October 8, 2004

With less than one week to the Premier Event of the year for the US Rotax Program, officials are busy putting the finishing touches on this year's Grand Nationals.   Early estimates had  200 competitors descending on the popular XPlex Karting facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.  About two weeks ago the reality set in that the 200 number was a bit conservative and it was adjusted upwards to 220 as the October 1^st pre entry deadline approached.  Even this number turned out to be low as the final couple of days saw the entries top out near 240.  While registration at the track is still available only a few are anticipated because the requirement for qualifying to enter includes minimum participation in a Regional RMax Challenge Series. 

The events grand prize is a trip to the Rotax World Finals, this years event to be held in the Canary Islands in January of 2005.  From the US, 4 Seniors and 1 Junior will be awarded the trips as winners in the Junior, RM 1 and International classes.  The top finishing US Masters driver will also be awarded a trip to join the US team.  Also competing are racers from the countries of Mexico and Costa Rico, which will send their top placing finishers to the Rotax World Finals also.

The four day event format will follow the same outline as the successful 2003 event in Denton, Texas.  Drivers will spend Wednesday setting up for the Thursday practice day.  Friday, after receiving short rounds of morning practice, drivers will qualify for the heat races on Saturday. Racers will compete in 3 heats during the course of the day accumulating points for finishing positions.  Last Chance Races will begin the Sunday program, followed by the Pre Finals.  Finals will follow the drivers presentation parade.

Over the years, since it’s beginning in the US, the Rotax program has grown into one of the most competitive series in the country. The Rotax program focuses on developing the driver.  With the popularity of Electric Start karts growing the Rotax package is still the most popular choice and one of the major reasons is the 25 local and regional RMax Challenge Series, which not only crown their own champions, but also serve as qualifiers for the Grand Nationals. 

Special emphasis will be placed on providing the press as much information as possible in a timely manner.  Scoring will be done with the Orbits system and uploading to MyLaps.com each evening is planned. 

A schedule for the entire weekend will be available at www.rmaxchallenge.com on the Grand Nationals page. This will be in an Adobe PDF format for downloading.  It needs to be noted that this schedule is subject to change as situations dictate. 

For more information about the Rotax Max Challenge Series visit www.rmaxchallenge.com and your local Rotax dealer.