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| eKartingNews.com Driver Rankings - June 29 |
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With the month of June complete and the second half of the 2007 season getting underway this weekend, the latest EKN Driver Rankings have been released. With a busy news period last week, the rankings were originally scheduled to be released before last weekend. Unfortunately they were not. Thus, we are releasing the rankings as of June 29 and will update the rankings with results from the June 30-July 1 weekend for the next release, scheduled to be out sometime within the next few weeks.
The national schedule was quite for the month of June but the regional and coastal programs were busy as IKF and WKA each hosted their Sprint Grand Nationals, handing out the Duffy’s and Eagle’s to all the winners. As we move forward into July, the rankings will begin to shuffle further with more of the ’06 races falling of the rankings calendar and this year’s races becoming extra important.
ICC
 | Wesley Boswell
(Photo: Pete Ryan) |
For ICC Rankings, Click Here
With the month of June quiet on the national schedule, many of the top ICC drivers visited their regional events as well as other one-off races. The top four remains the same as Gary Carlton (PCH Motorsports) sits at the number one spot followed by Matt Jaskol (Team Top Kart USA), David Jurca (Italian Motors), and Canadian Michael Vincec (Cameron Motorsports). Stuart Marsell (ArrowUSA) moves up to fifth followed by Philippe Gelinas (MRP-Birel America) and Jan Velez (PSL Karting) as Champion Racing’s Jordy Vorrath and FirstKart.com’s Alan Rudolph lose their finishes from the Stars Buffalo Bills June 2006 event. Vorrath falls to eighth while Rudolph drops to 11th behind Kyle Wiegand (Team Top Kart USA) and Keith Spicer (DL Racing).
Our Driver Spotlight shines on former SKUSA SuperNationals winner Wesley Boswell, the now KartSport Grand Prix Pro ICC defending champion. The NorCal driver chose to take the 2007 season off from behind the wheel and turn some wrenches for fellow ICC driver Josh Schreiber. However, the 2006 WKA Manufacturer’s Cup ICC champion made it clear that a couple one-off appearances would be in the future this year, and the KSGP was the first. Borrowing a Tony Kart/SwedeTech TM package from the Nilsson family with Craig Nilsson as his mechanic and getting help from Scotty Conway at MMI, Boswell shocked everyone with a dominate victory. Expect the Californian to appear at a few more big events on the year, possible keeping him toward the top of the Driver Rankings.
Driver Spotlight: Wesley Boswell
ICC Ranking: 20th
Point Breakdown
| Race | Rank | Finish | Points| Stars of Karting ’06 - East #4 - Lowe’s | 9 | 10 | 969 | | Stars of Karting ’06 - East #5 - Lowe’s | 9 | 15 | 918 | | WKA Man. Cup ’06 - MRP # 2 | 8 | 1 | 903 | | Stars of Karting ’06 - East #7 - Shawano | 9 | 14 | 929 | | WKA Man. Cup ’06 - Badger #2 | 8 | 1 | 875 | | Stars National Finals 2006 | 10 | 4 | 1148 | | KartSport Grand Prix 2007 | 8 | 1 | 923 | |
Inside the Stats
Average Finish: 7
Average Points: 952
Total Points: 6664
ICA
 | Jacob Neal
(Photo: EKN) |
For ICA Rankings, Click Here
With only the WKA Manufacturer’s Cup Series Grand Nationals from Shawano added to the ICA Driver Rankings and the Stars Buffalo Bills removed, the top 13 stayed static with no one moving any spots. Defending ICA national champion Joel Miller (Tony Kart USA) currently continues his run atop the ICA standings with a 97 point advantage over Jake Rosenzweig (PSL Karting). Neither has won this year on the Stars circuit but both have continued to run strong up front. Chris Larson (MRP-Birel America) is still adjusting to his new team and sits third. Cody Jolly (Cameron Motorsports) was last month’s Driver Spotlight after he moved up to fourth ahead of ICA sophomore James Kennedy (Sodi Kart USA/G-Phactory).
Our ICA Driver Spotlight highlights the rookie season thus far for PCH Motorsports’ Jacob Neal. Running as a top JICA driver over the past few years, Neal stepped up to the ICA division at the beginning of the year with eight ICA races as of now under his belt toward the Driver Rankings. After recording a best finish of fourth at four-Florida Winter Tour races, Neal has set his sites on the Stars of Karting schedule. Bad luck in the heat races at the Race of the Americas put Neal in the LCQ to qualify for both finals. After cruising to both wins, he started from the last row for both finals, driving up to tenth and 13th. At New Castle, Neal was fast all weekend, recording two-fourth place finishes. The Californian also sits 11th in the TaG Driver Rankings. Neal is currently highest rookie in the Driver Rankings and will be looking to move up even higher throughout the year.
