Eastern Canadian Karting Championship

Race Six Report: Le Circuit Karting Mont-Tremblant

10 August 2010

Photos by: Gregory Lussier, www.babelphotos.ca go visit!

The inaugural season of the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship came to a close over the weekend as the nation’s top karters converged to christen Le Circuit Karting Mont-Tremblant, host venue of the 2010 ASN Canada FIA National Karting Championships. Race six brought to a close a four round, six-race championship that began at Goodwood Kartways back in May, and ran through Mosport International Karting and Le Monaco de Trois-Rivières before arriving in the Laurentian Mountains. Le Circuit Karting debuted to rave reviews in the paddock, and Mont-Tremblant served as an ideal backdrop with three class championships running down to the final session.

Yet-to-be-decided Junior and Senior produced fields over thirty deep among a Rotax contingent well over 100 strong once again, but arguably the wildest championship finale came from Rotax Micro-Max, the first race up in the final rotation with Karter Hickling and James Dean Laderoute squaring off to settle things for the season. Hickling led the tally chart coming in after counting two wins, four podiums and four pole positions for Goodwood/Intrepid, but Laderoute was just 25 points behind having scored three runner-up finishes and a win of his own with PSL/CRG. Pole position proved irrelevant after Hickling didn’t get it, and Laderoute then needed a win to take the title. He got just that by a nose in the prefinal, but it was nothing compared to what went down over twelve laps Sunday afternoon.

The pair were set to star in the ultimate showdown, and as if to add to the drama, Jordan Slipacoff unveiled his best run of the season and was right in the middle of the action from green to checker. Thirteen times the lead changed hands, on some laps multiple times, and the trio were never separated. An emerging trend showed Laderoute favouring passing moves into turn one, while Hickling often took the lead at the end of the back straight. With the right draft in play, the leader could fall first-to-third in one corner, and the final remained absolutely unpredictable running to the final stages. With three to go, all three had taken a turn at the front when Laderoute took the lead once again into turn one, only to have Hickling take it back at the end of the straight. Two-to-go and Laderoute again moved to the lead in one, and this time ran a blocking line down the back straight that worked! The trio were nose-to-bumper as they ran under the Last Lap board and remained that way as they hit the back straight for the final time. Once again Laderoute moved to his right in order to protect, and once again Hickling’s only available option was the straight line up the outside. A drag race ensued, and Hickling swept into the lead - with Slipacoff through as well! A heartbeat later the checker was waving and all three crossed in less than a half-second!

The race and Micro-Max championship went to Hickling, Slipacoff followed a runner-up finish at Trois-Rivières with second at Mont-Tremblant, and Laderoute took third in scoring his fifth podium of the series from his fifth start. It was an incredible close to Micro-Max, and an incredible start to the final rotation. The next class up with the championship remaining open was Rotax Junior where GreenSpeed/TonyKart’s Austin Milwain had taken pole position and Olivier Bedard had won the prefinal for SRA/Arrow. Marc-Antoine Cardin crossed second, with Championship hopeful Jesse Lazare third in the formation race. If the PSL/CRG driver could repeat the performance in the main, it would mean Prime/CRG junior and point leader Luke Chudleigh needed a finish of ninth to win the championship in tie-breaking fashion. The stage had been set for another drama, but this one was over in a hurry.

Bedard held top spot as the lights went out with Lazare slotting second and Cardin third ahead of Milwain, Artem Korolev and Michael Adams. Lap two saw the lead four remain the same with Adams moving to fifth, but in hindsight he likely wished he hadn’t. Beginning the next lap, Lazare went inside for the lead in turn three and Cardin slid through for second as well. The field was then rocked when Bedard jumped the curb and went around in turn seven! Milwain was knocked wide, Korolev was through into third, and Lazare and Cardin were clear and running for the hills. From that point forward, noone else in the field was going to win, and Chudleigh would have needed to run through the carnage and then charge to the podium - an order that was definitely too tall to be filled. As fifteen laps played out the lead pair never altered and Lazare took his third consecutive win and the Rotax Junior crown, earning a trip to represent the ECKC at the 1st Annual Rotax International Open in Zuera, Spain, an award graciously sponsored by Lilydale. Cardin was second and Milwain recovered third early on and kept it to the podium. Zacharie Scalzo came through the mess in sixth and worked his way to fourth, while Bedard rebounded from a low of eleventh to come all the way back to the top five, setting a blinding 55.156 on his way, the fastest lap in the field by a considerable margin.

