TEMECULA, CA – The 2019 season marks the 10th year of the sport’s only national series – the Superkarts! USA Pro Tour. Initially launched in April of 2010, the SKUSA Pro Tour has grown throughout the previous nine seasons of competition, creating lasting memories, establishing current stars in the sport, developing drivers for the professional ranks, and all while remaining the premier championship series in North America. From the very first season, the weekend and year-end prize package has been a focal point for the organization, and this approach continues into the 2019 season with a staggering $162,000 prize purse for this year’s series, supported significantly by SKUSA’s passionate partners at MG Tires.
“From the day that I stepped in, we have been about giving back to the racers,” stated Superkarts! USA principal Tom Kutscher. “This is our 10th anniversary of the SKUSA Pro Tour, and we wanted to make sure the racers were rewarded for their support and their success on the track. Our staff spoke with a number of the race teams, competitors and families who have supported what we do year after year, and we tailored our prize package around their input as best we could. This is a prize package you can’t match anywhere, and I’m thankful to have our partners at MG Tires on-board with our efforts.”
The 2019 Superkarts! USA Pro Tour prize package begins with daily prizes and purses each weekend. Those drivers able to finish in the top-three of each main event for all classes will receive a set of Evinco tires. In total, 234 sets of Evincos will be doled out during the three SKUSA Pro Tour events, reaching a value of roughly $51,000.
All three weekends include a guaranteed weekend cash payout of $5,000 for X30 Senior and X30 Junior. A $2,500 purse toward each class is set to be paid out to those drivers finishing in the top-five of the weekend’s overall points, with $1,000 to be awarded to the driver with the most points over the two days of competition. A free entry toward the following SKUSA Pro Tour event will be awarded to the winners in Pro Shifter, Pro Shifter 2 and G1 Gladiator. At the SummerNationals, a potential weekend cash payout will be offered dependent on total number of entries that are confirmed in those three divisions. The remaining classes that make up the SKUSA Pro Tour will continue to have a potential $1,000 weekend purse, needing a minimum of 30 entries in the category to qualify for the cash payouts.
The SKUSA Pro Tour Championship Prize value reaches just under $74,000 for the 2019 season. The championship prize remains for all 13 categories, with inclusion into the ‘SKUSA Circle of Champions’ program. Each class champion will be awarded a 2019 SKUSA SuperNationals entry along with a full season for the 2020 SKUSA Pro Tour. The vice-champion in 2019 will be awarded an entry into the 2019 SKUSA SuperNationals while third-place on the championship podium receives a $500 credit through the MotorsportsReg.com site toward any future Superkarts! USA event.
The exclamation point on the 2019 Superkarts! USA Pro Tour prize package are the tickets to the 2019 IAME International Final. These tickets, valued at $4,000 each, are reserved for the champions in the X30 Senior, X30 Junior, X30 Master and Mini Swift categories. SKUSA is committed to sending four drivers to the event, held in Le Mans, France where 2018 SKUSA Winter Series champion Brent Crews won for a second time in the Mini category last October.
The 2019 SKUSA Pro Tour is set to kick off on March 1-3 at the CalSpeed Karting Center in Fontana, California with the third annual WinterNationals. Registration will open on Sunday, January 27 at 7:00 pm PDT, and additional updates regarding the event will be published in the SKUSA Pro Tour section of the website. The SpringNationals takes teams back to the Rocky Mountains region and the Utah Motorsports Campus on May 3-5 before closing out the 2019 campaign with the SummerNationals returning to the New Castle Motorsports Park in Indiana on August 9-11.
For more information on anything related to Superkarts! USA, please visit the website – www.superkartsusa.com and be sure to follow the Superkarts!