February 4, 2025
COMPKART Factory team kicked off its 2025 season over the weekend of January 30 – Feb 2 at the Challenge of Americas opening event in Tucson, AZ. The event was held at the challenging Musselman Honda Circuit where the team entered a total of five official drivers. Oliver Hodgson dominated 100cc Sr both days while young Conner Lypka battled for victory as well in Cadet.
Team Line up:
100cc Jr > Derek Wargo & Mason Kuhn
100cc Sr > Cooper O’Clair & Oliver Hodgson
Cadet > Conner Lypka
The team started off on Thursday with practice which ramped throughout the day and into the final practice day of Friday. As the team worked through a customary four day event they had to also navigate a new tire as the series utilizes the newly homologated Shinko tire made in Korea. The team took well to the new tire and didn’t miss a beat with Conner Lypka and Oliver Hodgson topping the time sheets in their respective categories showing the balance and diversification of the COMPKART chassis line. Wargo and Kuhn continued to progress throughout the weekend as they came to grips with the new tire and competition as it was the first competitive event of the season for them. Likewise, Cooper O’Clair found pace throughout the weekend and unfortunately found himself on the wrong side of a pre-final incident on Saturday and a long challenging Sunday race giving him experience and knowledge to move forward for the season.
In the end Oliver Hodgson was able to dominate both days in 100cc Sr while Conner Lypka took a photo finish third place on Saturday. Sunday saw the team battle across the board for top positions with Wargo and Kuhn taking a respective 5th and 6h place finish while Lypka took fourth with O’Clair jumping inside the top ten in 100cc Sr.
