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| eKartingNews.com Driver Rankings - September 21 |
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The month of September is nearly complete with two weekends to go before the month of October, where like baseball, you need to be on your game in order to grab the year-end championships or move up the EKN Driver Rankings. Now that most drivers who have been competing regularly during the 2007 season have enough races under their belts the true ‘cream of the crop are risin’ to the top’ after removing most of the ’06 results from the rankings. The ICC rankings saw some shuffling around the top 10, minus the movement of top ICC driver Gary Carlton and number two ranked Matt Jaskol. The new ICA and TaG rankings however see new drivers reaching the number one spot for the first time - Scott Jenkins and Devon Sandeen.
 | Gary Carlton - both a top driver and umbrella holder
(Photo: EKN) |
ICC
For ICC Rankings, Click Here
For nine straight months now, Gary Carlton has held on to the number one spot in the ICC Rankings. During the Stars weekend in Moran, Carlton was spot on again after a difficult trip to Shawano and the final round of the European Championships. With his win during Saturday’s final, the PCH Motorsports pilot clinched the Western Division ICC title and is looking at a second-straight national championship. All that stands in front of him is two finals at the Desert MINI National Finals at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Vegas has been good the past two years for Carlton, scoring runner-up finish at the SuperNationals in 2005 before scoring the $10k winning paycheck at last year’s event.
Matt Jaskol (Team Top Kart USA) continues to sit second, unable to gain any ground on first with Carlton winning most of the races. Jaskol though continues to run to podium finishes through the year and will hope to earn victories in his home town of Vegas in both October and November. David Jurca (Italian Motors) moved two spots to third after a solid weekend in Beaumont with two-fourth place finishes. Michael Vincec (Cameron Motorsports) and Jan Velez-Walter (Champion Racing/Intrepid) dropped to fourth and fifth respectively.
ICC #1 - Gary Carlton
Marysville, CA
Point Breakdown
| Race | Rank | Finish | Points| Stars National Finals 2006 | 10 | 6 | 1125 | | SKUSA SuperNationals 2006 | 10 | 1 | 1153 | | Stars Race of the Americas 2007 #1 | 10 | 1 | 1182 | | Stars Race of the Americas 2007 #2 | 10 | 1 | 1182 | | Stars of Karting ’07 - East #3 - New Castle | 9 | 1 | 1067 | | Stars of Karting ’07 - East #4 - New Castle | 9 | 1 | 1068 | | Stars of Karting ’07 - West #5 - Moran | 9 | 1 | 1066 | |
Inside the Stats
Average Finish: 2
Average Points: 1120
Total Points: 7842
Upcoming ICC Ranked Events
| Date | Series | Track | Location | Rank| 9/23 | Colorado Sprint Championship - Round 5 | Grand Junction Motor Speedway | Grand Junction, CO | 8 | | 9/29 | Southwest Regional Cup - Austin Grand Prix | Iron Rock Raceway | Austin, TX | 8 | | 9/29 | WKA Manufacturer's Cup - Round 5 | New Castle Motorsports Park | New Castle, IN | 8 | | 10/20 | Stars National Finals | Las Vegas Motor Speedway | Las Vegas, NV | 10 | | 10/27 | Southwest Regional Cup - Fall 3 | Gulf Coast Kartway | Katy, TX | 8 | |
 | New EKN number one ICA driver - Scott Jenkins
(Photo: EKN) |
ICA
For ICA Rankings, Click Here
Getting races five and six under his belt in North America, British pilot Scott Jenkins now holds the number one spot in the ICA Driver Rankings. The Champion Racing/Intrepid driver made his North American debut at the Mazda Race of the Americas in April with a dominate weekend, winning both finals in strong fashion. He repeated that same feat at the Eastern round at New Castle. Missing the Stars Shawano event to attend the KF2 European Championships, Jenkins traveled to Moran for a substitute event. Though the trip to Beaumont, CA did not go as the previous two, his sixth place in Sunday’s Final gave him enough points to overtake the #1 spot.
Defending ICA national champion Joel Miller (Tony Kart USA) saw his 11 month streak atop the rankings come to an end with Jenkins now on top. Miller has been focused more on his Skip Barber National schedule this year where he currently leads the standings going into the final event. As Miller did, Jake Rosenzweig (PSL Karting) falls one spot as well with Tyler Dueck (Champion Racing/Intrepid) staying at third and Cody Jolly (Cameron Motorsports) falling two spots to fifth.
