Back in action on the temporary street circuit in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship and Coupe du Quebec completed their next-t0-last events of the season on Sunday under hot and overcast skies.
This season the turnout in the Rotax DD2 class has been anything but spectacular. Barely cracking ten drivers at any event in Canada, one would think the racing would follow suit. But for the selection of drivers still in the category, it has been a chance to shine and display why the Rotax DD2 package can create some of the most exciting racing around.
The ongoing championship battle between Fred Woodley (Prime/Maranello) and Jeffrey Kingsley (PSL/CRG) continued again on Sunday.
In qualifying, the front four drivers were separated by a mere 0.04 seconds! Woodley grabbed his second pole-position of the weekend with Kingsley, Brendon Bain (Prime/Maranello) and Tyler Kashak (Goodwood/Intrepid) all lapping near identical times.
The Prefinal saw Bain into the barriers on lap one, while Woodley struggled and fell well down the running order as Kingsley beat Kashak to the line to earn the pole-position for the Final.
A mad dash at the start had Woodley grabbing positions wherever possible with his rival Kingsley leading the way. But Kingsley was hounded by Kashak in the middle stages of the race with the two trading the lead and allowing Woodley to catch the lead duo.
Contact from Kingsley forced Kashak back to sixth, leaving only two drivers to race for the win.
Woodley made a move into the hairpin to gain the lead on the final lap but a solid exit by Kingsley created a drag race down the long straight before the very tight chicane. With both drivers refusing to give an inch, contact was made with Kingsley spinning across the front bumper and Woodley and into the outside concrete wall. Woodley narrowly escaped, as did third place running Gavin Reichelt (PSL/CRG).
At the line, the win went to Woodley with Reichelt second, Bain recovering to finish third, and Kashak fourth while Kingsley limped around as the last kart across the line.
But the results would change hands multiple times before the official decision was made. Initially Kingsley was excluded from the race for forcing Woodley into the wall, a decision that would shake the ECKC Championship up, but that was overruled. Then a penalty was presented to Woodley for contact with Max Preston early in the race, before officials ultimately came to the final decision: both Kingsley and Woodley were scored in last place for being involved in multiple on-track incidents.
This gave the win to Reichelt, second place to Bain and third to Kashak.
