Canadian Karting News

	ECKC Race 5 Report, Monaco de Trois-Rivières

	It’s a sound that will be haunting teams and drivers for days and longer. That eerily hollow ‘thump!’ of a rear tire meeting a hollow plastic barrier with race-ending finality. It was a sound heard all too often over the weekend, as drivers looked to find tenths of a second racing around the St. Lawrence waterfront and through the streets of Trois-Rivières. It equated to flirting with disaster, as far more often than not, wheels, axles and spindles were turned to scrap metal at the 12th Monaco de Trois-Rivières. In fact, the podium of nearly every championship final was affected when the street course continued to bite when teased, yet it was business as usual on the unforgiving confines of a temporary street circuit. Many drivers of the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship and Eastern Quebec Vega Cup paid a dear price in front of thousands of spectators, but none more so than racers in Rotax Junior and Senior. From a field of 30, just ten Juniors completed eighteen laps in a totally green run, and in Senior only eleven of 35 managed the feat in a race that endured a pair of red flags. Junior, especially, saw the front of the pack jarred multiple times in a race that remained totally unpredictable running to and through the checkered flag. Sacha Aleksic (Birel) slept on pole position Saturday night after posting the fastest lap ahead of Michael Adams (Kosmic), Nicolas Latifi (CRG), Austin Milwain (TonyKart) and Jesse Lazare (CRG). The plastic then started taking prisoners early in the prefinal including Lazare on the warm-up lap, and both Milwain and Adams on lap three. Milwain tagged the barriers turning left onto Rue du Fleuve after coming up from the waterfront, and Adams did the same two corners later running through town. The crashes handed third to Artem Korolev (Intrepid), who kept it in following Aleksic and Latifi to the checker. Marc-Antoine Cardin (CRG) set the fastest lap in coming forward to finish fourth, and Spencer Todd (Tecno) finished fifth. Just as intriguing was the grid that formed at the back in the Junior prefinal, one which came to include Lazare, Milwain, Adams, Garett Grist, Luke Chudleigh and Bryson Schutte. The stage had been set for a wild, wild final, and naturally the Juniors delivered. Latifi produced a great start to steal the point and lead through one, but Aleksic wanted the lead back working two and tried in a spot where two-into-one wouldn’t go. The contact blocked the track temporarily, and ended the day for Latifi and others. Mikel Pelletier (TonyKart) emerged from the mess jumping from seventh to first, and Todd was then second and in close pursuit. Cardin fell from third to seventeenth and Korolev from fourth to eighteenth! Aleksic emerged fourth and recaptured third a lap later, but had his own day come to an end on lap six after contact led to a flat left rear. By the end of that lap, the one-third mark of the race, Pelletier and Todd were clear at the front and Ethan Livingston (TonyKart) was heading a train of karts that saw the back end of the field becoming the front end. Adams was already to fifth, Lazare to seventh, and Milwain in eighth! It lasted... for one lap. Jamie Lockwood (FirstKart) crashed out of fourth in the start/finish chicane the next time by, and Milwain lost time making his way through the aftermath. By the end of seven, Pelletier and Todd were well clear of the rest and while Livingston was alone in third, Adams was fourth gaining more than one second per lap and Lazare was in sixth doing the same. Each continued to work forward, and by the two-thirds mark they were running third and fourth and looked to have gained all they could. But, as one might expect given events to there, much more was to come, and with massive effect to the front four. First Todd clipped a barrier and escaped with a slow leaking rear that saw him fall off Pelletier and toward the clutches of Adams. But before Adams could pounce, he had a problem of his own when his steering wheel bolt snapped, the bottom falling out and effectively leaving him driving on ice. Lazare then was the biggest hunter, getting by Adams on fifteen and Todd on sixteen - the Tecno riding around on its gear by then! Adams got by Todd on the same lap, which set the finishing order... heading to tech at least. There, came the final blow of the afternoon, when it was found that Pelletier, who hadn’t put a wheel wrong all day, had the floats wrong for 2010 in his carburetor and was disqualified. Lazare then had his second straight ECKC win, Adams was second, and all the way from P18 on lap two, Korolev completed the podium! Marigold Ford-Lincoln Rotax Senior became absolutely epic over the course of the weekend, beginning with qualifying where two class rookies showed the way. Fresh from the US Grand Nationals, Jesus Rios Jr. (CRG) put down