2014 CKN Year in Review Awards: International Driver of the Year

For the second year in a row we present the CKN Year in Review Awards. We here at Canadian Karting News decided to create our own set of awards, all pertaining to categories we feel worthy and throughout the final weeks of 2014, we will highlight an award for categories such as Junior and Senior driver’s of the year in both the Rotax Max and Briggs & Stratton divisions, helmet design of the year, Canadian event of the year among many others.

To see the full list of awards and announcement dates, click here.

While these are all the opinion of CKN, you can let us know who you think deserved each award. Using the comments below each article, let us know who you feel was worthy of the award and a short blurb why you believe so.

**2014 International Driver of the Year**
2013 Winner: Ben Cooper

Nominees:

– Zachary Claman DeMelo
– Ben Cooper
– Devlin Defrancesco
– Kami Moreira-Laliberte
– Philip Orcic
– Antonio Serravalle

Winner: Devlin Defrancesco

It was great to see so many Canadian drivers making a presence on the European karting scene in 2014. With drivers competing in the highest levels of karting, from Mini all the way up to KZ shifter competition, the maple leaf was well on display and our drivers earned some very impressive results to boot!

We took a lot of factors into how we would determine our International Driver of the Year and when the dust was settled the performance by young Devlin Defrancesco earned him the honour. Competing in the KF-Junior division in WSK, CSAI and CIK competitions, Defrancesco was one of the fastest drivers everywhere he went, claiming the SuperPole in two of the four CIK European Championship rounds as well as a win in the CSAI Italian Championships. He also stood on the podium at the opening round of the CIK European Championships with a third place effort.

While his season was cut short to repair a reoccurring wrist injury that plagued him in his bid for the KFJ World Championship, Defrancesco truly made his presence known on the highest levels of our sport.

Honorable mentions go to Ben Cooper who successfully defended his Rotax European DD2 title, Antonio Serravalle for his victory and podiums in the European MINI category and Zachary Claman DeMelo for earning podiums at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals and Rotax European Championships.

Devlin Defrancesco (Photo by: Davide Pastanella / Vroom Magazine)