Cascadia Karting Cup Announced from FTK Promotions

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One-off event scheduled for October 2-4 at Pat’s Acres Racing Complex

FTK Promotions is excited to announce the creation of a one-off event for the pacific northwest region. The Cascadia Karting Cup presented by Shinko Racing Kart Tires is confirmed for the October 2-4 weekend at the Pat’s Acres Racing Complex. The Canby, Oregon facility has been a marquee circuit for the region with the event to celebrate the end of the karting season with support from competitors, teams, and kart shops.

Andy Seesemann, owner of FTK Promotions, is no stranger to the region and Pat’s Acres Racing Complex. In 2021 and 2022, FTK Promotions hosted events at the Canby, Oregon facility through the California ROK Championship program.

“Pat’s Acres has a long history and one of the more unique facilities that we have in the USA,” stated Andy Seesemann of FTK Promotions. “Since moving my business to the region, I’ve spent a lot of time talking with key figures within the sport that call the pacific northwest home. We have many great clubs and tracks, and a lot of karters within the area. October is a dead spot in the schedule for the region and this is a great way to provide a final big race for the karting community.”

Pat’s Acres Racing Complex is a multi-motorsport facility with a 6/10-mile karting circuit. PARC is partnering with the Portland Karting Association to provide a 10-round Oregon State Karting Championship Series program. The latest round was the Beaver Cup event in May. Their September 5 event will feature the PARC Night Race and the OSKCS closes out at Pat’s Acres on October 25.

“I am excited for the racers here in the northwest to take part in a special event like this,” stated Chris Egger of Pat’s Acres Racing Complex. “This is a chance for racers to experience a high standard of professionalism with the program that Andy and his FTK Promotions crew provides, as we have seen with the Challenge of the Americas and California ROK Championship programs. We are thrilled to partner with Andy for this event and whatever the future may bring.”

Seesemann and FTK Promotions is moving forward with the event with support from those within the industry based in the pacific northwest. Multiple teams and shops have already pledged their support for the Cascadia Karting Cup presented by Shinko Racing Kart Tires event.

Aaron Neliton of Neliton Race Concepts is among the newer karting teams and has been a Challenge of the Americas supporter for the last few seasons. “We are pretty excited about Andy putting on a race up in our area as there are not a lot of good, well run races to attend up in the pacific northwest. I have loved the Challenge series for its 19 years and that makes this all that much more exciting for me and our operation. We will have our team attend the Cascadia Karting Cup and expect to have 15-20 drivers competing.

Cameron Egger, owner of Sigra Race Development, is based in Canby, Oregon and was among the first teams to pledge their support for the Cascadia Karting Cup. “I cannot express how excited I am for yet another opportunity to race at Pat’s Acres Racing Complex with the type of professionalism that Andy and his team bring. This historic track always delivers great racing, a welcoming and family friendly environment and a lot of smiles. An event like this can send us off on a great path from 2026 and into the 2027 season. The facility is a great place to race and camp in the same weekend, so let’s end 2026 on a great note here in the pacific northwest.”

TCR Driver Development is a new operation based in Boise, Idaho, providing karting products and race team for the region owned by Tyler Coffman. “I was immediately excited to hear of the plans Andy has for a regional event at Pat’s Acres this fall. It should be a great turnout with that amazing race track. We are looking forward to bringing some local Kart Idaho talent out to the regional stage in Oregon.”

PGP Motorsports Park owner Scott Cowell is excited about introducing racers from his Kent, Washington facility to the atmosphere of FTK Promotions events such as Cascadia Karting Cup at PARC, “The regional sprint racing calendar in the pacific northwest wraps up pretty early in the year. We are excited to have another quality event on the schedule late in the season. The combination of a world-class track and Andy’s track record of running top-tier races should make for an awesome event!”

Seesemann continued, “I’m pleased to have the support from so many of the teams and industry members in the region. Once word gets out and momentum builds, I expect many other teams and racers in the Cascadia area will want to come join in the fun.”

Details regarding the Cascadia Karting Cup presented by Shinko Racing Kart Tires are to be announced in the coming weeks. Information will be published on the challengekarting.com website with a special page for the event along with updates coming through the Challenge Karting Facebook page and Instagram account.

FTK Promotions has suspended the 2026 season for Challenge of the Americas.

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The following is a statement from Andy Seesemann, owner of FTK Promotions and Challenge of the Americas championship program regarding the suspension of the 2026 season.

It is no secret that numbers were down at the Challenge of the Americas opener at K1 Circuit. So low, there was a significant financial loss organizing the event. Track costs there are exorbitant and not sustainable, but the series took the chance, and it did not pay off. Challenge of the Americas cannot continue down the path of hemorrhaging cash. Doing it once was extremely painful, but necessary. Doing that three more times is impossible. So, we set out with a goal of 60 pre entered for our Phoenix Kart Racing Association race in April by Saturday, March 14. Our hope was that by requesting a refundable deposit that racers would commit to the event early and we could continue to do what we do best, put on great karting events. Unfortunately, we did not hit our needed 60 entry threshold to continue operations of the Challenge of the Americas for 2026.

