The karting market is filled with a number of chassis brands, manufactured from right here in the USA, to Europe and all the way down under in Australia. For many, the North American market is prime real estate with the number of karters in the USA and Canada, and the ability to race year-round. The eKartingNews.com Constructors Championship opened up to multiple series and events after focused solely on Stars of Karting and the CKI programs. Since 2011, it has been Tony Kart that has finished each year on top of the EKN Constructors Championship.

As the EKN CC program has expanded, so has the total for the Tony Kart brand, with the exception of 2016. Tony Kart saw its total cut down from the 1832 last year, showing that more and more brands are gaining success in the North America market. Tony Kart recorded the most points over the season in the Winter programs (Challenge of the Americas and Florida Winter Tour), the MAXSpeed events (US Open and US Rotax Grand Nationals), Superkarts! USA Pro Tour and the other column (California ProKart Challenge, Can-Am Karting Challenge, Texas ProKart Challenge and Rock Island Grand Prix). There is no question Tony Kart has a strong hold on the market share here in the United States, however, other brands continue to make it even more diverse.

The fight throughout the season was for the second position, which was won by Top Kart. Their efforts at the WKA Winter Cup and Manufacturers Cup programs along with the United States Pro Kart Series helped them to retain the runner-up position in the EKN CC standings. Placing third for a second straight year is Merlin Nation. The Merlin has been among the most successful brands on the eastern half of the US – confirmed by the top score in the USPKS program – and gaining national titles at the SKUSA Pro Tour in the Junior class in back-to-back seasons. The hard work and effort put in by the Sieracki family at Franklin Motorsports shows a true ladder system, taking drivers from kid karts, all the way to the #1 position in the EKN Driver Rankings with Brandon Lemke, along with a #2 SKUSA plate in S2 shifterkart action for Kyle Kalish. Alex Bertagnoli swept the Junior titles at the USPKS and earned a second straight championship for Merlin at the SKUSA Pro Tour Junior class.

Moving up two positions from last year is Kosmic, placing two OTK brands inside the top-five. The Rolison Performance Group provided a number of the points gained for the brand in 2016, helping to put Kosmic in the top-three in the Winter, US Open, and Other category. The majority of the points gained by Kosmic in WKA competition came from Braden Eves, a champion in Pro IAME Senior and Yamaha Senior. Rounding out the top-five is Praga. The majority of the brand’s points came from the success at the California ProKart Challenge and the efforts put in by 2015 EKN Driver Rankings TaG #1 Brandon Jarsocrak with KartSport North America in USPKS, WKA and SKUSA competition.

Dropping out of the top-five was Birel ART. Certainly among the more successful brands around the world, the chassis continues to grow across the United States with a number of small operations at different programs. Seventh is the Cadet-only chassis of Benik. 2016 was a phenomenal year for the brand, earning a number of victories and championships, not to mention a few top-five sweeps of the Cadet classes included in the EKN CC program. Benik earned the second highest total for the SKUSA Pro Tour portion, competing in just one of the eight possible classes.

Eighth belongs to Sodi Kart. The brand has grown a strong contingent in shifterkart competition, placing top-five in the SKUSA Pro Tour program and among the top brands at the Texas ProKart Challenge. Moving up in its second season is CompKart. The brand continues to grow throughout the country and around the world, gaining points in all categories of the EKN CC program. Rounding out the top-10 is FA Kart, the third-ranked OTK model. A number of Cadet drivers, including the Comet Kart Sales’ Garrett and Logan Smith – contested 2016 on the chassis in addition to privateers such as SKUSA Pro Tour X30 Master champion Derek Wang.

Falling out of the top-10 is CRG. For a number of years, the brand was the marquee chassis in shifterkart racing. There is no question the ability of the brand in 2016, earning another KZ World Champion and earning the SKUSA SuperNationals victory with Paolo de Conto. The establishment of CRG Nordam will focus on improving the results and support for CRG customers moving forward here in North America. Another brand the remains among those in contention is Intrepid. While the brand was 12th overall on the year, Intrepid finished third in the SKUSA Pro Tour program thanks to the effort of Champion Racing and 3G Kart Racing. SKUSA Pro Tour S4 champion Ryan Kinnear, S1 driver Nick Neri and former S4 #1 plate holder Jordon Musser were among the three drivers helping to gain Intrepid the points they did.

Inside the Numbers:

1
Number of brands scoring points in all 41 events – Tony Kart

5
Number of brands to post high scores at events in 2016 – aside from Tony Kart – Top Kart, Merlin, Kosmic, Praga, and Sodi Kart

13
Number of brands over 100 mark – up four from 2015

21
Highest number of brands scoring at one event (SKUSA Pro Tour SpringNationals)

47
Total number of brands scoring points

116
Highest event point total of the season – Tony Kart (US Rotax Grand Nationals)

972
Margin from first to second

EKN Constructors Championship Guidelines
The EKN Constructors Championship calculation process includes the top-five finishers in each recognized class (Senior-Master-Junior-Cadet classes). The SKUSA SuperNationals and US Rotax Grand Nationals will earn points with the following structure; 1st=20 points, 2nd=16 points, 3rd=12 points, 4th=8 points, 5th=4 points. The SKUSA Pro Tour and US Open will earn points with the following structure; 1st=10 points, 2nd=8 points, 3rd=6 points, 4th=4 points, 5th=2 points. The remaining events will continue to be awarded with the previous ranking system; with first place earning five (5) points down to fifth place earning one (1) point for each category. There is a minimum of 10 starting entries for the class points to be counted toward the season total in the EKN CC standings.

EKN Constructors Championship – 2016 Final Standings

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