SKUSA: Great Lakes: Season finale New Castle preview

SKUSA GREAT LAKES PRO TOUR SET FOR SEASON FINALE
Series heads to New Castle for season-ending doubleheader

NEW CASTLE, MI - (August 8, 2007) -- This coming weekend, the SKUSA Great Lakes Pro Tour Presented by Bridgestone (GLSKUSA) will conclude its 2007 season at the popular New Castle Motorsports Park (NCMP), located just outside Indianapolis, IN. The series will host its fourth and final doubleheader weekend with rounds nine and ten set to decide who will be the series' champions in the program's six divisions.

Friday will see a full day of practice for all drivers from 9am to 8pm with a break from 1:30pm to 4pm for a NCMP rental event. Both Saturday and Sunday will feature a full day of racing including Qualifying, Prefinal and Finals. Also, the third and final round of the Kokomo Honda Mini-Series for the 125cc shifter karts will follow the completion of the regular GLSKUSA on-track activities on Saturday with a cookout scheduled to follow the race and podiums.

The championships will be decided this weekend as each driver will count their best eight races or less from the year's racing. Heading into New Castle, the fastest group of the series -- Formula 1 - has the closest battle. Alex Conlin currently holds a seven-point lead over Brandon Rees, with both drivers already using two of their drops. The popular G-1 class is led by five-time race winner Kurt Mathewson. The Indiana resident holds a 238-point advantage - before the drops - over series webmaster Bob Monday. With a victory worth 200 points, the championship is still undecided. Chris Shultz, Harry Alden and Michael Crawford sit in the top five and will look to advance their positions this weekend as well.

The growing TaG Senior division has karting veteran Bill Wolters leading Barry Hatcher by just 173 points. Michigan's Eric Chappell is also lurking in third, just a few ticks behind Hatcher. Four drivers sit within 100 points of each other when calculating the drops in Formula S3 - the Stock 125cc shifter class. Ryan O'Connell currently leads the standings having attended all eight events thus far. Removing his two worst results, three other drivers have a chance at the title. Tyler Spitler sits second ahead of Kyle Kettman and Justin Rajewski, all with a chance at the S3 title.

In the Junior categories, Nick DeFronzo leads the K2 class over Jeff Ruttan with this weekend's results to determine the champion. In K3, Zach Silver has a slight advantage over Ben Paderta.

Along with Bridgestone, the series is also supported by K&N Filters, The Inside Track Magazine, Grand Products, National Karting Alliance, Alden Engines, Krahl Construction, J&E Trackside Support, First Kart USA and Streeter Super Stands. Additional information on the SKUSA Great Lakes Pro Tour can be obtained from the series website: www.glskusa.com

-skusa