Only a short drive from their Indianapolis, Indiana location, Team Koene USA will bring nine drivers to the New Castle Motorsports Park facility for the annual SuperKarts! USA (SKUSA) SummerNationals. With some new as well as returning drivers registered, Team Koene USA will once again look towards the front of the field in their quest for race wins and podium results before shifting gears and preparing for the ultimate SKUSA SuperNationals.
“We are continuing to evolve and add some new drivers to the team,” explained Team Principal Mike Maurini. “We have had some drivers move to the car ranks and others that chose different programs, but have filled those voids with fresh faces that are eager and willing to learn. We are committed to providing the best for all of our drivers and will work hard to obtain the desired results.”
Team Koene USA’s largest contingent will come in the X30 Junior class as Payton Durrant, Zoey Edenholm and Alejandro Jaramillo will all do battle. Edenholm is fresh off a fifth place result at the SpringNationals in May as well as a fourth place finish at the most recent round of the US Open in Utah. The young and talented Payton Durrant had one of his best races of the 2016 season in Utah coming from deep in the Rotax Junior field, gaining nearly twenty positions to garner a solid seventh place effort. In Indiana, he will trade his Rotax powerplant in for a stout IAME X30 package in his hopes to continue the upward trend. Alejandro Jaramillo has shown the speed to run at the pointy end of the field but has run into some bad racing luck. Competing this past weekend in Peru, Jaramillo will be back on a familiar track on American soil in Indiana.
Zach Holden, fresh off of his IAME Pro victory at the USA International Raceway and Yamaha Pro win at GoPro Motorplex, will return to the facility where he has grown up, this time in the X30 Senior class. Scoring a podium result at the opening round of the SKUSA Pro Tour, Holden had heartbreak in round two with a broken ground wire while he was in the lead as he was forced to retire. Looking for redemption, Holden will be one to watch.
Ryker Mattes will continue his growth and development with Team Koene USA as he shows his upward trend in speed and results. Timid at his first event with the team back in January, Mattes has shown a greater aggression while making passes, a reduction in lap times and consistent improvement throughout the first six months of the season. Scoring a top-ten in Phoenix at the first round of the SKUSA Pro Tour, Mattes will try to better that effort in New Castle, a facility that he has competed at multiple times already in 2016.
Team Koene USA will enter a pair of drivers in the IAME Mini Swift class as James Egozi and Aryton Hernandez will do battle. While Hernandez has been flying the Koene USA colors in his home state of Texas, he will shift his focus to the national level of karting with his entrant in both the SummerNationals next weekend and the prestigious SuperNationals in Las Vegas in November. Announced just last week, Egozi has been near the front of the field in every series of competition and makes the move to Team Koene USA beginning with the SKUSA SummerNationals. A major player with the Vortex and Rotax powerplants, Egozi will team with the Indiana based squad and look towards the top step in Mini Swift.
Maurini continued, “I am very excited about our three younger drivers as they represent the future of the sport. Ryker has shown unbelievable improvement in his short tenure with the team while Aryton has been a front runner in the Texas region. James is a natural talent behind the wheel and I have no doubt that all three of these kids will be multi-time karting champions.”
Working to better the sport and assist others, Team Koene USA is providing tent space and service Ocala Gran Prix’s Tyler Gonzalez as well as North Carolina’s Brooke Nachtman who will both do battle in X30 Junior.
For more information on Koene USA and their online store, please visit www.TeamKoeneUSA.com or contact company representatives at 317.270.8723 or via e-mail to Info@KoeneUSA.com. Team Koene USA is also very active in social media and can be found on Twitter at @KoeneUSA or on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/KoeneUSA.
For information on press releases or other media services offered by Race Tech Development, please contact Mike Maurini via e-mail at Info@RaceTechDevelopment.com or 317.270.8723. Race Tech Development can also be found on Twitter at @RaceTechDvlp as well as Facebook at their Race Tech Development Fan Page.
