Nick Neri (Photo: On Track Promotions - otp.ca)

The core of the 2014 season is upon us, and the many events throughout July and August are now defining the racing year. Regional racing is closing in on its completion, while the national schedule was amped up with the recent running of the Superkarts! USA SummerNationals at the Modesto Grand Prix. At the street race held under the lights, Florida’s Nick Neri put himself on the podium both days to leapfrog him up the eKartingNews.com Stock Moto Driver Rankings to the prestigious number one position.

Neri becomes one of a few drivers to have held the number one position in both the Stock Moto and TaG categories, having held the top spot in TaG in previous editions of the EKN Driver Rankings. The Ocala Gran Prix/Tony Kart driver got his first taste of the Stock Moto division back in 2011, winning the S2 Semi-Pro category at the SuperNationals. Last year was his S1 debut, placing runner-up to series champion Joey Wimsett. Since then, Neri has stood on the podium at every Pro Tour event to make it five straight. This consistency has demoted former number one driver Billy Musgrave (MRC/Tony Kart) to the second spot, trailing by 151 points. Following Neri’s lead of advancement, veteran Ron White (CRG) has put himself into the top-five. White is a recent winner at the California ProKart Challenge, and was among the quick drivers in Modesto to add a second top-10 finish on the season to go along with his fifth at the SuperNationals XVII.

Two-time Pro Tour champion Fritz Leesmann (Aluminos) falls from second to fourth, not quite in the championship form he was in 2010 and 2012. Moving into the top-five is S1 rookie Connor Wagner. The 2013 SuperNationals S2 Semi-Pro winner started out the season with two podium finishes at the California ProKart Challenge, and earned his first top-10 result on the Pro Tour in Modesto, racing in memory of his former mechanic Brad Kindhart. He is closely chased by S2 Pro Tour champion Christian Schureman (PSL Karting/CRG). The Colorado driver also had his better weekend of the 2014 season thus far, earning a best finish of seventh.

Dropping to seventh is another S1 rookie Augie Lerch. The Pure Karting/Tony Kart pilot missed the SummerNationals due to a conflict with his F1600 Formula F Championship Series event in Pittsburgh. Lerch drove to a podium finish in the first race of the weekend, and currently sits third in the championship chase. Another driver returning into the top-10 is ‘Double Nickel’ Cody Hodgson. A former top shifterkart driver and two-time Rotax national champ, Hodgson (Tony Kart) has three straight top-10 results thus far on the Pro Tour. Up one position is the newest driver to the Praga driver lineup, with Leading Edge Motorsports driver Ryan Kinnear having an impressive debut at Modesto. Completing the top-10 is S1 rookie Oliver Askew. The Ocala Gran Prix/Tony Kart driver was the quickest out of the gate, coming back from a back injury that plagued him just a few weeks prior. A poor restart on Saturday and contact Sunday took him out of the running for his first Pro Tour victory, but is sure to be a challenger in Las Vegas. Out of the top-10 include Mike Beeny, Sabré Cook, and Tyler Bennett – who all had difficult weekends in Modesto, along with Christian Bird who was not competing at the SummerNationals.

Nick Neri (Photo: On Track Promotions – otp.ca)

NEW Stock Moto #1 – Nick Neri
Palmeto, Florida

Neri is becoming one of the most decorated racers in the sport of karting. A WKA champion, multi-time Florida Winter Tour title winner, and now a four-time Rotax Grand Nationals winner, the Ocala Gran Prix driver is looking to add another crown to his resume. Already a winner at the SuperNationals in the S2 category (2011), Neri will enter the SuperNationals as a title contender in the S1 division. Four straight podium finishes have him as the lead challenger against four-race winner Jordon Lennox. Nick will also be looking to match or better the second place result set by Joey Wimsett at the Rotax Grand Finals in the DD2 category for Team USA last year in New Orleans.

Point Breakdown

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Nathan Adds (Photo: On Track Promotions – otp.ca)

Stock Moto ‘On the Move’ – #24
Nathan Adds
Rowlett, Texas

The proof of the SKUSA Ladder System in Stock Moto working is in the numbers. This year is the highest S1 and S2 fields we have ever seen, with many getting their start in the S5 Junior category. The recently turned 16-year old graduated to the S2 Semi-Pro division this year, and has gotten off to a solid start for a rookie. A key helping point to his good start was the SpringNationals being held at his home track – Dallas Karting Complex. The Sodi Kart USA driver posted two top-eight results to help boost his confidence moving forward. It showed in Modesto, as the young pilot drove smart and avoided much of the carnage, finishing 11th and 12th in his first street race. Racing in the what is the a deep S2 field in the Texas ProKart Challenge, the grooming period shouldn’t last long and Adds will be fighting for podiums on the Pro Tour next year.

Point Breakdown

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 best seven finishes in TaG and six in Stock Moto to determine their overall current point total. With each new release, results posted from more than one year ago are discarded. To deliver our ranking list, we tabulate the results of all the national programs and selected regional programs. We have included the results for the major one-off events such as the SKUSA SuperNationals, the US Rotax Max Challenge Grand Nationals, the Rock Island Grand Prix, the Lone Star Grand Prix and the Streets of Lancaster Grand Prix.

Each race is 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 2014, the SKUSA SuperNationals and US Rotax Max Challenge Grand Nationals receive a score of 10 in their initial weighting in the TaG category while the SuperNationals is the lone event in the Stock Moto division. The SKUSA Pro Tour series events draw a base ranking of nine (9), as does the United States Pro Kart Series, Florida Winter Tour Rotax Max Challenge, Rotax Challenge of the Americas, Rotax Pan American Challenge. Other regional program races were given a base ranking of either 8.5 or 8.

The EKN staff reserves the right to adjust the rankings of each event throughout the year. A minimum entry total for any events considered for the Driver Rankings program is five (5). If an event does not have at least five (5) drivers starting the race, those results will not be tabulated toward the Driver Rankings.

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 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 in TaG, six for Stock Moto, we calculate each driver’s overall score and subsequent ranking.

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