The 2013 Eastern Canadian Karting Championship finally got under way as a record turnout of drivers filled the grids at Mosport International Karting, just north of Bowmanville, Ontario. The weather kept everyone on their toes as it switched from dry to rain, back to dry, back to rain, and then dry to complete the day. Regardless of the weather, the racing action was intense in nearly every class and those who stayed to watch got a great show.
The winningest driver in ECKC history was on his game again Saturday at Mosport as Stuart Clark (Maranello North America/Maranello) lead the Rotax DD2 Masters class all day long. Last years champion was hitting all his marks and he started it off by setting the fastest time in Qualifying, 0.765 seconds ahead of second place Francis Mondou (IPK Quebec/OK1). Martin Verville (Haase) was over a second off Clark in third while Luc Sauriol (PSL Karting/CRG) and Elvis Stojko (Praga Racing Ontario/Praga) rounded the top-five.
Clark was once again the class of the Pre Final cruising to a four-second heat win, with the top-three going unchanged from Qualifying.
The patchy wet track was no challenge to Clark in the Final either, as he cruised to victory, setting fast time by over a half second and winning by nearly seven seconds. If Clark keeps up this pace, he will definitely be hard to beat all season long. Mondou went unchallenged to take second while Sauriol stepped up and completed the podium. Both drivers will be looking for more speed tomorrow to keep up with Clark.
