ASN Canadian Karting Championships
Maciel Completes Dominant Weekend to Drive Home Rok Junior Canadian Crown
Andrew Maciel will join Team Canada at the Rok Cup SuperFinal in Italy after driving home the victory in the Rok Junior Final at the 2019 ASN Canadian Karting Championships.
After a morning of wet and foggy conditions, Rok Junior was ready to hit the track for their National Finals. The sun broke through as drivers lined up for their start.
Drivers got off to a clean start from the green flag and they began to put on a show for race fans.
Early in the race, there was lots of movement as Austin Boyle (KGR/Exprit), Gianluca Savaglio (REM/Kosmic) and Nicky Palladino (KGR/Exprit) all batted for positions up front behind pole-sitter Andrew Maciel (VSR/TonyKart). Maciel led the majority of the race but was trailed closely by Marcello Pannicia (Kosmic) and Savaglio. As the second and third place drivers began to battle, Maciel was able to gap himself by several kart lengths.
Once the drivers settled into place, they began to make a run again on Maciel, catching him slowly lap by lap. Pannicia and Savaglio worked together and soon found themselves right on Maciel’s bumper. But more passing between the two found themselves once again having to catch back on to Maciel. This consistent action had fans on their toes as drivers began to get closer to their finals laps.
Pannicia was finally able to break away from the pack and slowly began to catch Maciel, this race was shaping up to be a battle right until the very end. Maciel knew that he was under pressure and began to drive defensively, this gave Savaglio a chance to catch on as well as the rest of the pack. The top-six drivers were now nose to tail and this was anyone’s race. With two laps remaining some contact at the top of the Mosport hill between Boyle and Savaglio gave Maciel some breathing room as drivers were once again spaced out.
The final lap saw drivers pushing to the very end, but ultimately it would be the 207 taking the victory followed by Savaglio, Boyle, Palladino.
At the podium, Maciel was awarded the Rok Cup SuperFinal ticket to Italy, Boyle took home a ticket to Rok the Rio in Las Vegas and Palladino a ticket to the 2020 Florida Winter Tour.
Rok Junior Final Results
- Andrew Maciel
- Gianluca Savaglio
- Austin Boyle
- Nicky Palladino
- Marcello Paniccia
- Justin Arseneau
- Connor Pritiko
- Lorenzo Morsillo
- Nicholas Christodoulou
- Nikita Johnson
- Jacob Miles
- Rayden Persaud
- Emmo Fittipaldi
- Alessio Alves
