Fantastic Start to the Season at SH Karting
More than 200 racers packed the paddock at SH Karting as well as the parking lot across the road for the opening race of the season for the Coupe de Montreal and it was a fantastic weekend of racing.
The Coupe continues to grow and it was very evident at SH as many new helmets were noticed on every grid and the fields continue to grow. There were 211 entries across 11 categories, with the four Briggs classes totalling 96, Rotax having 98 entries over six categories and 17 Shifter racers rounding out the total. Every category was in the double-digits and the racing was action-packed from the lead to the tail of the field.
A permanent adjustment to the weekend schedule for the Coupe de Montreal to cater to more than 200 racers is Qualifying now takes place on Saturday afternoon and Sunday features only a PreFinal and Final race for all drivers. With 11 classes in rotation, there isn’t much room for error trying to fit everything into one day, and the adjustment helps Sunday to end a little earlier to allow the racers to head home at a decent hour, something that was very important to the series organizers.
The SH Karting track repaved the old section of their circuit last year and what a difference as a couple of decades of winter had made the track nearly undrivable in certain sections. Still, the repave brought all the life back into this historic circuit and the drivers returned the favour by providing some great racing.
Walking through the paddock on Friday and Saturday it was evident how much variety can be found in the paddock. So many different race teams, chassis brands and privateers make the Coupe one of the most diverse races we’ve attended in the past decade. SodiKart, BirelART, Kart Republic, TonyKart, LN Kart, Ricciardo Kart, CL Kart, CRG, Formula K Kart, TNT Kart, Intrepid Kart, Velox Kart and Robi Kart all were well represented.
After delivering beautifully sunny conditions Friday and Saturday morning, Mother Nature rolled in the cloud cover for the competitive portion of the race weekend. Thankfully the rain stayed away with the exception of the final class to take the track for Qualifying on Saturday evening, giving the Shifter drivers a very challenging session on their slick tires. Sunday did start with a few classes on rain tires following the overnight rain showers, but it quickly dried and racers shifted to slick tires after the third PreFinal and while a few sprinkles fell throughout the rest of the day on Sunday, it was never enough to even consider rain tires.
With eleven categories, there were plenty of race winners to start the season and here are the top five from each Final on Sunday.
Briggs Cadet (19)
- Olivier Chasse
- Giulio Berlinguet
- William Dion
- Giuliano Massa
- Brodie McDonell
Briggs Junior (21)
- Alexis Vaillancourt
- Arnaud Sabourin
- Alexandra Rioux
- Jacob Messely
- Elliot Coulombe
Briggs Senior (34)
- Leopold Schrevel
- Simon Belanger
- Ari Korkodilos
- Alex Murphy
- Vincent Novak
Briggs Masters (22)
- Eric Lessard
- Mathieu Martin
- Daniel Courtemanche
- Brad Rogers
- Mike Larouche
Rotax Micro/Mini (15)
- Jeremy St Cyr
- Jackson Lachapelle
- Antoine Lemieux
- Alexis Baillargeon
- Mathis Brunetti
Rotax Junior (16)
- Lucas Deslongchamps
- Olivier Mrak
- Frederique Lemieux
- Alexis Baillargeon
- Jesse Lambert
Rotax Senior (24)
- Timothe Pernod
- Ari Korkodilos
- Antoine Senechal
- Nolan Bower
- William Bouthillier
Rotax Masters (11)
- Shawn Grisanti
- Christophe Heront
- Sylvain Chenard
- Michel Legrand
- Francois Bourassa
Rotax DD2 (10)
- Christophe Rizk
- Gianluca Savaglio
- Ludovic Sabourin
- Matthew Taskinen
- Felix Menard-Labrecque
Rotax DD2M (22)
- Marc-Andre Levesque
- Sebastian Bernier
- Franois Dulac
- Yannick Hurtubise
- Martin Verville
Shifter/Shifter Masters (17)
- Davide Greco
- Jeffrey Petriello
- Dany St-Hilaire*
- Dominic Legrand
- Michael Riccio
