The biggest karting event in North America took place last weekend at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Top karters from around the world gathered for the 13th edition of the SKUSA SuperNationals. Several IndyCar and F1 drivers also entered the mix to see if they could still run with the top kart racers in the world. Names such as Michael Schumacher, Nelson Piquet Jr., Sebastien Buemi, Dan Wheldon, Buddy Rice, and Raphael Matos—among others— got behind the wheel for this ultra-competitive event.
I was fortunate to have a photographer on site to snap a few photos for your viewing pleasure. Make sure to watch the slideshow linked below. You can also enlarge individual thumbnails for a better look. Enjoy.
Don’t worry I will have some follow-up posts on this year’s SKUSA SuperNationals XIII. I’m planning to do a slideshow of photo’s from the event. So make sure to check back.
I will also update my SuperPro entry list to reflect the fact that Raphael Matos and Andrew Vargas joined the field heading into the weekend.
I’ve seen this done on a few other blogs and with all the buzz surrounding this week’s SKUSA SuperNationals, I decided to create a fun trivia quiz for you motorsport guru’s via the quiz-making-website Sporcle. If reader’s enjoy this, I may turn it into a weekly or monthly feature.
This week’s quiz will test your knowledge of past SKUSA SuperNationals headline class winners.
The quiz shouldn’t be too difficult if you’ve been following karting for a few years. Basically you have 12-minutes to name (or guess) the driver who won the SKUSA SuperNationals headline class over the past 12-years (1997-2008). You can post a driver’s full name or last name— if you don’t remember the year they won, simply type in their name and the quiz will put your answer (assuming it’s correct) in the right slot. If you name an incorrect driver, nothing will happen… so make sure to get your names right. (Spelling Counts).
I was going to title this post as the “S” post or “100% S’s“… but then I decided “SKUSA SuperNationals XIII: SuperPro Stats” might be better for SEO purposes. That’s another S.
The SKUSA SuperNationals always seems to draw some of the biggest names in motorsports and this year is no exception. I’ve already written a short post about the entry of 7x F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher as well as F1 drivers Sebastien Buemi and Nelson Piquet Jr.
Aside from the F1 drivers there are plenty of extremely talented karters and motorsport veterans on this year’s SuperPro entry list.
I’ve compiled some info on each of the SuperPro competitor’s below. I realize it’s tough to build any more excitement or anticipation into this event, but I figured I’d give it a shot.
Obviously, the list is pretty long… so you’ll have to click the more link below to read the entire preview.
Make the jump to see the 2009 SKUSA SuperNationals SuperPro Entry List and a few details about each driver: [More]
SKUSA has put together a highlight video of the 2008 SuperNationals from Las Vegas, NV. The video is a bit sponsor heavy, but features some pretty cool racing clips as well as some decent interviews with some big-name drivers…..
Sorry for the delay in posting news, I was out of town last week. There has been quite a bit of news, so I’ll do my best to recap most of it… Here is your November edition of “Linkage”.
The Star Mazda series has a new team for 2009; Juncos Racing. The new team will field three cars including two series newcomers: fifteen-year-old Michael Furfari and seventeen-year-old Sean Burstyn.
In more Star Mazda news: Conor Daly spent two days testing with JDC Motorsports. According to team owner John Church, the test went very well.
Josef Newgarden spent last Monday driving an Anderson Racing Star Mazda car around Sebring,…. despite thoroughly enjoying the test and the team, the Tennessee resident seems to have his eyes set on the British Formula Ford Championship for 2009. The 17-year-old flew back to the UK last weekend and will spend the balance of this week testing with three Duratec teams. Look for a big announcement soon…..
In the karting world…. Jonathan Thonon claimed the $10,000 check for winning the SuperPro division of the 2008 SKUSA SuperNationals. You can find full results for the TAG and SuperPro divisions here.
I’m not sure if SKUSA is under contract with Ekartingnews; but for whatever reason they refused to provide me with an entry list until it was released on EKN’s website. I had originally planned on doing a rather large preview with some picks for the weekend but as you will soon see, making any kind of picks for this weekend’s event is nearly impossible. This years event/entry list for the SuperPro and TAG class is quite possibly the most talented field ever assembled for a karting event, …without question it’s one the most anticipated races of the year for anyone who follows karting and junior formula drivers.
With their “lone knowledge” of the entry list, here is a nice preview of this weekend’s SuperPro and TAG divisions written by the staff at Ekartingnews.com. Make sure to look at all the names on the entry list, no matter which professional racing series you follow, you will most likely recognize several names from various sanctioning bodies.
Tony Kart announced today that two time World Champion (2007, 2008) Marco Ardigo will return to the United States this November to defend his SKUSA SuperNationals title from 2007. Ardigo has also won four European championships. The 25 year old Italian star has been driving for Tony Kart since 2005. His resume is well balanced between the direct drive Formula A class and the 125 ICC shifter kart class.
SKUSA announced their CIK approval for the event just last month. Watch for more European drivers to follow suit.
A special thank you to everyone who has donated. I plan to use my 2010 donations as a travel fund to provide more live coverage. Every little bit helps.
