SKUSA SuperNationals XXI: Canadian Qualifying Report – Simioni and Wickens in Top-10 in KZ2

On the second day of on track at the SKUSA SuperNationals in Las Vegas, Qualifying was the final round of the day for all classes.

It was another busy day scheduled with three rounds of practice leading up to the session that set the grids for Friday and Saturday’s heat races, but a smart move by SKUSA, given how often the event gets behind schedule during the hectic heat races.

The headline class in Sin City this week is once again KZ2 where a majority of kartings best talent from around the world have converged on the tricky temporary circuit in Las Vegas all looking to hit the jackpot.

With the lap times dropping throughout the day, Jeremy Iglesias (Formula K) topped the charts with a blistering 59.269-second lap to earn the pole-position over two-time winner Anthony Abbasse (Sodikart). Bas Lammers (Sodikart), another former winner, was third followed by Marjin Kremers (Ricciardo Kart) and defending champion Paolo de Conto (CRG). Benjamin Tornqvist (CRG) wrapped up the top-6, who were separated by less than three-tenths of a second.

Prime Powerteam duo Ethan Simioni and Robert Wickens placed their BirelART karts inside the top-ten, taking the ninth and tenth positions respectively. Antonio Serravalle (CRG) followed suit in eleventh, less than a half-second off of Iglesias. Further down the order, Gianfranco Mazzaferro (BirelART) was twenty-fourth, Kristian Jeffrey (BirelART) was twenty-eighth, Isaac Marritt(BirelART) was thirtieth and Evan White (TonyKart) was thirty-fourth.

In the 94-strong X30 Senior division, Danny Keirle put Kart Republic on top in their International debut followed by his teammate Lorenzo Travisanutto. Olin Galli (CRG) was third with Canadian Samuel Lupien (Kosmic) an impressive fourth. Austin Garrison (Compkart) rounded out the top-five.

Ryan MacDermid (TonyKart) posted the fifteenth quickest time while last years runner-up, Zachary Claman DeMelo (Intrepid), was twenty-first. Cedrik Lupien (Kosmic) ranked twenty-seventh, while Kellen Ritter (Kosmic) could only muscle the forty-second best lap time. Rounding out the Canadians, Matthew Taskinen (Kosmic) was forty-seventh and Logan Cusson (Kosmic) sixty-first.

Samuel Lupien (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)

A blistering lap by Matheus Morgatto (Parolin) in X30 Junior earned him the pole-position by nearly a full tenth of a second over Zane Maloney (TonyKart), Jak Crawford (TonyKart), Rafael Camara (Kosmic) and Jeremy Fairbairn (TonyKart).

Thomas Nepveu (BirelART), led the way for the trio of Canadians in the category, posting the nineteenth quickest time. On the other end of the charts were Griffin Dowler (TonyKart) and Mackenzie Clark (BirelART), who rank sixth-seventh and seventy-second respectively. They will need to move up in their respective heat races if they want a shot at making the Main Event on Sunday.

A look at the remaining Canadians see’s Justin Arseneau (BirelART) in tenth in Mini Swift and Justin Luik (BirelART) forty-second in S2.

Each category will run two heat races on Friday followed by a third heat race on Saturday. If needed, Last Chance Qualifiers will be held on Saturday to set the grids at a maximum of 40 karts for the Finals on Super Sunday.