The junior grid was once again without question the strongest in the country, but one truly shares the vision of the ECKC founders when the field rolls off in Marigold Ford-Lincoln Rotax Senior. The third and final class with a championship remaining open at Mont-Tremblant Sunday afternoon, the electricity in the air was palpable when seventeen rows filed from the grid. Ouellette, Di Leo, Boisclair, Ouellette, King, Vincec, Szigeti, and Sirois were eight former Team Canada members among them, with Western and Maritime stars Mandarino and Caseley adding to the mix, not to mention those from Quebec and Ontario who are established names in the sport still looking to book their trips to the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals. Prime among them was PSL Ontario’s Pearce Herder, who was third in the Championship and chasing the front row PSL/CRG of Pier-Luc Ouellette and Goodwood/Intrepid of Marco Di Leo for his chance to go to Spain. Five-time National Champion Christophe Boisclair lined his SRA/Arrow up inside of Herder on row two, with reigning National Champion Hugo Ouellette and Kevin King on row three. PLO had taken the initial pole position from qualifying as well, narrowing the gap to Di Leo to just thirty points with one race to run, and nearly setting up a winner-take-all situation between the two - with both knowing Herder was on the scene prepared to sweep past should things get tricky. Adding to the building drama and making a developing plot even deeper: threatening clouds loomed and the odd raindrop issued warning as the first of two formation laps began.

The start proved the key to the race as Di Leo, not wanting to risk a championship on the ability of those around him, sliced to the lead from the outside line and took matters into his own hands. Ouellette was second with Boisclair third and proving the man on the move. Just as they had in the prefinal, the trio edged away from the rest of the field, and in this one Boisclair picked his way to the front. He took second from Ouellette working lap three, and the lead from Di Leo working lap six, a move that heightened the championship intensity ten-fold. If Di Leo were to finish second to a Boisclair or Ouellette win, he would be champion; but if he were to finish third to an Ouellette win, PLO would be king. As the first half played out, Di Leo responded by working four-stroke style behind Boisclair on the straights and the pair turned a slight edge over Ouellette into a comfortable gap. Prayers from the paddock kept the rain at bay, and nothing changed on the podium from there to the checker, Boisclair taking the win and Di Leo the championship! Ouellette was third, just over a second back, with Steven Szigeti fourth after a charge from outside the top ten. Di Leo will now join Lazare in representing the ECKC at the 1st Annual Rotax International Open in Zuera, Spain, this October, an award graciously sponsored by Lilydale.

After the skies teased the seniors with drips Sunday afternoon, they nearly drowned the Mini-Max field sitting on the grid and teams and drivers were promptly sent for wet tires. Le Monaco winner Alexandre Fortin had taken pole from class champion Zachary Claman-DeMelo, and followed by winning the prefinal ahead of the Scuderia/TonyKarts of Kami Moreira-Laliberte and Lance Stroll. Marco Signoretti lined up fourth for Goodwood/Intrepid, and all were about to witness who was the best in the wet. Fortin kept his PSL/CRG on the point through one with Gianfranco Mazzaferro second, Stroll third, and Moreira-Laliberte fourth and looking to move. After slotting into fourth from the outside, he was third through two, and second through three when he began closing the gap to Fortin. Two laps later he was on the back of the CRG and then took over the lead working six with a pass at the end of the back straight. Stroll also worked to the back of the CRG, and while Moreira-Laliberte checked out to win by nearly three seconds, the other two had a great dice in setting the order for the podium. With two laps to go Stroll worked his TonyKart inside at turn two and they ran side-by-side through three before Fortin kept the spot. Then in a repeat run on the final lap, they went wheel-to-wheel through turns two, three and into four before Stroll squeaked through to take second! Fortin was then third, Claman-DeMelo fourth and Signoretti fifth in treacherous conditions.

