2019 CKN Year in Review Awards – Part 3

The year and the decade have come to a close and with it, we wrap up the 2019 karting season with annual CKN Year in Review Awards. Recognizing the efforts of our drivers from coast to coast at events that we attended, we have nominated and selected our annual group of winners after careful thought and discussion.

It was another very busy season for CKN as we attended more than 30 races for the third year in a row. From local, regional and national races in four different provinces to international competitions in the USA and Super Finals in Italy, there was no chance to lift our foot off the gas pedal until this December holiday season.

As always, we appreciate your visits to our website and the reading content we create, as well as your support at all of our races through photo prints and photo package purchases. Since our launch in 2012, karting continues to be our passion and with your support, we can continue doing what we love the most and giving back to the sport in the form of media.

In our third of four sets of award winners, we present the Junior Driver of the Year, Senior Driver of the Year and International Performance of the year.

Junior Driver of the Year

Nominees:

Justin Arseneau, Dale Curran, Jason Leung, Andrew Maciel, Nicky Palladino, Gianluca Savaglio

Winner: Gianluca Savaglio

We try our best not to select the same driver for multiple awards in a calendar year, but it’s very hard to shy away from the season that Gianluca Savaglio endured.

A championship winner in both Briggs 206 and Rok Cup competition, Savaglio racked up two titles in the MotoMaster Ron Fellows Karting Championship and three club racing titles in Ontario at two separate kart clubs. He won the Briggs Junior Final at the Canadian Open in Mont-Tremblant in the middle of a four-race winning streak and we’re sure if he raced Rotax Junior that weekend too, he would’ve been in the running for that win too.

At the ASN Canadian Karting Championships, Savaglio was the race leader in both the Junior Briggs and Junior Rok Finals but did come up short after some very intense battles.

Savaglio was one of the most diverse drivers of the season and all in all, it was his year.

2018 Winner: Dale Curran
2017 Winner: Gabriel Savoie
2015 Winner: Samuel Lupien
2014 Winner: Gianfranco Mazzaferro (Rotax) / Roman DeAngelis (Briggs)
2013 Winner: Jeff Kingsley

Senior Driver of the Year

Nominees:

Griffin Dowler, Kelsey Hann, Nicholas Hornbostel, Jordan Prior, Jon Treadwell, Patrick Woods-Toth

Winner: Patrick Woods-Toth

When we think of the two most competitive classes to hit the track this season, it had to be Briggs Senior and Rok Senior. Both classes were stacked with talent and almost every race came down to the wire, leading us to many great candidates for Senior Driver of the Year.

Joining the Prime Powerteam for 2019, Quebec driver Patrick Woods-Toth decided to spend the majority of his season competing in Ontario. After a rough start at the MotoMaster Ron Fellows Karting Championship opener at Goodwood, Woods-Toth fired off six straight top-two finishes, including four race wins, to open up a lead big enough to secure the MRFKC Rok Senior title.

In the midst of that awesome summer run, Woods-Toth chose to compete in the Canadian Open in Mont-Tremblant, in which he came home victorious in another thriller of a Final. That win earned him a trip to represent Canada at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals in Italy.

It was a great season no doubt for Patrick Woods-Toth and we’re hoping to see him back to defend his titles in 2020.

2018 Winner: Jon Treadwell
2017 Winner: Marco DiLeo
2015 Winner: Cedrik Lupien
2014 Winner: Zachary Claman Demelo (Rotax) / Jean-Francois Lafontaine (Briggs)
2013 Winner: Pier-Luc Ouellette (Rotax) / Jean-Francois Lafontaine (Briggs)

International Performance of the Year

Nominees:

• Justin Arseneau, SKUSA Winter Series Race Winner (Homestead, FL)
• Zachary Claman DeMelo, SKUSA SuperNationals Race Winner (Las Vegas, NV)
• Dale Curran, SKUSA Pro Tour Race Winner (Fontana, CA)
• Davide Greco, Florida Winter Tour Rok Shifter – Third overall (Florida)
• Jason Leung, IAME X30 Euro Series Race Winner (Genk, BE), Rotax Grand Finals Third Place (Sarno, IT)
• Jordan Prior, CKNA Grand Nationals Race Winner and Runner-Up (New Castle, IN)

Winner: Zachary Claman DeMelo

There is nothing that makes us more proud than to see our Canadian drivers flying the flag on the top of an international podium and this year there was no shortage of impressive performances by our drivers outside the country.

Without a doubt, the SKUSA SuperNationals is the biggest race in North America annually and it takes a near-perfect week to win it in any category, but in the X30 Senior division, which attracts 80+ of the best single-speed drivers in the world each year, it is by far be the toughest race to win on Super Sunday in Las Vegas.

For Zachary Claman DeMelo, the SuperNats has been on his radar for many years, even when his focus turned to car racing that ultimately took him to a season competing in INDYCAR, he always ended out his season at the SuperNats and often in the hunt for victory.

It was a chaotic race that saw DeMelo bouncing around the top-ten as positions juggled every lap. Entering the final lap fighting for the third position, DeMelo ensured he would be in position when the leaders went wheel-to-wheel and they did just that, opening up the door for him to slide right on by and take the biggest karting win of his career. In addition, it is the second year in a row that a Canadian has won the X30 Senior final at the SuperNats following up Ben Cooper’s victory a year ago.

In addition, ZCD raced with Canadian outfit Racing Edge Motorsports making this our International Performance of the Year. Congrats Zach and thank you for flying the Canadian Maple Leaf proudly.

2018 Winner: Ryan MacDermid
2017 Winner: Antonio Serravalle
2015 Winner: Lachlan Defrancesco
2014 Winner: Devlin Defrancesco
2013 Winner: Ben Cooper