a lap that edged Reid Arnold by just three one-thousandths. Following the pair was a virtual Hall of Fame Class in Canadian karting: Michael Vincec (CRG) was inside a tenth, Pier-Luc Ouellette (CRG), Marco Di Leo (Intrepid), Philippe Gelinas (TonyKart) and Lorenzo Mandarino (Tecno). Then Rios tossed it on the warm-up lap when he hit the barriers on Rue du Fleuve and was out of the prefinal! Arnold did the same working lap two, and then the veterans of the class put on a show. Vincec held top spot from the start after advancing into the pole vacated by Rios, and after Arnold retired, Ouellette was second followed by Gelinas and Mandarino, who got past Di Leo on the opening lap. The Tecno driver then took third at the right-hand turn heading up into town on lap four, and Ouellette took over the lead from Vincec on the same lap running through the tunnel. Mandarino then got Vincec on the next lap while setting the fastest lap of the race, and the front four worked clear of Di Leo and the CRG’s of Massimo Scotti, Kevin King and Pearce Herder. Running to the white flag Mandarino completed his run to the front and took the checker and pole for the main one lap later. Ouellette was second, but a two-position penalty dropped him behind Vincec and Gelinas on the main event grid. Scotti took fifth, Di Leo sixth, and King seventh alone after Herder made contact with a barrier working lap nine. The final brought more of the same intensity, and perhaps too much as the red flag waved twice. Mandarino held at the start followed by Gelinas, Vincec, Ouellette, and Scotti, but when the lead pack began shuffling the deck four-stroke style, contact led to a crash that took out Mandarino, Scotti, and Max Preston. Vincec had exited the crash with the lead from Gelinas and Ouellette, but the first red flag waved to stop all action. Mandarino rejoined at the back after some repairs, while the other two were done for the day. The race resumed with a single file restart shortly after - four karts having retired on the opening lap. The top three held formation with the second wave of the green, Vincec leading a train of karts that included Gelinas, Ouellette, Di Leo, King, and Hugo Ouellette. In a first lap frenzy, Gelinas took the lead downtown and Ouellette stole it before the lap was out with Di Leo following along. Vincec was third, Gelinas fourth, and Hugo fifth! They stayed that way through two, before changes on three when Di Leo tagged the barriers at the entry to the tunnel! PLO then had a huge gap off the front - only to have the red flag wave a second time one lap later and halt proceedings. The third green then proved the charm and this time the top five jumped out quickly and became a top three group in very short order. Ouellette led from Gelinas and Vincec and in three laps they were clear. The first change then came on seven when Gelinas got by PLO to lead, but as the race hit half distance, it was Vincec who was looking threatening. He set the fastest lap of the weekend on ten, an incredible 49.544, and took second from Ouellette on the very next lap. The charge then died on twelve in spectacular fashion when Vincec lost brakes at the first St. Lawrence chicane and spun through the bales and into the barriers at the edge of the river! PLO was hit, yet rejoined just in front of his brother, and Gelinas was running clear into the city streets now with a massive gap on the pair. Nothing for the podium changed the rest of the way, while Rios ran all the way back to fourth and Herder was fifth. Last among the Rotax big three was DD2, also the last in the race rotation at the 12th Annual Event. Championship leader Kyle Herder (CRG) got off to a fantastic start by blitzing the field in qualifying with a 49.650, nearly a half-second clear of Rich Hibbs (CRG), Tyler McEwan (CRG), Darren White (TonyKart), Matt France (Kosmic) and Cory Luciano (Tecno). Paul Carvalho (CRG) was the top Masters’ qualifier in seventh, with the Prime CRG’s of Stuart Clark and Pascal Garceau tenth and eleventh in the class. In the prefinal the same six-pack of seniors jumped off the front and after France tagged a barrier and McEwan botched a chicane, a fast four remained. White got Hibbs and Herder on consecutive laps running in town, and Luciano was fourth in the prefinal. Teammates Brendon Bain and Enrico Menotti came forward to finish fifth and sixth, followed in order by the top four in Masters DD2: Clark, Garceau, Michel Legrand and Dennis Yasar. Officials then elected for a single-file start in the main and though White led from the green, Herder jumped to the point in town before the first lap was out. Hibbs and Luciano followed, and with Bain and Menotti joining in there was a pack of six karts running in the front train. Just two changes hit the field in the opening half, first when White got inside Herder on lap four, and on lap six when Bain hit the barriers entering