Nova Scotia’s Callum Baxter scored a pair of victories on the weekend at the Motomaster Ron Fellows Karting Championship opening round, but it didn’t come easy as the youngster had to drive through the field on Sunday to accomplish his second win.
It was a head-to-head weekend in the Briggs Junior division between Baxter (Kosmic Kart) and Jordan West (BirelART). Between the two of them, they topped every competitive on-track session.
West started the weekend strong, with pole-position and a convincing PreFinal win in the very wet conditions at the Canadian Mini Indy.
When the track dried in the afternoon, it seemed to benefit Baxter just a little more.
The pair broke away in the Saturday Final early after, disposing of Nolan Hofricter (BirelART), who gave West a nice push at the start to get into second.
Just prior to the halfway point, Baxter jumped to the lead and took control for seven laps before West wanted to top spot back. He led until the final lap when the battle kicked into high gear. The pair traded the lead going up into corner five and ran two-wide through six and seven. West swung wide entering corner eight and got a run on the exit to crossover Baxter. Pinching him down to the curb, a little contact was made and on a very slippery curb from the earlier rain, West spun 180º quickly.
Baxter held on to not spin himself and took the race win.
Joseph Launi (Furiouso Kart) dove up the inside of Noah Taylor (CL Kart) in corner eight to steal away the position on the final lap and inherited second while West was trying to get pointed back in the right direction. West did get going again and ended up sixth, behind Hofricter and Mitchell Morrow (BirelART).
MRFKC1 Briggs Junior Saturday Final Results
1
Callum Baxter
2
Joseph Launi
1.136
3
Noah Taylor
1.264
4
Nolan Hofricter
4.324
5
Mitchell Morrow
4.539
6
Jordan West
5.709
7
Ryder Hare
14.303
8
Branco Juverdianu
17.844
9
Scotty Watkins
21.406
10
Johnathan Petrone
21.604
11
Blaise Darmaga
21.909
12
Samuel Gow
23.815
13
Benjamin Leinweber
24.291
14
Matisse Constantini
27.016
15
Jaden Hundal
40.684
16
Liam Plate
41.396
On Sunday the rain stayed away and the sticky summer conditions returned.
Once again, West was in control through Qualifying, edging out Baxter by only 0.001 seconds!
A scrappy PreFinal saw Baxter and Hofricter come together on the opening lap and both drivers were forced into a DNF, lining them up at the tail of the grid for the Final, while West once again stayed on top.
Launi linked up to the rear bumper of West on the opening lap and the pair quickly dismissed Morrow and broke free of the pack.
From the rear, Baxter and Hofricter were on the move early, quickly getting into the top-ten.
While the leaders were cruising out front, Baxter was on the climb, getting up to third on lap ten and setting his sights on the leaders, who had a healthy lead.
Lap after lap, Baxter inched closer to the leaders and when Launi fell off the rear of West the gap closed even quicker. With five laps to go in the 25 lap Final, Baxter slipped by Launi and was within only a couple of kart lengths of the race leader. Two laps later he was on the rear bumper of West and didn’t wait until the final lap, jumping to the top as quickly as he could in corner four.
West did everything he could to regain the lead on those final three laps, but Baxter held him off to earn his second win of the weekend in fine fashion.
Launi, unable to fight with the leaders in the closing laps, held on for third and earned his second podium of the weekend, while Hofricter made it back to fourth ahead of Ryder Hare (Kosmic Kart), who had a great first MRFKC weekend after moving up from Junior Lite a few weeks ago.