With a heavy heart and extreme disappointment, I am suspending operations of the Challenge of the Americas for the remainder of 2026. Based on our numbers from our first event a few weeks ago, it has become apparent that the program will take a significant financial loss for 2026. With date conflicts on the next two event weekends, the outlook was not looking any better. The racing calendar has always been crowded, but over the past few years, the addition of more regional and national programs, all fighting for the same customers, has put extreme stress on the industry. In the past, regardless of our competition with one another, most programs have been respectful of each other’s dates. As new players move into the sport, that respect has eroded. Unfortunately, date conflicts force racers and teams to make tough choices, often reducing the number of weekends they race, or worse, reducing the number of weekends the teams and mechanics can earn a living.

Despite this, I am extremely proud of what my staff and I have accomplished in almost two decades. I am convinced that I have the most passionate and finest staff in the sport, filled with karting “lifers”, who treat our racers and the sport with the respect it deserves. We have always prided ourselves in providing a fair, safe, and family friendly high quality kart racing program. Just the other day, someone shared a staff photo from 13 years ago and I realized that more than half of the folks in the photo still wore my Challenge staff t-shirts a few weekends a year. A remarkable statistic, when you consider the turnover that happens in our sport at all levels. Several of the individuals have been with me for all 19 years, a couple as officials, and a few more who started out as competitors before hopping to the other side of the fence.

When I first announced the creation of the Challenge of the Americas 19 years ago at the Colorado Karting Circuit in Denver, I had no idea if it would last one season, let alone 19. A few years ago, I realized that 20 years was not far off, and that became my goal.  Even with this difficult situation, reaching year 20 is still my goal.  After I recover from my disappointment, I will go back to work to see what needs to change so the Challenge can carry on into a 3rd decade. My team and I would like to thank all competitors and teams that raced at our first event in February and to those that did enter for our planned April event in Phoenix. Refunds for your deposits will be processed shortly.

LAST CALL For PKRA Pre Entry

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LAST CALL to enter for PKRA April 17-19. We have entries rolling in every day but need that final push to bring it home. PKRA entry for R3/R4 is open at https://raceselect.com/cota//2026 and will remain so until 11:59pm on March 14th. We ask for a $500 entry down payment. The balance can be paid at a later date. Should we not get 60 entries your $500 down payment will be refunded in full. We will make an announcement on Monday regarding the event. eKartingNews.com Canadian Karting News Norcal Karters

Entry Update March 9th

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Thank you to all the drivers who registered for our upcoming PKRA event the moment we announced the need for 60 pre entries to carry on with the 2026 season. Your support is greatly appreciated. We planned a status update today and though entries have been coming in we are not at the required number yet. You have nothing to lose by registering. Your $500 deposit will be completely refunded if we don’t hit the target number of 60. There are five more days left before we make our decision of go-no go. So please, if you want to race, let’s race, we would love to have you, and COTA will put on another amazing event at PKRA.

PKRA entry for R3/R4 is open at https://raceselect.com/cota//2026 and will remain so until 11:59pm on March 14th. We only ask for a $500 entry down payment. The balance can be paid at a later date, right up until the race weekend, or even at the event. Should we not get 60 entries your $500 down payment will be refunded in full.

REGISTRATION OPEN FOR 2026 CHALLENGE OF THE AMERICAS EVENT AT PKRA. 60 ENTRIES NEEDED BY MARCH 14TH TO MAKE THE EVENT HAPPEN

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The Power is Yours: Secure Your Spot for Challenge of the Americas Phoenix!

Greetings Challenge Racers and Teams.

It is no secret that numbers were down at our opener at K1 Circuit last week. So low, that I took a significant financial loss organizing the event. Track costs there are exorbitant and not sustainable, but we took the chance and it didn’t pay off. I can’t continue down the path of hemorrhaging cash. Doing it once was extremely painful, but necessary. Doing that 3 more times is impossible.  

The new K1 club series has garnered the support of Southern California and a number of teams that have supported the Challenge of the Americas for the last 19 seasons. Unfortunately, the new program decided to schedule on top of our next two event weekends, unnecessarily forcing racers to choose a race program.

Therefore, for our Phoenix event I give you, our racers, the role of choosing the fate of our program. We need 60 entries committed to our PKRA event or the rest of the season will be canceled. After nearly 20 years, and with a heavy heart I say this, the choice is yours. I don’t want K1 to go down as the final Challenge of the Americas race weekend, but I need your support.

PKRA entry for R3 and R4 opens today and will remain so until 11:59pm on March 14th. I know it is early, so we only ask for a $500 entry down payment. The balance can be paid at a later date, right up until the race weekend, or even at the event. Should we not get 60 entries your $500 down payment will be refunded in full. 

Thank you,

Andy

REGISTER HERE