the tunnel. Menotti steered clear of the crash but the front four were then clear of him, and Herder and White gapped Hibbs and Luciano in the laps that followed as they consistently ran a half second quicker than the best of the rest. Two more changes to the podium came in the back half, and they both came on the same lap. Working thirteen Herder passed White in the city and Luciano got by Hibbs as well. The lead pair were never more than a kart apart, and in the final run to the checker crossed side by side with the winning margin just 0.086 seconds! Herder earned the win, his second of the season, and unofficially locked up the first ECKC DD2 Championship! At the other end of the schedule, Rotax Micro-Max kicked off the rotation and Karter Hickling (Intrepid) was on pole from freshly crowned US National Champion Anthony Gangi Jr. (CRG), Olivier Goupil, and Jordan Slipacoff. The leading pair had some serious time on the rest, and it was quickly apparent in the prefinal when they jumped off the front. The only pair to break the one minute mark, they were never far apart from the green to the white flag, and only on the final lap did the order change when Gangi got by in the run along the St. Lawrence to the checker. Hickling was just 0.236 off, Goupil was running alone in third with Slipacoff the same in fourth. The final proved nowhere near as processional, and the fireworks went off early. First Goupil fell to the back on the opening lap, and turning onto the city streets for the first time on lap two Hickling hit the barriers and retired on the spot. Gangi was then running free at the front, Slipacoff alone in second, and Thierry Cote and Galo Barros fighting for the third and final spot on the podium. Cote held the spot to half, but Barros took it working seven and held it to the checker, edging Cote by a kart length. Gangi had problems of his own and went around, one of few on the day to survive a battle with a barrier, and though much of his lead disappeared, he was still six seconds up when he won in Micro-Max. Slipacoff was next taking one second off his best lap, with Barros third. Much like Senior, Rotax Mini-Max had two nearly identical in qualifying as Alexandre Fortin (CRG) and Zachary Claman-DeMelo (TonyKart) turned 54.11 and 54.18 respectively in a Sunday morning session. Claman-DeMelo then stole the point at the start, and had a free run to the checker after Fortin tagged a barrier on lap three. Fortin continued the race distance on a bent axle, making it back to start P14 in the main event. The comeback quickly resumed in the main, as after the first lap he was already in sixth! Claman-DeMelo led from Gavin Reichelt and Alexandre Lacroix, but Fortin was coming in a hurry. He took one position per lap over four consecutive laps and was second through five, lapping a half second quicker than DeMelo and gaining ground quickly. He arrived on his bumper through ten when he set the fastest lap of the race, and took the lead on eleven as the white flag waved. One lap later the checker was up and the pair were on the podium joined by Reichelt, who stayed clear and only dropped one spot on the afternoon. In Rotax Masters Francis Mondou was on pole with Sylvain Clair second, both having turned qualifying laps of 52.5 seconds. Martin Verville was third, followed by Dany St-Hilaire, Mario Martin and David Ivichek. In the prefinal Mondou, Verville, and Clair had a slight gap through one, and working two Mondou slipped further away as the other five created a line of five karts. That line lasted a lap, as Clair pelted the barriers turning to the tunnel on lap three ending his run and taking Martin with him. St-Hilaire jumped to third and Ivichek to fourth, the top four crossing within one second and well up on the rest after eight laps. In the final Mondou held from pole to lead the opening lap but St-Hilaire got through on two for the lead. Ivichek was third, and the trio of karts broke well free of the field staying in line from that point forward. Running bumper to bumper, Ivichek then produced a magical lap on twelve when he went from third to first in two separate moves. Mondou responded with his fastest lap of the race on thirteen, Mondou bettered it on fifteen, but Ivichek put down the best time in the field on the same lap and ran to a one second win. St-Hilaire was second and Mondou third. Honda Senior/Masters produced a thriller on the waterfront, one much effected by lapping traffic in field of 38. Dalton Kellett edged Johnny Flute for pole, followed in the 58 second bracket by Taylor Gates, Gerald Caseley and Jessica Plante. Kellett then went flag-to-flag in the prefinal, one that had a red flag after Flute endured a slow, sideways flip in the prefinal. Gates moved to second, and Caseley third, but Nicolas Michaud was the man on the move in the front pack of four. First he got inside Tommy Lavoie turning right to head to