California ProKart Challenge Returns to Action This Weekend

Second round of Superkarts! USA regional championship program returns to Buttonwillow

TEMECULA, CA – The month of May is here and so is the second round of the 2023 California ProKart Challenge. The Superkarts! USA regional series returns to the Buttonwillow Raceway Park to complete the back-to-back trips to start out this year’s championship program. The 19th season of the series began in March at the Buttonwillow, California facility and during this return, the drivers will run in the clockwise direction for the two-day Round Two event.

The HRT Driver Development KA100 Senior class was the largest of the opening weekend in April, featuring 26 drivers. Texas racer John Burke crashed the California PKC party to steal the Round One victory ahead of Chase Hand and Ethan Lampe. The SpeedSense Motorsports KA100 Junior division nearly matched the Senior category’s grid size with 22 drivers in the field. Defending series champion Keagan Kaminski nearly pulled off a sweep on the weekend, missing out on qualifying before winning both the Prefinal and Final. Payton Westcott and Nico Sarphati joined Kaminski on the podium at the opening round as he leads the championship standings coming into the weekend.

It is a two-driver fight early in the Factory Karts Pro Shifter division. Keawn Tandon won the main event in Round 1. However, multi-time series champion Billy Musgrave leads the championship by 10 points, thanks to his runner-up result. A total of 18 drivers made up the field for the SuperSpeed Bearings Mini Swift class at Round One. McLaren Carroll led throughout the weekend, winning both the Prefinal and Final. Troy Ferguson and Matthew Cagle joined him on the podium, sitting second and third in the championship standings.

Aidan Go claimed his first career victory at the California ProKart Challenge in the Micro Swift class. Drew Jensen and Byron Borneman joined him on the podium back in March. Matthew Ostiguy was the winner in the Nash Motorsportz KA100 Master division, while Ronnie Swaim swept the Round One action in the Empire Karts X30 Master category. David De La Torre was the lone entry in the Mike Manning Karting Master Shifter class.

The California ProKart Challenge will continue to offer two Open Shifter divisions – allowing 125cc engines from Honda and RoK aside from KZ and the IAME SSE – for both Senior and Master levels.  S5 Junior Stock Moto is also an option for drivers in the region.

The weekend will consist of a full day of practice plus qualifying on Saturday, followed by the Prefinal and Final action contested on Sunday. This year’s series format is a ‘Best 5 of 6 races’, so those unable to be part of the action back in March can compete this weekend and still be a part of the championship chase by the end of the season.

Race Pre-Entry remains open for the second event of the 2023 California ProKart Challenge program until the online registration deadline of Tuesday, May 2 at 11:59pm PST. As always, a 2023 SKUSA membership is mandatory to register and compete. Complete race and venue information, along with a tentative weekend schedule, can be found at the PKC Event Page. Reserved pit spots and camping reservations are highly recommended prior to the pre-entry cutoff and can also be found online.

For more information on anything related to Superkarts! USA, please visit the website – www.superkartsusa.com and be sure to follow the Superkarts! USA Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram accounts.