Firsts Drivers Do Battle At SoK Utah Round

press release

The FirstKart.com race team along with Utah’s Reaction Karting program headed to the Miller Motorsports Park facility in Tooele, Utah for the Snap-on Stars of Karting West division opener this past weekend.

Junior drivers Miles Maroney, Spencer Pigot and James Michael Sullivan would compete in the challenging Junior Intercontinental A (JICA) category as all three drivers would run inside the top ten throughout the heat races and into the finals. Californian Miles Maroney would score two ninth place results while Spencer Pigot secured a solid tenth place run in final one before being collected in an opening lap incident in final two.

Above: James Michael Sullivan impressed all in rookie JICA start
Pic - On Track Promotions

In his first JICA race, James Michael Sullivan turned some heads as he competed with some of the country’s best. Battling wheel to wheel with national champions is tough but Sullivan stood his ground through the heat races to score a solid 13th place starting position for both finals. Sullivan would steadily improve throughout the weekend securing a tenth place position in the first final before being collected by the same incident in final two that took he and his teammate Pigot out of contention.

In only his second shifter kart start, Canadian pilot Max Riddle garnered eighth and ninth place results in the new TaG Intercontinental C (ICC) class. After opening the season with two very strong runs on the East coast, Riddle managed to claim two top ten results in the West to start his season off right.

Above: Utah’s Cody Tracy ran solidly in the top five all weekend
Pic - On Track Promotions

First Kart’s TaG program continues to blossom as four competitors under the team tent competed in the Stars TaG class. Racing under the FirstKart.com banner was Arizona resident AJ Whisler who battled hard throughout the weekend. Whisler was a victim of incidents in two of the three heat races which would set up a 22nd place starting position for him for both finals. Moving forward and gaining as many championship points as possible was the goal for Whisler and he did just that going home with 13th and 16th place finishes in the finals.

FirstKart.com dealer Reaction Karting had three drivers in attendance as all of them would race in the Stars TaG class. Leading the way was Cody Tracy along with super tuner Brandon Anderson. Tracy managed to score a strong fourth place result in final one and backed that up with a sixth place finish in final two. After the event, Tracy was disqualified in final one for a possible technical infraction that is currently under appeal. Utah’s Eddie Olpin managed a top fifteen result in the first round of features and was looking to improve in the second round before being taken out at the start of the event. Olpin was relegated down the running order and nearly a half lap behind before he got his machine fired but he persevered along to garner a 25th place finish.

In her first ever national event, Melissa Yount’s goal was to gain valuable experience to bring back to the regional level. Turning her quickest ever lap time in testing and then improving on that during the race weekend put a smile on the rookie driver’s face. Melissa was able to leave the Miller Motorsports Park facility with two top 25 results in 18th and 24th.

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