While he is spending most of his focus on a Formula Renault 2.0 race car in Europe this year, Zachary Claman DeMelo (SH Racing/FA Kart) jumped at the opportunity to get back into a go-kart of the second round of the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship, held at ICAR in Mirabel, Quebec.
In a very disappointing field of only 13 drivers DeMelo still had plenty of competition to battle with including round one winners Marco Di Leo (Goodwood/Intrepid) and Gianfranco Mazzaferro (Ferrolati Corse/TonyKart), along with his SH Racing teammate Cedrik Lupien among others.
But DeMelo showed no signs of being out of a go-kart for a few months. Saturday he went uncontested, Qualifying on the pole-position, setting the track record bar high, winning the Pre-final and cruising to victory over Lupien and Di Leo, who enjoyed a great scrap for the second podium position. Marco Signoretti (Energy Corse/Energy Kart) and Kevin Monteith (REM/Kosmic) completed the top-five in a very uneventful Final.
Sunday was very much the same as DeMelo was once again propped atop the time sheets resetting the track record, although both Di Leo was within a tenth.
Lupien helped pushed DeMelo to the lead in the Final shuffling Di Leo back to fourth by the time the group rolled through corner three and it appeared that Lupien was going to mount a charge on DeMelo with a blistering pace in the opening laps.
However DeMelo was able to keep a safe enough distance that Lupien couldn’t attack throughout the entire 15-lap final, allowing DeMelo to sweep the weekend’s events in his first race of the Canadian season. DiLeo claimed the third step of the podium while Mazzaferro recovered from a DNF in the PreFinal to finish fourth, overtaking Anthony Tolfa (BN Racing/TonyKart) and Monteith in the late stages of the race. Taylor Gates, David Laplante, Chad Campbell and Taegen Poles completed the top-ten.
“It felt great to be back in a kart and see so many familiar faces at the track. Was so enjoyable just to be there and winning was a great added bonus. I could not have asked for a better weekend!”
-Zachary Claman DeMelo
