2018 SKUSA Pro Tour champion AJ Myers jumps up to finish as the #1 driver for 2018 (Photo: EKN)

The 2018 karting season has come to a close and the focus of the community has moved to preparing for the upcoming year. Before we turn the final page on the 2018 calendar, eKartingNews.com is pleased to release the final standings of the EKN Stock Honda Driver Rankings Powered by Bell Racing USA. The 95-event tour around the United States – a list of ranked events that included international, national, and regional programs from coast-to-coast – wrapped up with the 22nd edition of the Superkarts! USA SuperNationals in Las Vegas in November. When the final checkered flag waved on SuperSunday, it was AJ Myers who sprung forward to steal away the top position in the EKN Driver Rankings with his runner-up result in Pro Shifter.

Heading into the SuperNationals, it was assumed that the top spot would be reserved for Billy Musgrave (MRC / Aluminos) should he repeat as winner at the SuperNationals. Musgrave did exactly that, dominating the main event with a wire-to-wire victory. Chasing him throughout the 25-lap event was Myers, making only his second start aboard the Mad Croc chassis. The 2018 SKUSA Pro Tour champion made the move to the brand after winning his title in August, making his Mad Old Nut Racing debut at the Streets of Lancaster Grand Prix at the end of September. That race, where Myers finished fourth, was his seventh race in the 12-month span of the October driver rankings calculations. Myers contested the X30 Senior class at the 2017 SuperNationals, and therefore entered this year’s race in Pro Shifter with the ability to improve his score drastically by adding his points from Las Vegas, which is the highest ranked race of the year. Improve his score he did, as the SuperNationals runner-up finish provided Myers with a stunning 269 additional points, a number that propelled him into the number one spot to close out the 2018 season.

Musgrave’s win at the SuperNationals was his lone national victory on the season, going 0-6 at the SKUSA Pro Tour, which was another deciding factor in the EKN Driver Rankings as Myers earned two victories on the year during his championship season. In fact, Musgrave nearly fell to third after the SuperNationals despite his win. SKUSA #2 plate-holder Kyle Wick (RPG / CRG) made his second Pro Shifter start at the SuperNationals, improving from a DNF last year to fifth place on the podium, improving his Driver Rankings total to be just five points short of Musgrave’s final points haul. The top-three finishers this season were separated by just 53 points, proving that every position on-track, the size of the field and percentage of the top-50 in each race is critical to earning the #1 spot.

The top four finishes from the EKN Driver Rankings include the same quartet from the SKUSA Pro Tour point standings. Hunter Pickett (Sodi Kart) ended the 2018 season sitting fourth in the championship standings, and in the same spot for the EKN Driver Rankings. The NorCal driver won again on the SKUSA Pro Tour this year, however, he did not finish at the SuperNationals as hoped, coming home just outside the top-15. The finish, coupled with the results of others, did move him up four spots to close out the 2018 season. Behind Wick as top Pro Shifter rookie for the season was Collin Daley (DRT / DR Kart). The Jamaican was unable to break the top-five throughout the year, but his shining moment came at the SuperNats where Daley drove to 10th, moving him into the top-five for the 2018 EKN Driver Rankings.

Dropping out of the top-five is Rory van der Steur (Tony Kart). The 2018 RIGP King of the Streets winner was quick in his double-duty effort at the SuperNationals, racing Pro Shifter and KZ. A DNF in the Pro Shifter main event, after starting 10th, dropped him to sixth in the Driver Rankings. 2018 SKUSA Pro Tour S2 Semi-Pro champion Pedro Lopes (RPG / Kosmic) notched himself a place in the history books. The Brazilian will stand as the last S2 champion as Superkarts! USA makes the move to the combined Pro Shifter for 2019. Lopes was absent at the SuperNationals, yet still advanced three spots to seventh when factoring in the drop of last year’s SuperNationals results in favor of this year’s finishes. Moving up as well were Lopes’ primary contenders in the S2 championship chase for 2018. Max Hewitt (CRG Nordam) advanced four spots to eighth, riding on the back of his first SKUSA Pro Tour victory at the SummerNationals and a 13th place finish at the SuperNationals in his Pro Shifter debut. Veteran Cameron Egger (RPG / Kosmic) moved two spots to ninth to end the year, but he was unable to improve his standings in Vegas. Rounding out the top-10 is Blair Hosie (MRC / Aluminos), another driver who is to be a factor in the new Pro Shifter category in 2019.

