6-28-10 Menezes Ready for Inaugural WSK World Series Event in Portugal

Californian to tackle the world at opening round of new world championship series

Next week will mark a new era for international karting with the inaugural event of the WSK World Series. American karting star Gustavo Menezes will travel to the Algarve International Karting Circuit in Portimao, Portugal for the first round of the three-race world championship. Menezes will make his third start as member of the prestigious Tony Kart Racing Team and will challenge to claim the first world title in the KF2 category.

To prepare for the opening round of the WSK World Series - set for June 30-July 3 - Menezes ran the final two WSK Euro Series events aboard his Tony Kart chassis powered by Vortex. The two races would be the 15-year olds first KF2 starts in Europe, having run the KF3 division in the previous three seasons.

The last race in Sarno, Italy was Menezes best showing. Starting out classified 21st in qualifying out of 56 drivers, Menezes posted top-10 results in his four heat races to earn the 20th grid spot for the Prefinal. Menezes was involved in an incident to fall back to the tail of the field. From there, he advanced back forward to finish 18th in the difficult 12-lap run. Top cap off the solid weekend, Menezes was moving forward in the main event, up to 12th only to be hit again and dropped to 22nd. In the end, Menezes managed to cross the line 16th in the final tally, just one spot out from earning a championship point.

Sarno was a great weekend for me and the Tony Kart Racing Team, commented Menezes. I was able to overcome some adversity and produce my best results in KF2 thus far. The Genk and Sarno weekends were a great warm-up for the World Series. Im looking to racing on the new circuit in Portugal and begin battling for the world championship.

The event is set to begin Wednesday, June 30 with practice. Qualifying will be conducted on July 1 with the heat races to take place on July 2. The Prefinal and Final races will run on July 3. A complete schedule of the event can be view at the series website - wskarting.it. You can follow Menezes progress throughout the weekend live with the series scoring feed: www.wskarting.it/livetime.asp

Gustavo is able to compete at this level thanks to his many sponsors, including Tony Kart USA, Red Bull, UP Racing, Safety Park Inc., K1 Speed, K1 Race Gear, Tony Kart Racing Team, On Track Promotions and Oakley. Additional information on Gustavo Menezes can be obtained from his personal website, www.gustavomenezes.com or follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/gustavom28