When I arrived in Las Vegas Sunday night, I knew a long week lay ahead of me for this year’s SKUSA Super Nationals. Once the Tony Kart USA containers arrived Cliff Kujala, David Dodson, and myself were busy setting up for the weeks activities. Practice started first thing Wednesday morning with the TAG class reaching 80 drivers total in the final tally. My two team mates for the weekend were Johnny Zartarian and Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice. With minimal rubber being laid down on the circuit Wednesday we did not concentrate on being the quickest because we knew the track was going to come as the weekend progressed. That is exactly what happened come Thursday afternoon for qualifying. Both team mates and I were 1, 2, and 3 in grid order when the final qualifying session was over. What a good feeling it was cause we were able to present a good showing in front of our owner Mr. Robattzi.

The next two days comprised the heat races to determine the grid order for the final on Sunday. When looking back at my previous supernational starts, I have been on the pole for the final the past 2 years. I definitely wanted to continue my good starting position streak. I was able to win all three of the heat races which secured the pole for me come Sunday. My team mates also kept up their game as they finished right behind me in the heats which put them 2^nd and 3^rd for the final. Finally, the day we waited for all week was here, and the finals lay ahead in the afternoon. All three of us Tony Kart USA drivers agreed to stick together during the start, but those things are hard to plan in a race situation.

At the drop of the green flag Zartarian and I were able to run nose to tail and pull away from the field. However, Buddy Rice was experiencing some issues and fell back at the start. Meanwhile, Zartarian continued to stay behind me despite some handling issues that I was experiencing. With less than 3 laps remaining Zartarian made his move going into turn 3. I knew I had to overtake him quickly if I wanted to secure the win. Only 3 corners later did I make the attempt which worked to take the lead back from my teammate. After this I was able to drive all the way to the checkered flag, and finally win the SuperNationals which had evaded me for the past two years. uddy Rice was able to rebound back to fourth place before post tech ruined his podium hopes.

I have to thank everybody at Tony Kart for all their support of the years, and Vortex for supplying the engines. As I move forward in my motorsports career I will be able to race karts less and less, but will always remember what the Tony Kart USA team did for me. Some names that I must mention are Cliff Kujala for his hard work at making the team operational, Johnny Mislejevic for being our karting engineer and good friend, Vito for his diligence with the Vortex engines, and all my mechanics David Dodson/Seth Nash/Alberto/Cliff/and many others. These people definitely made the ICA Championship in 06’ come true and the victory this past week in Las Vegas, thank You for everything.

Joel Miller