The first race of the Ontario Karting year hit the track this past weekend as possibly the earliest start to the season we’ve ever seen, so early that we were still down south covering the finale of the winter series Challenge of the Americas.
At Goodwood Kartways, the first race of their season was a chance to celebrate the life of Bruno Polo, a beloved racer who sadly passed away this winter. Polo was a member of TRAK for the past few seasons and a friendly and impressive competitor in the Briggs Masters division, which always had one of the best-looking karts in any paddock.
With his family and some friends in attendance, race day one was held in unusually warm weather conditions for April karting.
At the drivers meeting to start the season, Daniel Di Leo confirmed that the new tradition for TRAK will be to start the season with a Bruno Polo Memorial Race, with a trophy dedicated to noting each year’s race winners. Stickers were provided by Reeve Webster Racing so the racers in attendance could pay tribute on their karts, toolboxes, trailers and more.
Over 150 entries were in attendance for an impressive showing at the opening race of the season for TRAK with each of the Briggs categories exceeding 15 entries.
New for 2023 at TRAK was the switch to the VLR engine for the two-cycle Senior drivers, completing the full transition for TRAK to the 100cc VLR engine for Junior, Senior and Masters two-cycle racers.
The Briggs Cadet class will also be split into two groups when race day entries exceed 24 entries to help alleviate some of the action a full track of cadets racers can create.
TRAK will jump right back into action this weekend with race #2 scheduled for Saturday, April 22 at Goodwood.
