It’s Canadian Championships race week and racers from across the country and rolling into the Hamilton Karting Complex to begin their journey towards a National title.
There are over 200 entries thus far and we’re sure a few more stragglers will add to the list before Qualifying officially begins the event on Friday. With 14 classes on the agenda, it’s going to be a busy week and race organizers have split the schedule up into morning and afternoon groups. The Rotax portion will run in the morning while the Rok Cup classes will compete in the afternoon with the Briggs classes split between the two.
New this year is the Briggs Senior Heavy division while the VLR Senior class that has been building momentum this summer in Ontario has been dropped off the agenda.
After finally getting a chance to see who has entered their name into the running this weekend, we’ve come up with 10 Briggs drivers we think might surprise us with drives worthy of a podium on Sunday.
In no particular order and taking out those we expect to be in the running, here are ten Briggs drivers that could surprise this week at the Canadian Championships in the classes that have more than 10 drivers.
Briggs Senior
- Ryder Hare
- Leopold Schrevel
- Mitchell Morrow
- Vasil Tchiplakov
We’re not going to lie, Briggs Senior is going to be a dog fight this weekend. There are so many competitive drivers in the running right now and the hometown Prime Powerteam drivers are surely going to lead the way early on.
But, there are 34 drivers entered so far this weekend and we’ve selected four that really have the potential to mix it up with the front runners.
Ryder Hare and Leopold Schrevel moved up from Junior this year and quickly found their footing and speed amongst the best Seniors the country has to offer. Schrevel has won at the Coupe de Montreal and found the podium in the first three races of the season. Hare has just been impressive and not afraid to mix it up with anyone.
Next on our list is our very own Mitchell Morrow. The Canadian Championships have been his focus all year long and in the few starts he has made this year, he’s been right up front with his fellow Prime/HRKC racers. He found the podium this past weekend and is ready to roll this week.
Finally, Vasil Tchiplakov is coming off a big win at Shannonville and has been busy in his kart all season. He too isn’t afraid to go wheel-to-wheel with anyone on track and has shown the speed to be up front. His only holdback may be the lingering rib injury he’s been dealing with, but that didn’t slow him down last weekend…
Wildcards: Khloe Drummond, Jaden Harry, Maddox Heacock and Anthony Quezada.
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Briggs Junior
- Muskaan Sattaur
- Ryder Brown
- Grayson MacDonald
- Arnaud Sabourin
Briggs Junior has a healthy entry of 26 drivers this weekend and this could be the week where the race winner shocks almost everybody in the paddock. We know Sebastian Day is gunning to defend his title, but there is a strong list of contenders on the starting grid.
Muskaan Sattaur has battled and earned race wins throughout the summer and may not be a surprise to win this weekend but we wanted to mention her chances anyways.
Ryder Brown has sneakily been flying under the radar this summer but lately, he has shown some great speed. He just missed the podium twice at Shannonville this past weekend after coming off a podium effort at the Cup Karts Canada finale.
After dominating the MRFKC weekend at Hamilton, Grayson MacDonald instantly became a contender for this week’s National crown while Arnaud Sabourin has been lighting it up this year at the Coupe de Montreal to put his name in the running this week too.
Wildcards: Alice Blanchard, Sloan Sterling, James Tufford, Mindy Croteau
Briggs Cadet
- Sebastian De Moissac
- Angelo Launi
- Giulio Berlinguet
The Cadets are always the hardest to predict as their learning curve is more like a curveball by this time of the season.
We haven’t heard yet if Leo Da Silva will try and defend his title and the races this summer have been very unpredictable.
Sebastian De Moissac is flying in from Alberta and he may turn the most heads. He’s been very quick out west this year and reconnects with the time he raced all winter with, Prime Powerteam.
Angelo Launi, son of Frankie, who may win Entertainer of the Year after his cheering at MRFKC2, continues to develop as a young racer and has tasted what it’s like to win this year.
Giulio Berlinguet is coming off a big win at the Canadian Open and another performance like he put forth at ICAR could lead him to a season sweep of the Majors.
There may only be 11 on the entry so far, but the Briggs Cadets are set to entertain this weekend at Hamilton.
Wildcards: Justin Michaud, Ava Cabrel, Kegan Irwin, Carlo Lot
It’s almost too late to enter the Canadian Karting Championships, so if you’re on the fence about racing, just do it!
