Ramirez and Kirkwood Seeking Double FWT Championships in West Palm Beach

Two drivers have the opportunity to mark their places in the history books this weekend as they seek their second FWT titles in 2016. Mathias Ramirez and Kyle Kirkwood claimed FWT ROK Cup championships in last weekends race and enter this weekend leading the points in their respective classes.

Ramirez holds a mere 90-point lead in Rotax Junior over Dutchman Kilian Meyer with Canadian Ryan MacDermid only 95 markers back. Michael d’Orlando and Aidan Keel enter the weekend fourth and fifth in the standings, only 115 and 175 points back. The competition is extremely close in Junior with the top-ten drivers all within 300 points of the lead and still mathematically in the running given the number of points available this weekend.

For Kirkwood his championship lead over Indy Lights driver Zachary Claman DeMelo is 118 points after Kirkwood was forced to the sidelines in the Ocala Final with a blown engine. The gap from second back to seventh is extremely close with only 58 points between them. Unfortunately Jordon Lennox will not be back this weekend, surrendering the third place in the championship with Zach Holden and South African Jordan Sherratt enter the weekend inside the top-five.

In Lennox’s absence, Oliver Askew will step in for PSL/BirelART this weekend, pulling double-duty alongside his Rotax DD2 machine. Also joining the Senior Max category this weekend for one-off appearances are Sting Ray Robb, the 2015 FWT Rotax Junior Champion and Andrew Palmer, a factory Bentley driver in the Pirelli World Challenge.

In Rotax DD2, Askew trails Mercedes DTM driver Robert Wickens by just seven points with both drivers having a victory and runner-up finish so far this season. Askew has shown the better pace this season but Wickens jumped at Askew’s faults in Homestead. Canadians’ Marco Signoretti and Luke Chudleigh are third and fourth in the standings ahead of Columbian Christian Munoz. Christian Cornejo leads the DD2 Masters championship race.

There is less than 100 points separating the top-three in Rotax Mini-Max entering the weekend as Jeremy Fairbairn, winner of round one, leads Matheus Morgatto and Tyler Gonzalez, winner of round two. These three along with Austin Torgerson have the class of the field thus far in 2016.

With two race wins to his credit this year, Josh Pierson holds a large lead in the Rotax Micro-Max category. James Egozi, is Pierson’s closest rival, 210 points back while Ashton Torgerson is 274 points behind the leader.

Finally in the Rotax Max Masters categories this weekend, Frenchman Christophe Adams is on top of Michel Aboissa by only 24 points with Scott Roberts also in the hunt, 52 points back of the leader. However Adams is recovering from incident away from the racetrack and it could affect him on track this weekend.

Big prizes are up for grabs to the champions in the Rotax Junior, Senior, DD2, DD2 Masters and Max Masters categories, as they will earn coveted invitations to represent their home country at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals, held this year in Sarno, Italy.

Racing can be streamed live on CanadianKartingNews.com this weekend, starting with Qualifying on Friday afternoon.

Can Kyle Kirkwood claim both FWT Senior class championships? (Photo by: Schindel / CKN)

Canadian Robert Wickens leads the Rotax DD2 class by a very slim margin (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)