We had a great weekend with our customers at the Challenge of the Americas!

Michael Avansino finished 3rd during Sundays main event and Colin McGrath, brand new to KZ racing finished in 14th.

Kartspeed Motorsports Shifter drivers Michael Avansino and Colin McGrath are both new to the shifter ranks but very different in their karting history.

Colin joined the sprint kart racing tribe in 2022 while Avansino has been karting since he was a kid.

Colin managed to win the Vortex ROKGP championship in 2022 staring out on a Kart Republic chassis and then switching over to Croc Promotion for the majority of the season. So nice job Colin on the great start
to your karting career.

Michael on the other had has won more single speed championships that I can count, so let’s just say he is a very accomplished national level sprint kart racer! But that said, Shifter Karts are a different beast entirely, within the sea of options for the single speed drivers. Extremely physical (more tiring than an F-1 car-) and that comes from every F-1 driver I have heard comparing the two, and almost violent to drive, the move to KZ is always a bit of a challenge, regardless of your driving background. Then try to drive one at the limit and the challenge is huge. Michael had a psychotic break in 2022
(LOL), deciding to take the plunge into shifter kart racing and is now in his first full season and third race on his Croc Promotion Vortex ROK Shifter.

Both drivers raced in this past weekend’s Challenge of the Americas (COTA) 3 event karting championship…which has always been a kind of ‘Winter Series’ for drivers on the West Coast. A series to race after the normal season ends and before the next years events begin.

Michael had a great beginning to the COTA weekend by qualifying P-2, right behind Keawn Tandon and just in front of the extremely experienced professional Birel ART North American Factory driver Hunter Pickett. So the one kart/one engine Michael dad is the mechanic… up against the huge Birel Factory Team driver. And Michael out qualifies him. NICE!

In the heat race, Michael botched the start and ended up having to race “back up” to 4th place but in the main, Michael figured out the clutch timing a bit better and ran a strong 3rd place for the majority of the main event. We are all proud of Michael!

Colin McGrath knew this was going to be a big test weekend for him. Still trying to figure out all the nuances of a shifter kart,
he knew he probably would not be competitive in terms of outright lap time, so this was a good chance to feel out the pro level shifter drivers and learn as
much as he could. And that he did, each session resulted in the experience he wants, so that he can eventually be counted amount the top shifter drivers in
the country. Colin ended up 15th in the heat race and moved up to 14th in the main event!

Next we are off to Round 3 of the ROK Sonoma Challenge at Sonoma on May 20/21st!