SuperKarts! USA’s expansion plans continue this weekend with the first race of their Florida Winter Series at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Months of anticipation have finally come to fruition with a refreshed look to the popular parking lot circuit at the Nascar facility just south of Miami. Over 200 drivers have entered into the event, which caters to Stock Moto Shifter, Iame, and Briggs & Stratton classes.
A look at the entry list see’s a number of Canadian drivers in attendance this weekend, along with a sold out 44-entry field in Mini Swift. As expected, there are strong numbers in X30 Junior and X30 Senior, while the shifter and Briggs entries are pretty soft.
Unfortunately, CKN will not be trackside for the event this weekend, but here are a couple of our notes on who’s racing and what we’re expecting. We will also follow up with some results on our social networks.
Travisanutto seeking redemption in X30 Senior
After making the debut for Kart Republic at the SKUSA SuperNationals and delivering a knock-out in the Sunday Final, Italian Lorenzo Travisanutto was controversially penalized for jumping the start and was stripped of the victory. He has returned to the USA this weekend, again with Kart Republic, and will again be seeking that top step of the SKUSA podium.
PSL Karting’s Ryan Norberg will fly the National #1 for the second year in a row and he’s always strong in his home state of Florida. National number 3 Brandon Jarsocrak is also in Florida this weekend along with the likes of fellow Americans Dante Yu, Jake French, AJ Myers and Christian Brooks.
A look at the Canadian contingent see’s a number of maple leafs led by Ryan MacDermid, making his debut with Prime Powerteam. Racing Edge Motorsports has Logan Cusson, Mark Davis while Rolison Performance Group is home to Samuel Lupien.
New Season, New Juniors Hunting for the Podium
There are a number of fresh new drivers entering the Junior ranks in 2018 and while some jumped the gun and moved up for the SuperNats, this weekend will be the first of many this season to see what could be a very competitive season of Junior competition, regardless of the series and engine.
The class should hit the cap of 44 drivers come Qualifying and looking at the returning racers, Tyler Gonzalez, Matheus Morgatto, Thomas Nepveu, Arias Deukmedjian, Jace Denmark-Gessel, Tyler Maxson and Jeremy Fairbairn, they all should start with a leg up. But up from Mini last year, Kyffin Simpson, Luca Mars, Justin Arseneau, Dale Curran, Santiago Trisini, Nicholas Terlecki and Sebastien Montoya, were all big race winners last year and shouldn’t take long to find the podium in their rookie Junior campaigns.
Mackenzie Clark will join Nepveu, Curran, and Arseneau to make up the Canadian drivers in Junior this weekend.
Trio of Canadians in Briggs LO206 Classes
It’s been tried a number of times in the state of Florida, but it doesn’t seem to garner the attention the rest of North America is showing for the Briggs & Stratton LO206 program. SKUSA has included a Senior and Masters option for Briggs racers and it only attracted a total of 20 drivers, many of which are pulling double-duty.
Marc Stehle and Alex Murphy will represent Canada in Senior while Eli Yanko has entered into the Master’s division.
No Canadians in Micro or Mini Swift
While we have heard of a number of Canadian racers competing the Micro and Mini divisions next weekend at the Rok Cup Florida Winter Tour, we have no racers this weekend in Homestead.
Mini is a sellout and has a class full of future potential, including National number 1 Carson Morgan, IAME International Final winner Brent Crews and SuperNats winner Connor Zilisch. In addition, Josh Pierson, Noah Baker, James Egozi and many more look to set off their year with a strong start.
S1/S2 Merger Small in Homestead
There was much talk about the merger of the S1 and S2 categories at the SuperNationals and while it’s on a trial basis for the Winter Series, a dismal 11 drivers have entered this weekends race. Stock Moto has never really been strong on the east coast and this weekend is further proof with the S4/S4SM class only having 10 drivers total.
Two races are on tap this weekend, with complete race days on Saturday and Sunday. We will have updates on our Canadian contingent following the weekend.
