(Photo: EKN)

The month of July passed by us very quickly, as kids are already returning to school in certain parts of the country. For those of us at the EKN offices, it felt like an extremely busy month. In the eKartingNews.com Shifterkart Driver Rankings Powered by Bell Racing USA, not much changed, with mostly club and regional races making up the 27 main events on the schedule since the last release on June 28.

The top-15 drivers in the Shifterkart standings remain unchanged, with 2018 SKUSA Pro Tour champion AJ Myers heading into the 10th running of the SKUSA SummerNationals as the top driver. Myers holds onto a 220-point advantage over CRG Nordam teammate Kyle Wick in the EKN Driver Rankings, with former #1 Billy Musgrave (MONR / Croc Promotion) sitting in third. Mathias Ramirez (PSL / Birel ART) is coming off victory at the SpringNationals, and he sits fourth with room to move up into the top-three. Hunter Pickett (GFC) has been busy getting married, and the Californian is planning a return to the SKUSA Pro Tour at the upcoming SummerNats, where he will arrive holding fifth in the Driver Rankings.

Ironically, the driver with the most to gain or lose heading into August is Andrew Bujdoso. While the new Solo Kart USA driver sits sixth in the Driver Rankings, Bujdoso leads the SKUSA Pro Tour standings with two wins in the first two rounds. Bujdoso, along with a number of top drivers, took part in this past weekend’s SKUSA Great Lakes ProKart Challenge at New Castle to prepare for this week’s SummerNationals. Ron White (RWR / CRG) remains in the seventh spot, coming off his Challenge of the Americas championship in Shifter Rok Senior.

The top Semi-Pro in the Driver Rankings is Max Hewitt (CRG Nordam), holding the seventh spot. Hewitt enters the SummerNationals in the lead challenger role for the SKUSA Pro Tour Pro Shifter 2 championship, trailing two-time winner Race Liberante (J3 / CompKart) by 47 points. Liberante is 39th in the Driver Rankings as he has only six events counting towards his point total, and he is coming off victory at the USAC Karting Battle at the Brickyard. Prescott Campbell (MRC / Aluminos) is ninth, although he still recovering from a broken leg from a practice incident in June. 2018 Rock Island Grand Prix King of the Streets winner Rory van der Steur (MRC / Tony Kart) was among the quickest inside Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the Brickyard event, but he was unable to translate that pace into results. Rory will be among what is expected to be the largest Pro Shifter field of the 2019 season at the upcoming SummerNationals.

Upcoming EKN TaG Driver Rankings Schedule

(Photo: EKN)

Shifterkart #1 – AJ Myers
Tampa, Florida

The stage is set, and the goal of earning a second straight SKUSA Pro Tour championship lays ahead for AJ Myers. The CRG Nordam driver is only 15 points out of the championship lead, with two rounds of racing this weekend at the SummerNationals, which will decide who leaves as the 2019 title winner and #1 plateholder for 2020. While Myers’ lone win came aboard the Croc Promotions chassis at the WinterNationals, the Florida driver was extremely quick in his CRG debut in Utah. With time and testing under his belt, and heading to the track where he has won three of the last six main events in SKUSA competition, confidence should be high in the Myers camp.

Point Breakdown

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(Photo: EKN)

Shifterkart #2 – Kyle Wick
Auburn, Washington

The 2018 season ended with Kyle Wick earning the respect of the karting paddock for his rookie performance in the S1 division. Finishing the year as the vice-champion was icing on the cake after earning his first victory at the SpringNationals. Now, Wick is among those drivers who are on the stopwatches for those along the fence during every session. The top spot of the podium has eluded the CRG Nordam driver in the first four rounds of the SKUSA Pro Tour, however, Wick enters the SummerNationals third in the point standings and only 25 points out of first. Each and every lap will be crucial for Wick if he wishes to replace the #2 plate with the #1 for 2020.

Point Breakdown

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(Photo: DromoPhotos.com)

Shifterkart #3 – Billy Musgrave
Norco, California

New Castle has become kryptonite for Billy Musgrave. It was the location one year ago that he saw a possible SKUSA Pro Tour championship slip away. Coming into the weekend leading the title chase, a poor weekend performance dashed those hopes and the SKUSA crown still remains that single elusive trophy to place on Musgrave’s mantel. Locally and regionally, Musgrave remains the driver to beat each month, loading up victories now aboard the Mad Old Nut Racing / Croc Promotion machine. His best finish however is a fourth in the four rounds on the 2019 SKUSA Pro Tour schedule, putting him fourth in the standings heading to New Castle and needing victory sweep to have any chance at leaving with the title.

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 the TaG and Shifterkart categories 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 also included the results for the major one-off events such as the SKUSA SuperNationals, 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 2019, the SKUSA SuperNationals will receive a score of 10 in its initial weighting in the TaG and Shifterkart 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, All Star Finals, Stars and Stripes Trophy and Open, Rock Island Grand Prix, 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.

eKartingNews.com Shifterkart Driver Rankings Powered by Bell Racing USA – as of August 1, 2019