the grid, then followed Caseley inside Gates at the next turn to sit third. He took Caseley as well before the lap was out, and in lap four he had gone from fifth to second. The order then stayed to the checkered flag, Kellett winning from Michaud, Caseley, Lavoie and Gates. The final got off to a bumpy start and through one Kellett, Michaud and Gates had a slight gap on four pack of karts behind. They all joined together on two when Michaud took over the lead, and through three he and Kellett began slipping off the front. Kellett took the lead back working four and there was relative calm until fireworks went off just past half. Catching backmarkers along the St. Lawrence straight, Kellett played it safe entering the first chicane while Michaud threw it up the inside and took over the lead. The gamble paid off on entry, but not on exit as he was clouted in the traffic jam and sent spinning into the bales! He retired on the spot, and Vincent Cyr took over second following Kellett with Gates close in third and Caseley fourth. The next round of change came on eleven as Kellett had trouble of his own, and Caseley jumped by Gates at the same time. Cyr then had the win in the bag, Caseley was second and Gates completed the podium. In Masters Joe St-Pierre and Jamie MacArthur led the group away in a combined start half a lap back on the track. Their race became much like an American LeMans venture, as they were quickly on top of the back of the Senior field. MacArthur led through two, and the pair continued to advance as traffic came into play. St-Pierre jumped back out front working seven and kept the lead through the back half of the race. They diced with seniors continually, with never more than one kart between them. The order changed afterward though, when St-Pierre was penalized for twice passing in the tunnel. That gave the win to MacArthur, with Ray Schroer second and Mark Kellett completing the Masters podium. Honda Junior was also tight, raced at the front from start to finish by Tommy Ouellet Lemaire and Maxime Couturier. Championship leader Sean McPhee qualified third, with race four winner Tyler Kashak fourth and Michael Taibi fifth. Lemaire then held through the first two laps of the prefinal before Couturier took over and chased him to the line, the pair three seconds up on McPhee, Alex Van Snick and race three winner Trevor Rancier. It was a similar story in the final, this one interrupted by a red flag. Couturier and Lemaire broke free at the wave of the green, with Van Snick, McPhee and Rancier a three-pack of karts behind. McPhee took over fourth working lap four, and cleared the chase pack to become isolated in the middle. A red flag for a crash at the entry to the tunnel stopped the race, and when it resumed McPhee was able to run closer to the leaders, but there was no catching Couturier and Lemaire who stayed in line to the final lap, finishing nearly side by side at the checker. McPhee was third, Van Snick fourth, and Kashak capitalized on the restart to get back in the line and make his way to fifth. Favourite among the fans were the ICC Shifters and confusion reigned on Sunday morning. Gary Carlton (CRG) took pole from Christopher Boisclair (Arrow) and Fritz Leesmann (CRG), but drivers from a variety of series’ were running different weights and the group was sent out to try again. This time Leesmann was quickest with Carlton and Jean-Francois LaFontaine (Arrow) P3. In the prefinal Leesmann and Carlton were quickly off the front and had a comfortable gap when Carlton took over the point on lap six. Two laps later the gap was anything but comfortable for Leesmann as LaFontaine had turned the fastest lap in the field and was looking for second. Leemsann tagged a barrier on eight, and LaFontaine was through to second with Etienne Lasalle third. In the final Carlton got the holeshot and the outcome was never in question at the front, though it was very much so for the podium. LaFontaine went out from third on lap four, Zack Meyer retired from second on lap twelve, and in a closing lap frenzy Boisclair closed on Frank Launi looking for second. They were up to second and third from the back through fourteen laps, Boisclair nabbed the spot on fifteen, and after each turned their best lap on seventeen Boisclair took the spot by a tenth! Charging forward in similar fashion, Leesmann carved his way to fourth, while Paul Hunter won the Master Class in finishing fifth outright! The Eastern Canadian Karting Championship now has little more than one week to prepare for its next round, the final round of the Championship set for the Le Circuit Karting at Mont Tremblant. After a practice day on Friday, August 6th, drivers will then have the option to join the Coupe de Montreal on Saturday before racing their own ECKC event on Sunday, August 8th. For more information, follow eckc.ca in the days ahead.
	Related links: http://www.eckc.ca