NEW ICA #1 - Scott Jenkins
Winterbourne Down, Bristol, England
Point Breakdown
| Race | Rank | Finish | Points| Stars Race of the Americas 2007 #1 | 10 | 1 | 1142 | | Stars Race of the Americas 2007 #2 | 10 | 1 | 1142 | | Stars of Karting ’07 - East #3 - New Castle | 10 | 1 | 1054 | | Stars of Karting ’07 - East #4 - New Castle | 10 | 1 | 1054 | | Stars of Karting ’07 - West #5 - Moran | 1 | 6 | 973 | |
Inside the Stats
Average Finish: 2
Average Points: 1073
Total Points: 5365
Upcoming ICA Ranked Events
| Date | Series | Track | Location | Rank | | | 9/29 | WKA Manufacturer's Cup - Round 5 | New Castle Motorsports Park | New Castle, IN | 8 | | 10/20 | Stars National Finals | Las Vegas Motor Speedway | Las Vegas, NV | 10 |
 | New EKN number one TaG driver - Devon Sandeen
(Photo: EKN) |
TaG
For TaG Rankings, Click Here
With only seven races on his Driver Rankings C-V, Canadian Devon Sandeen holds the number one spot in the TaG. After jumping into the top ten following the Stars Miller event, Sandeen jumped to the top of the rankings after a solid Stars Moran weekend. After finishing second in the Final Saturday, the Checkered Flag Racing pilot had trouble in Qualifying on Sunday. He went on to start 26th and drove through the field to fifth in the Prefinal. The Final was all his, driving to a five-second victory and the Western Division Spec Racer title. Sandeen now heads to Vegas leading the Spec Racer standings overall in hopes to better his runner-up status from ’06.
Former number one Will Martindale (Wunder-Bar Racing) now falls one spot along with Conor Daly (Team Top Kart) dropping one spot as well to third. Zach Beard (FirstKart.com) still holds the number four position with Brandon Jones (ArrowUSA/Eric Jones Karting) - the debut TaG #1 driver - falls two positions to fifth despite a solid second place result at the Rock Island Grand Prix, finishing behind race winner Caleb Loniewski and ahead of brother Eric Jones.
NEW TaG #1 - Devon Sandeen
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Point Breakdown
| Race | Rank | Finish | Points| Stars National Finals 2006 | 10 | 1 | 1104 | | Stars Race of the Americas 2007 #1 | 10 | 5 | 1076 | | Stars Race of the Americas 2007 #2 | 10 | 4 | 1087 | | Stars of Karting ’07 - West #5 - Moran | 9 | 2 | 1028 | | Stars of Karting ’07 - West #6 - Moran | 9 | 1 | 1038 | |
Inside the Stats
Average Finish: 3
Average Points: 1067
Total Points: 5333
Upcoming TaG Ranked Events
| Date | Series | Track | Location | Rank| 9/22 | Cascade Regional Series - Round 6 | Pat's Acres | Canby, OR | 9 | | 9/23 | Colorado Sprint Championship - Round 5 | IMI Motorsports | Dacono, CO | 9 | | 9/29 | Southwest Regional Cup - Austin Grand Prix | Iron Rock Raceway | Austin, TX | 9 | | 9/29 | WKA Manufacturer's Cup - Round 5 | New Castle Motorsports Park | New Castle, IN | 9 | | 10/6 | IKF Region 7 - Round 7 | CalSpeed Kart Track | Fontana, CA | 9 | |
EKN Driver Rankings Calculation 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 and TaG due to the lower number of available events. With each new release, results posted from more than one year ago 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 ten (10) being the highest attainable base ranking. For 2007, the Stars of Karting Race of the Americas and National Finals, the SKUSA SuperNationals and the Rock Island Grand Prix are the only events to receive a score of 10 in their initial weighting. For the ICC, ICA and TaG divisions, the Stars of Karting national series events draw a base ranking of nine (9), while the WKA Manufacturer’s Cup, Florida Winter Tour, and other regional program races were given a base ranking of eight (8). For the TaG, most of the events have a base ranking of nine (9). The EKN staff reserves the right to adjust the rankings of each event, and at the end of the year 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 full point or 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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