January 24, 2009
Team News -Extreme Karting ProKart Challenge, Calspeed Kart Track, January 24, 2008


The first race of the year was run in variable conditions with rain on Friday morning. It dried up enough on late Friday to run slicks and get some good times. Saturday was threatening all day but it never rained and the track improved so lap times came down dramatically.

S1
S1 ran with G1 all day. Peter Abba started the year where he left off in 2008. He qualified 3rd, improved to 2nd in both heats, then started the Main on pole when Jacob Neal did not start the race. Peter ran away from the combined field in his GP8/TM and had a comfortable lead from start to finish.

S3
The stock Honda field drew pro drivers Lorenzo Mandarino and Alex Barron. It was shaping up to be a great race. Bobby Legate in his Arrow/Honda qualified 2nd behind Mandarino and ahead of Barron. He won both heats in dominating fashion and was looking forward to a strong race in the Main. Bobby battled with Mandarino and Barron for the first few laps. Mandarino dropped out early in the race. Bobby and Barron battled back and forth with Barron taking the win by just a few feet. They both had big smiles at the scales after a great race.

S4
Stock Honda Heavy had both new and returning competitors. Ken Schilling in his GP9/Honda won S4 Heavy last year and started 2009 with pole. Marty Henderson ran in S3 Heavy and is a favorite in the 2009 championship in his GP8/Honda. He qualififed 6th and needed to race hard to get to the front. Bill Cox missed Friday practice but still would start in 7th in his GP6/Honda. Robert Morales hurt his ribs the week before and skipped Friday practice to heal. He only ran a few laps in practice and came in early in qualifying to start 12th. The first heat had Ken lead to the finish with Marty dropping out with shifter problems, Bill ran in 7th and Robert again dropped out to nurse his ribs. The second heat had drizzle start that brought out a red flag and multiple attempts at a rolling restart. Once the race got going, Ken spun and was out. Marty drove a good race to finish 7th, Bill ran 9th and Robert drove through the pain to finish all laps in 10th. The 20 lap Main was the last of the day. Ken drove a strong race, getting fast lap, and ended up in 5th. Marty dropped out and Bill had a broken shift handle. Robert toughed it out to finish 10th a lap down. Hopefully the ribs are better for Willow Kart Track in February.

November 20-23, 2008
Team News: Extreme Karting - SuperNats at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas


Over 400 entrants started practice on Thursday at the new venue at the Rio Hotel. This year the event included three junior classes in addition to all of the senior classes.

Extreme Karting was represented by Peter Abba and Jason Chott in S1; Bobby Legate and Slava Pridhodko in S3; Marty Henderson, Bill Cox and Ken Schilling in S4. Both Peter and Ken were at their first SuperNats and were Impressed with the event and the talented field.

All classed except TAG Senior had qualifying and 1 heat on Friday, 2 heats on Saturday and the final on Sunday.

S1 was the 2nd class running throughout the event. Peter qualified 19th and Jason was 27th. Peter had a problem in H1 and broke a wheel which caused a DNF. He had solid finishes in H2 and H3 and would start the final in 21st. Jason had 3 solid runs in the heats to start the final in 18th. Peter had an outstanding run to finish 9th and Jason got involved in a 1st corner incident and brought it home in 18th.

S3 was up next with an incredible field including Memo Gidley and Jamie MacMurry. After winning both the WinterNats and ProKart Challenge in 2008, Bobby was looking for a top finish at this year’s SuperNats. He qualified 4th ahead of the pros. In H1, Bobby was running 3rd in the opening laps. The night lighting was tough in a couple of areas of the track and caused him to tap the barrier and DNF. Bobby came back from this disappointment to finish H2 in 3rd and H3 in 5th. This gave him a starting spot of 8th. He drove a great race to finish 7th. Slava was still recovering from a street bike accident which left him with shoulder and leg injuries. He toughed it out to make the field after minimal practice beforehand. Slava jumped to 10th in qualifying after running down the order in practices. Slava finished H1 in 9th, got taken out in H2 to finish 35th and was back to 8th in H3. He got less than a lap in the final after being taken out and re-injuring his shoulder.

S4 was late in the order and ran most laps under the lights. Marty had a big Incident in Thursday practice and had to go to a backup kart. He missed one session but got back on track for P5. Marty qualified a great 9th, dropped out of H1, ran 13th in H2 and 9th in H3. This gave him a starting spot of 12th which he translated into a solid 9th place in the final. Ken qualified 18th in his first SuperNats, finished 29th, 17th and 20th in the heats to start 17th. He brought it home a great 12th. Bill qualified 25th, finished 20th, 22nd and 29th to start 19th. The start of the final was not good to Bill. He got run over which knocked the sidepod loose. After dragging the pod for a number of laps, Bill was black flagged and finished 26th.

Congratulations to all of the drivers for great racing and finishes. We are all looking forward to the start of ProKart in 2009.