Things improved slightly for the last race of the event as Class Champion Kyle Herder led twenty-six DD2 karts into a wet final. Darren White had posted top spot in timed qualifying while the Prime Kartsport/CRG of Tyler McEwan was third in each session. He was joined on row two of the final grid by Pserra/Tecno’s Cory Luciano, while the lead Masters pair were Class Champion Stuart Clark and Paul Carvalho sitting side-by-side on row four. The front of the field surfed its way through the opening, but it quickly became apparent White was going to run out of this world. While Herder, McEwan and Luciano were the only three karts in the field to dip into the 1:06 bracket for their best laps, White actually dropped a 1:05.9 early on and checked out on the field in leaps and bounds! The outcome was never in question, and White had his Greenspeed/TonyKart eleven seconds clear when the checker waved after twelve laps. Herder was just as comfortable in second, while McEwan was unchallenged in completing the podium. His Prime Kartsport teammate Clark was fourth while winning the Masters class, with Michel Legrand second in Masters and Carvalho completing the podium.

Eastern Canadian Karting Championship Honda Challenge classes presented by Vega had JDL Distributing Firstkart driver Kevin Monteith and Goodwood/Intrepid driver Jamie MacArthur crowned Senior and Masters champions heading in, and PSL Ontario driver Sean McPhee mathematically secured the Junior class after qualifying. Tyler Kashak had taken the Junior pole from PSL Atlantic’s Alex Van Snick and Sean Kennedy after each posted 1:03.4, but Le Monaco winner Maxime Couturier came forward to win the prefinal. The final then turned into a classic four-stroke run as a train of five ran from the middle of lap three until two-to-go. Trevor Rancier led the line followed by Couturier, McPhee, Kashak and Kennedy, and noone stepped out of line for over ten laps. With two to go, Kashak then looked to set up a winning run. He took third from McPhee along the pit straight, then went looking for second entering the final turn before the back straight. This time it came off all wrong, and contact led to a retirement for Couturier while Kashak was well off track in the grass. Rancier then just edged McPhee, with Kennedy taking third in the final Honda run of the season.

Contact also played a part in the Senior/Masters final, a race that began with a train six karts long. Dalton Kellett led Dalton Jewell, Nicolas Michaud, Vincent Cyr, Taylor Gates and Johnny Flute through the opening stages before the entire race changed beginning lap six. Michaud had worked his way to second on five, and took the lead running to turn one to begin six - moments before the line was ravaged. Gates got into a slight piggy-back situation with Cyr exiting turn two, and that allowed for Michaud and Kellett to take off. Cyr recovered behind Jewell to form a second pair, while Flute led a third pairing with Gates in tow. It was the second consecutive race where Kellett and Michaud found themselves fighting at the front, but both faltered in Trois-Rivières allowing Cyr through to scoop the win. This time Michaud took it to the house, but once again another scooped in for the win after time penalties were issued. Michaud, Cyr and Gates were each issued three-second penalties for not being in proper formation at the start, and the penalties changed the order to allow Kellett to stand on top! Michaud was still second, while Jewell completed the podium.

Podium presentations and Championship Awards then completed the day at Le Circuit Karting Mont-Tremblant, but the season is far from over. Micro-Max Champion Karter Hickling and Mini-Max Champion Zachary Claman-DeMelo are off to represent the ECKC at both the Canadian National Championships courtesy of SRA Karting International and will be joined by DD2 Champion Kyle Herder in representing the ECKC at the first round of the 2011 Florida Winter Tour compliments of the FWT. Rotax Junior Champion Jesse Lazare and Senior Champion Marco Di Leo will be competing at the 1st Annual Rotax International Open in Zuera, Spain, in an award package presented by Lilydale, Goodwood/Intrepid, PSL Karting and the ECKC, and Honda Champions Kevin Monteith, Sean McPhee, Jamie MacArthur and DD2 Masters Champion Stuart Clark will be off to complete a three-day Mustang Competition Course at the Jacques Villeneuve Driving Academy at ICAR compliments of ICAR. When all is said and done and awards packages have been redeemed, season two news will be breaking, and a bigger, better, Eastern Canadian Karting Championship will be right around the corner. Stay tuned right here for all the latest news and information from now till then, and we’ll see you next Spring!