CKN Driver Diary: Ben Cooper @ ECKC Mosport

Eastern Canadian Karting Championship Round #1
Mosport International Karting:
May 30 – June 2, 2013

This was my third visit to Mosport after last years ECKC race and coaching Jesse Lazare there in 2011. I have to say that Mosport is one of the most unique tracks I have ever been to. Its undulations, high speeds and bumpiness make the track very challenge to drive especially in DD2 where the speeds are so high. Also the racing is normally pretty close at Mosport if I remember back to last years ECKC race where the top 10 DD2’s were nose to tail for most of the race.

Other Duties, KMS North America Team Manager:
This year is slightly different for me, as I have taken on more responsibilities in running the new KMS North America Team with Peter Kalman, so it has been not as easy to prepare for my own racing as normal as that has taken more of a back seat in my priorities. As well as doing a lot of the organization side of things for the team I am also coaching the drivers in the team, working with Nataël Cantin and Olivier Bedard over the entire weekend.

Disappointed, Where are all the DD2s?
I must say that I was disappointed with the numbers drop in DD2 this year with a lot of people moving onto car racing or just stopping racing altogether. I was hoping that there would have been some new comers into the DD2 field, but that wasn’t the case so far this year.

Double victory for Cooper this weekend is a great start to defend his ECKC DD2 Championship
(Photo by: Cody Schindel/CKN)

The Racing, Very Straightforward:
Both days racing were fairly straightforward for myself. On the Saturday I qualified second to Marco Di Leo, but managed to win the Pre Final and Final with a good gap. On Sunday I qualified pole on a drying track, but when both of the DD2 races came around it rained with about 15 minutes to go before the race. The wet racing has always normally been my strong point and the races on Sunday proved that right, as I was able to win the Pre Final just from Marco and then the Final.

Good Weekend for Birel Drivers:
This weekend turned out to be a great weekend for a lot of drivers on Birel. In Senior Olivier Bedard was able to secure pole position on Saturday and then finish seventh in the Final with fastest lap. On Sunday he took a second place in the Final behind another Birel driver, Kevin Monteith who was able to double up like myself to take wins in both Saturdays and Sundays finals. In Junior Nataël Cantin would be solidly inside the top ten all weekend on his first outing to Mosport in Junior Rotax at the ECKC. Nataël is making huge improvements as a driver and will be looking to get some podiums by the end of the year. On Saturday Nicholas Dore drove fantastic in Junior to go from third to first on the last lap to take another win for Birel over the weekend.

Typical English Weather in Canada
The weather last week started of great; in fact I was getting sunburnt. Then on the weekend the conditions changed, it turned to English weather where it would rain ever 45 minutes. It was great for me as I’m used to those conditions. One thing is that it kept everyone on their toes and it kept the racing entertaining.

You can follow Ben Cooper on Twitter, @SuperBenCooper