sofina Foods US Open Karting Championship presented by FIKSE Wheels.

A newcomer to the Rotax DD2 category, Canadian Davide Greco topped the charts in Qualifying. Making only his major second start in the two-speed class, Greco nipped Mercedes DTM driver Robert Wickens by 0.158 seconds to score the pole-position by a significant margin aboard his PSL Karting Birel ART machine. Two more Canadian drivers followed, Canadian Champion Alessandro Bizzotto and Zachary Claman DeMelo with Swede Andreas Backmann completing the top-five.

There was another unexpected driver on top in Rotax Junior as Yuven Sundaramoorthy put another PSL Karting Birel ART on the pole-position, a best qualifying effort in his young career. Fresh off his pole-position at the Rotax Grand Finals in Italy, Canadian Ryan MacDermid was second, only 0.019 seconds back followed by Tyler Gonzalez, Dylan Tavella and Stephen Mallozzi in the 35-kart field.

Rotax Junior

There’s a refreshed look to the Rotax Senior field as 26 drivers are entered after only eleven made it to Utah. Ryan Norberg has been very fast in every category he’s raced this year and posted the fastest time in Qualifying, ahead of South African Jordan Sherratt. Frenchman Thomas Drouet was third, Championship point’s leader Austin Garrison was fourth fastest followed by David Malukas.

In the Shifter Senior category there is a solid group of drivers entered for the big show in Las Vegas this weekend. Jake French edged out Continental Sportscar racer Remo Ruscitti by just under a tenth of a second for the first starting position on the standing start grid. Veteran Ron White was third fastest with US Rotax Senior National Champion Jake Craig fourth and Sabre Cook fifth.

Shifter Senior

Only a week after claiming the Rotax Grand Finals title in Italy, Diego LaRoque in on the pole-position in Micro-Max while Jak Crawford leads in Mini-Max, Ryan Kinnear in Shifter Masters, Luis Schiavo in DD2 Masters and Billy Cleavelin in Masters Max.

Drivers will have four progressive heats to determine the starting grids for Saturday’s all-in Championship finals in Las Vegas!

Don’t forget, you can watch the live web broadcast of the race of https://www.canadiankartingnews.com.