MRFKC Briggs Roundup: Lots of Wins for Prime Powerteam at Hamilton

The third round of the Motomaster Ron Fellows Karting Championship took to the track in Hamilton, Ontario this past weekend with bright sunny skies and hot and humid conditions playing a part in how it all went down.

For the competitors, round three kicked off the second half of the championship and allowed us to see who are front-running the title races for some categories. Always a challenge, the Canadian Mini Indy circuit puts a driver’s physical and mental abilities to the test, and with the added heat and humidity, it really was a task for everyone in attendance.

In the Briggs & Stratton categories, the ‘Red Army’ was very evident as BirelART karts filled the majority of the grid spots. Apparently, most of the other teams and brands decided to sit this weekend out.

Here’s our Briggs class roundup from round three of the MRFKC at Hamilton.

Briggs Cadet – Urlin ahead of the excitement

The race wins were controlled by Hudson Urlin (Intrepid) in both Finals, but the real excitement went on behind him in the races for second place.

The mix of Santino Fidani (CL Kart), Luca Cariati (CL Kart), Kaeleb Pinho (GP Kart), Carlo Lot (BirelART), Ryker Magro (BirelART) and Christian Damianidis (Kosmic) traded positions like veterans, bounced off each other like bumper karts and all in all, provided some of the best excitement of the weekend.

Saturday saw Fidani and Pinho join Urlin on the podium while Sunday it was Cariati and Magro who scored the trophies and the podium photo opportunities.

Briggs Junior Lite – Nothing stopping Aristeides Theodoropoulos

Five in a row! Aristeides Theodoropoulos (BirelART) has been tearing it up this MRFKC season in Junior Lite and he added two more wins to his tally and all but secured the title.

It was no easy feat as Theodoropoulos had some of his fellow HRKC members challenging him in both Finals.

On Saturday it was Yiannis Ilias (BirelART) who traded the lead with Theodoropoulos but had to settle for second place with Noah Modestino (BirelART) taking third. On Sunday, Jackson Morley (BirelART), Modestino and James Tufford (BirelART) put the pressure on early, but when they all battled for second, Theodoropolous pulled away to a big win.

Briggs Junior – West doubles up to extend championship lead

Scoring two race victories at his home track, Jordan West (BirelART) opened up a big lead in the Briggs Junior championship race.

Working his way to the lead on lap five on the Saturday Final, West worked with Liam Hofrichter (BirelART) to break free from the pack and then when it mattered most, he ensured there was no room to pass on the final laps to score the victory, while his championship rival, Sebastian Day (CL Kart), managed to take third place.

Sunday’s Final was cut short a few laps due to a red flag, where thankfully all the drivers were okay. West was leading Jackson Pearsall (CL Kart), Mitchell Morrow (BirelART), Day and Samuel Gow (BirelART) as the pack was just waiting until the late laps to settle the race when the red flag was flown with six laps remaining, ending the race prematurely.

Briggs Senior – Click here for race report

Briggs Senior Heavy – Mitchell and Ferguson lead the way

There were only five drivers in the Senior Heavy class this weekend but the leaders remained close. Christopher Mitchell was awarded the Saturday win after Logan Ferguson had a pushback bumper penalty tag on three seconds to his total time, knocking him back to third with Michael Nickle (BirelART) slotting into second.

On Sunday, Ferguson got his revenge and convincingly got his victory over Mitchell and Nickle, pulling away late in the race to win by one second.

Briggs Masters – A pair of wins for Folino

Tempers flared in the Briggs Masters category a couple of times this weekend as these weekend warriors put it all on the line.

Rich Folino was able to score both race wins, but they weren’t simple drives.

On Saturday he went wheel-to-wheel with Ian MacIntyre (CL Kart) for the win, just narrowly beating him to the finish line, with Tim Shoniker (BirelART) taking third.

After some fireworks in the PreFinal that saw Folino end up in the barriers, he started from the tail of the field for the Final. He got up to second and once again was going at it with MacIntyre. Unfortunately, it resulted in the pair not giving each other racing room in corner one. Folino went for a pass up the inside and the two banged wheels, sending Folino up and over the front ferring of MacIntyre. They both were able to continue but MacIntyre received the meatball flag for his missing piece of bodywork.

Folino received a 10-second penalty but had enough of a lead built up over Greg Scollard (CL Kart) that he still scored the win with Shoniker once again taking third.