Over the Labour Day holiday weekend Canada’s most southern karting club was once again represented in North America’s longest running street race at the 23rd annual Rock Island Grand Prix in Rock Island, Illinois.
Brodie Myer from the Point Pelee Karting Club out of Leamington, Ontario took on some of the North America’s best street racers in the Brigg’s LO206 Sr. Medium and Sr. Heavy 2 classes. Drivers from coast to coast representing 35 states, Canada and Bermuda all participated in the largest karting street race in the world. The race format puts everyone on an equal level playing field. With the track prepared by an Army of local volunteers, it is not set up until late Friday night so there is no opportunity for advance practice and tuning.
On his third trip with his father Lee to the Quad cities in their quest for a “Rock” from the banks of the Mississippi River, Brodie pulled double duty in two Brigg’s classes with a single kart powered by the same Brigg’s LO206 engine, changing chassis setups between rounds all weekend. Off the trailer for Saturday morning’s practice rounds, Myer set a great pace dialing in the Be-a-donor.ca SodiKart chassis for a strong weekend of racing. In the Sr Medium
In the Sr Medium class, Myer pulled a 13 for the starting position in Saturday’s qualifying race finishing tenth for a spot in Sunday’s feature. For the Sr Heavy 2 class, he pulled a 16 for the qualifying heat race, also ending up with a tenth position starting spot in Sundays feature.
In Sunday’s Sr. Medium feature a blown clutch on Bermuda’s Skitchy Barnes’ kart at the front bottled up the Le Mans style start and Myer found himself back in 22nd position by the time he reached turn one. But he battled back to a solid 14th place finish.
In the Sr. Heavy 2 class. Myer had a great start and found himself up in the third position but slid back to a sixth place finish while battling through lapped traffic with the leaders on the unforgiving streets of Rock Island in the closing laps. It was a job well done for the Point Pelee Karting Club driver.
