2016 Saskatoon Kart Racers Grand Prix Race Report

The Saskatoon Kart Racers held their annual SKR Grand Prix over the weekend. The weather on both days held out with no rain and when the sun was out it was pushing the high 20’s. There were five classes on hand vying for custom laser cut trophies from Automated Metal Processing in Martensville, SK to be handed out at the end of Sunday.

Briggs Junior 1
In the Briggs Junior 1 class we had four drivers. Kohl MacLaggan and Liam Allan were the two quicker karts with Sayer Lewandoski and Cole Banks both in their first couple races. Kohl had the edge on Liam all day on Saturday but on Sunday Liam stepped up his game and qualified on pole and gave Kohl a battle all day long. Sayer and Cole were nose to tail almost every lap through the entire weekend vying for the 3rd spot on the podium with Sayer winning out.

Briggs Junior 2
In the Briggs Junior 2 class there were 6 drivers. Out of towner Colby Wallace from Red Deer, AB came to show the local drivers how to put down some lap times and he did not disappoint. On Saturday Colby would qualify on pole by .672 second and on Sunday by .577 seconds. Qualifying is one thing racing is another. On Saturday prefinal Colby would lose a chain while leading and handing the win over to Nicholas Allan. This meant he had to drive from the back in the final. Colby would make the run to the front. Nicholas and Colby would battle it out for the Saturday win. The same battle would continue on Sunday with Colby edging out Nicholas on the Sunday final even though Nicholas had fast lap of the final. The battle for 3rd place on the podium at the end of the weekend was won by Oliver Wilson-O’Reily.

Junior 2 on the grid

Briggs Masters
The Briggs Masters class had 8 drivers on hand. The class had some great racing all weekend long with Jesse Loboda sweeping the class from qualifying on Saturday to the Final on Sunday. Jesse had some pressure all weekend long from different drivers but was too much for the other drivers. With some ups and downs of other driver the point for the podium on Sunday would be only a couple points dividing the next 3 drivers. Gene Elash would end up 2nd overall after just missing on the Sunday final win over Jesse by .023 seconds and Jason McCumber would stand on the 3rd place with a consistently fast weekend.

Mini Max
The Mini Max class only had 3 drivers but still had some great racing. Scott Campbell Racing (SCR) driver Townes Allen would be doing double duty in Mini Max and driving Junior Max for the first time. Because of the extra work Townes was unable to get his Mini kart ready for the prefinal on Saturday and losing out on some valuable points. Once getting his kart on track he was able to use his hometown advantage and take the rest of the weekend. The driver taking advantage of Townes missing the prefinal on Saturday would be fellow SCR driver Sam Mengel from Regina. Sam with work from SCR Sam has improved his driving in a very short time and by the end of Sunday in the final lead most of the race over Townes. Sam would also post the fastest lap in the Sunday Final. Coming home in 3rd from Estavan was Jesse Gibson.

Junior Max
Junior Max had 5 drivers competing for the podium. This class had some great racing and the points ended up with a single point making the difference. On Saturday it would be Wyatt Gulash from Regina on point all day winning Qualifying through to the end of the final. In tow would be his sister Haley Gulash with local driver Tom Estanislao rounding out the top three. SCR driver Townes Allen would struggle all day with chassis issues. After Saturday SCR and Townes would change chassis for Sunday. This would prove to be a huge improvement. Townes would lay down the fastest lap of the weekend in Qualifying by 0.44 seconds over the next quickest lap of the weekend. Trying to get a hold of the Junior class Townes would start from the back in the Sunday prefinal to try and work traffic. Tom would hold him off for the win in the prefinal and the final. Coming in 3rd in the Sunday final would be Saturday winner Wyatt Gulash. After the points were calculated Tom Estanislao would be the overall winner with Wyatt Gulash in 2nd and Townes Allen in his Junior debut in 3rd.

It was and overall great weekend of racing and we hope that next year we get more people to the event. Thanks to everyone that came and to Automated Metal Processing for the amazing trophies.

Junior Rotax Podium