Driver Spotlight: Jacob Neal
ICA Ranking: 10th
Point Breakdown
| Race | Rank | Finish | Points| Florida Winter Tour ’07 - Homestead #3 | 8 | 4 | 892 | | Stars Race of the Americas 2007 #1 | 10 | 10 | 1039 | | Stars Race of the Americas 2007 #2 | 10 | 13 | 1005 | | Stars of Karting ’07 - East #3 - New Castle | 9 | 4 | 1022 | | Stars of Karting ’07 - East #4 - New Castle | 9 | 4 | 1022 | |
Inside the Stats
Average Finish: 7
Average Points: 996
Total Points: 4980
TaG
 | Cory Pollock
(Photo: Go Racing Magazine) |
For TaG Rankings, Click Here
Like the other two classes, not much has changed in the top ten of the TaG Driver Rankings as the number of drivers has gone past the 300 mark, more then ICC and ICA combined. Wunder-Bar Racing’s Will Martindale continues to sit at P1 of the rankings with his strong Race of the Americas finishes. Brandon Jones (ArrowUSA) still holds on to second despite not running many TaG races in the last few months. FirstKart.com’s Zach Beard sits third with ArrowUSA’s Conor Daly and Edward Fortier completing the top five.
Recording his fifth race toward the EKN Driver Rankings, Cory Pollock has put himself in the Top 25. His fifth race counted toward the Driver Rankings was a dominate victory at the IKF Sprint Grand Nationals held just a few weeks ago at Buttonwillow. The 2005 Stars of Karting Easykart champion has been doing double duty over the past two years, running karts while not competing in his Dwarf car around the Californian oval circuit. Pollock will be in attendance at a few more events throughout the year, giving him a chance to move up even further in the standings very soon.
Driver Spotlight: Cory Pollock
TaG Ranking: 25th
Point Breakdown
| Race | Rank | Finish | Points| SKUSA SuperNationals 2006 | 10 | 14 | 979 | | IKF Region 7 - #3 - Moran | 9 | 10 | 869 | | IKF Region 7 - #4 - Grange | 9 | 10 | 868 | | IKF Region 7 - #5 - Buttonwillow | 9 | 1 | 963 | | IKF Grand Nationals 2007 | 9 | 1 | 977 | |
Inside the Stats
Average Finish: 7
Average Points: 665
Total Points: 4656
EKN Driver Rankings Calculations Process
The EKN Driver Rankings are calculated using a driver’s best finishes in major North American races. Assembled using events from the previous 12 months from the current date, we use a driver’s top seven finishes in ICC to determine their overall current point total. The top five as used for ICA due to the lower number of available events. With each new release, results before one year ago at this date are discarded. To deliver this current ranking list, we tabulated the results of all the Snap-on Stars of Karting national events as well as other regional programs. We have also included the results for the major one-off events such as the Rock Island Grand Prix, SKUSA King of the Streets, the SKUSA SuperNationals, the KartSport Grand Prix and the Greeley Grand Prix.
Each race was initially weighted based on the prestige and history of the event or series with a score of 10 being the highest attainable base ranking. For 2007, the Stars of Karting Race of the Americas and National Finals, the SKUSA SuperNationals, Rock Island Grand Prix, as well as the North American Karting Championships and TAG World Finals are the only events to receive a score of 10 in their initial weighting. For the ICC and ICA divisions, the Stars of Karting national series events draw a base ranking of 9 while the WKA Manufacturer’s Cup, Florida Winter Tour, and other regional program races were given a base ranking of 8. For TaG, most of the events have a base ranking of nine with the EKN staff to adjust the rankings of each event at the end of 2007 for the 2008 season.
Added to these initial rankings are two variables that help confirm the true importance of an event to the ranking process – field size and field strength. A percentage of one weighting point is added for the size of the field while the number of existing top 50 drivers (top 25 for ICA and TaG) entered offers another fraction of a point. The sum of these numbers becomes the overall ranking for any race.
Following a race, drivers receive points based on their finishing positions with 100 points earned for a win. Each subsequent position drops by one point with 99 points given to the second place driver and so on throughout the field. These points are then multiplied by the overall ranking to produce a driver’s final point total from each event. Using a driver’s best seven races for ICC and the best five for ICA and TaG, we calculate each driver’s overall score and subsequent ranking. |
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