2019 Canadian Karting Championships – Briggs PreFinal Recap

It was a wet start Saturday morning with a heavy fog covering the track at Mosport Kartways. The weather kept everyone on their toes before starting to rain minutes before morning warm-up. Drivers scrambled to get rain tires on and the rain continued to fall throughout the entire rotation.

After a short delay the final round of heat races kicked off and the sun began to peek through and dry the track. Multiple classes found themselves in a position of not knowing what tires to run for their last heat race of the day.

Drivers put on a spectacular showing with limited incidents on the day. The pressure was on to score as few points as possible in the final heat to get a good starting position for the PreFinal.

With the PreFinals hitting the track in the afternoon, here is how they went down.

Briggs Cadet

Jordan Di Leo (Intrepid) crowned the Cadet Briggs PreFinal with all drivers putting on a thrilling performance. Ashton Henckel (BirelART) and Joey Lecce (Intrepid) finished a respective second and third. The action happened all over the course but it was Jackson Pearsall (BirelART) and Lucas Deslongchamps (BirelART) rounding the top five.

Briggs Junior Lite

After the heats in Briggs Junior Lite, we saw Nova Scotia’s Landon White (Ricciardo) taking the PreFinal victory after an action-packed race. The top-five had a close battle with all drivers trading places. This ultimately gave White time to break away and secure his win. Second was Isaak Nura Godana (Intrepid) with Cooper Simpson (BirelART) grabbing third. All drivers battled to the very end as Caden Drummond (TonyKart) and American Matthew Fecko (VLR) rounding out the top-five.

Briggs Junior

In Briggs Junior, all drivers pushed hard off the start fighting for positions after a clean start. Steven Navratil (Awesome Kart) was able to take home the win and score the pole position for Sunday after some great racing all over the circuit. Gianluca Savaglio (Kosmic), Jake Cowden (Awesome Kart) and Marco Filice (BirelART) all battled hard rounding out second, third and fourth. Lily Flintoff (TonyKart) completed off the top five.

Briggs Senior

One of the featured events ensured that this race would be nothing less than special. Drivers scrambled up the hill of turn one and two off the start with multiple incidents across the field.

Kelsey Hann (BirelART) and Jonathan Treadwell (Intrepid) made an early break but were soon caught by the pack within a lap. Treadwell led the majority of the race but swapped places with Jordan Prior (BirelART) with a few laps remaining. On a last-lap move, Treadwell went for first in the hairpin but both drivers pushed wide and Hann snuck by both to take home the win.

Crossing the line second was Treadwell with Prior, Pearce Herder (Awesome Kart) and Mike De La Plante (K&K Kart) taking positions two through five. With Treadwell going for his fourth Nationals win in a row on Sunday and a hungry pack of drivers looking to knock him off the top of the podium, this Final is going to be a thriller.

Briggs Masters

Briggs Masters also had the fans on their feet as the top-six drivers began to breakaway after a clean start. Taking home the win was Jamie MacArthur (K&K Kart) after he locked down the lead in the pre-final. There was a tight battle for second and third between Darren Kearnan (TonyKart) and Dave Anderson (Awesome Kart), Eli Yanko (TonyKart), and Steven MacVoy (Ricciardo). Kearnon got the best of Anderson on the final lap to earn a front-row starting spot, followed by Yanko and MacVoy.

For Tomorrow…

Many teams will be up late tonight making last-minute repairs or changes before tomorrow’s National Championship Final races. With the showcase of talent today, tomorrow promises to be an action-packed day.

We wish all drivers nothing but the best and stay tuned for more updates through the day tomorrow!