Last weekend marked the inaugural Winter Nationals at the prestigious NOLA Motorsports Park for the first round of the SKUSA Pro Tour.  With a team of 11 talented drivers, the #redarmy would be a difficult crew to keep up with.  Overall, the Birel ART drivers would come away with 5 podiums, making this their 5th podium appearance in 5 events thus far.

Mini Swift

In the 60 Cadet (Mini Swift) category, Justin Arseneau (Allison Race Engines) would compete 41 kart field to qualify P23 overall.  After some tough pre-finals on Saturday, Justin would be taken out in the final.  Sunday would qualify 27, and with a chain of unfortunate incidents he would DNF in the main.

Junior X30

Thomas Nepveu, in his Rookie season of Junior competition would qualify P18 on Saturday, only .5th off the pace, while Aidan Keel (Andersen Racing) would put his red machine on pole for the prefinal.  Sebastian Montoya would run under the PSL awning, qualifying P26 and finishing P15, just ahead of his team mate. In the main, Aidan would fall back to P4, however his RY30-S8B was able to earn him the fast lap while Thomas would finish P16 in what would be considered one of the most competitive classes.  Sunday would see Thomas suffer a problem in qualifying (P31) while Aidan Keel backed up his performance with another pole.  In the final, Aidan would have to fight a tough battle in the opening lap to finish P2 (with penalties, P4), while Thomas would finish finish P20.  Sebastian Montoya on Sunday qualified P18 ( in the 37 kart field, finishing P22 in the final.

Senior X30

Senior pilots Ryan Norberg and Ryan MacDermid are quick all weekend long, and had an exceptionally strong weekend as his first event in senior. Norberg qualified P4, missing pole by only 0.064, while MacDermid qualified P1. In The final, Norberg would fight a long tough race to finish P4 and McDermid P18.  Sunday would see a big turn around for the boys, with Norberg grabbing pole and MacDermid improving his efforts for a P11.  Again, tough competition, and solid racing, Norberg and MacDermid would finish P5 and P8, with Ryan MacDermid having one of his strongest performances of 2017.

S1/S2 (Combined results)

Kingsley would not qualify for more than one lap due to a broken shift linkage, however was quickest throughout all official practice sessions while CJ Cramm qualified P30, but Mazzaferro would lead the trio with a P2 qualification effort.  The pre main event would see Kingsley finish P17, CJ Cramm P21, and Mazzaferro with a solid P2 (P11 overall).  Sundays qualification order would see Kingsley (P21), Cramm (P33) and Mazzaferro (P2).  The final results would put Kingsley in P19, Cramm P24 and Mazzaferro P13 (P2 in S2, earning a podium).  A notable drive by Andersen Racing's Mathias Ramirez who nearly took the win in the S1 while leading most of the race, and was only moved off the track in the last corner while defending the lead.

X30 Masters / S4

Luis Zervigon qualified P2 in a large field of very competitive masters drivers & Vatche Tatikian would suffer a problem to start at the back.  In the main event, Zervigon finished P6 and Vatche a DNF.  Sunday Vatche would edge his team mate with P7 in qualify and Zervigon P8.  The final would see some difficult racing from both as Zervigon finished P16 and Tatikian P14.  In S4 (Shifter Masters) Jordon Musser (3G Karting) would take the top step with a pole to kick of his Saturday event.  In the Main, Musser would conquer again with the win and the fast lap aboard the Birel ART CRY-30-S8B.  Sunday, Musser qualified P2, only 0.055 off pole, but would race a very sold pre final and main to earn the second step of the podium. Also a notable finish from Renato David (Orsolon Racing) that finished P2 on Saturday and finished P1 on Sunday.