Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA
Qualifying report

Greco surprises with DD2 pole, as qualifying completed in Vegas

The grids have been set for the heat races in the Sofina Foods US Open Karting Championship presented by FIKSE Wheels, following qualifying in the US Open at Las Vegas. Cody Schindel reports.

Davide Greco

Davide Greco

Cody Schindel

Luis Schiavo
Jake French
Robert Wickens
Jake Craig has switched to Senior Shifter
Yuven Sunduramoorthy leads Rotax Junior
Zachary Claman DeMelo
Dylan Tavella

All nine classes hit the temporary track and it was a newcomer to the Rotax DD2 category, Canadian Davide Greco, who  topped the charts. Making only his major second start in the two-speed class, Greco nipped Mercedes DTM driver Robert Wickens by 0.158 seconds to score the pole-position by a significant margin aboard his PSL Karting Birel ART machine. Canadian Champion Alessandro Bizzotto and Zachary Claman DeMelo ensured Canadian locked out the top four, with Swede Andreas Backmann completing the top-five.

There was another unexpected driver on top in Rotax Junior as Yuven Sundaramoorthy put another PSL Karting Birel ART on pole, while the polesitter from the Rotax Grand Finals in Italy, Canadian Ryan MacDermid, was second, only 0.019 seconds back. Tyler Gonzalez, Dylan Tavella and Stephen Mallozzi filled positions 3 through 5 in the 35-kart field.

There’s a refreshed look to the Rotax Senior field as 26 drivers are entered this week, compared with only 11 in the Utah round. Ryan Norberg has been very fast in every category he’s raced this year and posted the fastest time in Qualifying, ahead of South African Jordan Sherratt. Frenchman Thomas Drouet was third, points leader Austin Garrison was fourth fastest followed by David Malukas.

In the Shifter Senior category there is a solid group of drivers entered in Las Vegas this weekend. Jake French edged out Continental Sportscar racer Remo Ruscitti by just under a tenth of a second for P1 on the standing start grid. Veteran Ron White was third fastest with US Rotax Senior National Champion Jake Craig fourth and Sabre Cook fifth.

Only a week after claiming the Rotax Grand Finals title in Italy, Diego LaRoque is on the pole-position in Micro-Max while Jak Crawford leads in Mini-Max, Ryan Kinnear in Shifter Masters, Luis Schiavo in DD2 Masters and Billy Cleavelin in Masters Max.

Drivers will have four progressive heats to determine the starting grids for Saturday’s all-in Championship finals in Las Vegas.

Don’t forget, you can watch the live web broadcast of the race of http://maxspeedentertainment.com.

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Brueckner, Neri chase US Open Karting titles in Las Vegas
Next article Hiltbrand and Martins claim CIK-FIA OK and OKJ World Championship titles

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA