Jason Leung made a statement on Thursday at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals that he is not going down without a fight.
In the final Rotax Junior heat of the day, Leung charged forward mid-race to gain the lead and then kept it to the finish. It was the only heat race where he was able to stay up front after starting fourth. In his two previous heats, crashes on the opening lap knocked him well outside the top-25, forcing him to drive back to the front and ensure he did not get a nosecone penalty in the process. As a reward for those efforts, an eighth and a thirteenth, Leung ranks eighth overall and will start fourth in Pre Final B on Friday. His teammate in Junior, Justin Arseneau, had a much better day on Saturday, fighting his way through the action to score a thirteenth and an eighth and ranks twenty-fourth, and will also race in Pre Final B.
It wasn’t a pleasant day for our drivers in Senior Max. While both drivers were having solid drivers in their morning heat race, late-race accidents knocked both Griffin Dowler and Patrick Woods-Toth down the finishing order. They are both on the outside looking in as we head to the Prefinals. Woods-Toth sits 40th overall and needs to gain as many spots as possible in his Pre Final if he wants one the 36 starting spots in the Final. Dowler is 55th and would need a miracle to advance.
There was some excitement in the final heat race of the day as the Rotax DD2 B vs C run was red-flagged on the final lap. A few laps earlier a driver went off track, far off track, and caught one of the wires for the camera marshalling system, ripping a large portion of it and then dragging it around the circuit. One of the drivers who was also a victim of the scare was Isaac Marritt, but thankfully he came to a quick stop under red to avoid any further action and pulled the cable off his kart.
It’s been a mixed bag of results for our DD2 drivers. Marritt is up to 30th while Dowler had a great recovery from his bad qualifying effort to sit 39th after the heats. He will have to keep his head down and gain as many spots as he can in his Pre Final to make it into the top-36. It has been a week to forget for Davide Greco, who has struggled. His Grand Finals will come to an end tomorrow as he currently sits 58th in the points ranking.
Kieran Hartly will start the Mini Max Pre Final from thirteenth on the grid. The Micro and Mini Max Pre Finals will run like normal Pre Finals, where their finishing positions will determine the starting grid for the Grand Finals.
Finally, our DD2 Masters are having a fun time this week. Jared Freeston has some great speed and battled inside the top-10 in his morning heat but has found some trouble on track as well. He ranks twenty-eighth and will run in Pre Final B. Alexandre Gauthier on the other hand just hasn’t had any luck this week. His finished 3oth and 27th in his heats today and is 61st overall, meaning his first Grand Finals will come to an end tomorrow as well.
For Junior, Senior, DD2 and DD2 Masters, each class will have a Pre Final A (for drivers with odd number rankings…1st, 3rd, 5th, etc) and Pre Final B (for drivers with odd number rankings…2nd, 4th, 6th, etc). The finishing results from these races will be added to the points total from the heat races to determine the 36 drivers who will compete in Saturday’s Grand Finals.