The top-10 lost two drivers due to the fact that they elected to compete in KZ rather than Pro Shifter at the SuperNationals. Last year’s #1 Jake French (DKC / Sodi Kart) and October’s #2 Nic LeDuc (Sodi Kart) both fell outside the top-20 by losing their 2017 SuperNationals results in their total and not replacing them with these year’s finish. Both now only have six races in their total calculations, and may fall further down the order once the 2019 season begins.

NEW Stock Moto #1 – AJ Myers
Tampa, Florida

(Photo: Mad Croc Karting USA)

The 2018 season has been one to remember for AJ Myers. It started with victory and ended with the #1 position in the EKN Driver Rankings. Truly, the top spot was in doubt for Myers in the SKUSA Pro Tour championship after a challenging SpringNationals in Phoenix where AJ was unable to break into the top-five. However, Myers returned to form and found the speed on his return to the familiar New Castle Motorsport Park, finishing second and first at the SummerNationals to clinch his first SKUSA Pro Tour title in style. Having not logged many Stock Honda results in 2017 counting toward the EKN Driver Rankings, the Streets of Lancaster Grand Prix served as Myers’ seventh event of the year, and having finally accumulated the number of races we use in the calculations (seven best results), he immediately vaulted into the top-10. It was his SuperNationals runner-up result from Las Vegas that propelled him to the top spot, which is where Myers finishes the 2018 season as our #1 driver in the country. As a bonus, thanks to our friends at Bell Racing USA, AJ will become an official Bell Athlete for the 2019 season.

Point Breakdown

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Stock Moto #2 – Billy Musgrave
Norco, California

(Photo: EKN)

Talk about a season of ups and downs for now-veteran karter Billy Musgrave. The season was perfect in the California ProKart Challenge, where Musgrave piloted his Aluminos to a staggering six victories following six Prefinal wins and six top qualifiers in the six rounds. This dominance was capped off by a stellar performance at the Streets of Lancaster Grand Prix in September. The SOLGP victory came off a disappointing end to the SKUSA Pro Tour, as Musgrave arrived at the SummerNationals in the hunt for the title, only to fall a little short in the final rounds. The SOLGP triumph triggered the necessary momentum heading into the SuperNationals, where Musgrave nearly swept the event. Billy became the second driver to win back-to-back on SuperSunday in the category, matching the standard set by Daniel Formal in 2015-2016. You can believe that Musgrave is out for two things in 2019 – the SKUSA Pro Tour title and the EKN #1 ranking come December.

Point Breakdown

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Stock Moto #3 – Kyle Wick
Auburn, Washington

(Photo: EKN)

It was a brilliant season for the top rookie in the S1 division this season. Kyle Wick not only scored his first SKUSA Pro Tour victory, he stood on the podium in three of the six rounds of the SKUSA Pro Tour running under the Rolison Performance Group tent. Those results helped him to finish the year as the vice-champion in the point standings to earn the SKUSA #2 plate for the 2019 season. Wick carried this #2 plate proudly at the SuperNationals, where he not only stood on the podium in Pro Shifter, but also in his KZ debut. The week in Las Vegas was spent alongside former world champions Paolo De Conto and Pedro Hiltbrand under the CRG Nordam tent. Kyle is only now hitting his full stride and we expect him to be among the primary title contenders heading into the 2019.

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 Stock Honda 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, 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 2018, the SKUSA SuperNationals will receive a score of 10 in its initial weighting in the TaG and Stock Honda categories. A base ranking of 9.5 is set for the SKUSA Pro Tour, while a base ranking of 9 goes to the SKUSA Winter Series, United States Pro Kart Series, Florida Winter Tour, Challenge of the Americas, Rok the Rio, Rock Island Grand Prix, US Rotax Max Challenge Grand Nationals, and California ProKart Challenge. Other national and regional program races were given a base ranking of either 8.5 or 8.0.

The EKN staff reserves the right to adjust the rankings of each event throughout the year. A minimum entry total for any event to be 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, we calculate each driver’s overall score and subsequent ranking.

2018 EKN Stock Honda Driver Rankings Powered by Bell Racing USA – Final

Standings-2018-Final-Stock Honda