The 2013 ASN Canadian National Karting Championships presented by Canadian Tire continued at Goodwood Kartways on Saturday as drivers completed their second and third heat races, setting the grids for Sunday Prefinals. Briggs & Stratton division drivers completed their Prefinals on Saturday evening, and now have just National Finals remaining. Once again there was beautiful weather at the facility just north of Toronto, and the action on track was just as hot as drivers tried to advance up the grid as much as possible.
The largest class of the weekend has provided plenty of excitement. Each heat race has featured some hard racing, heavy hits and lots of caution flags, but nonetheless has been great all week long. The two teammates of JF Lafontaine (Birel) and Vincent Cyr (Birel) have been lightning fast when running together so far, and with both starting on the front row for each heat race it’s no wonder they were tough to beat. However, Gerald Caseley (PSL Moncton/CRG), Cory Cacciavillani (CF Racing/Birel) and Kyle Edgar (K&K Kart) wanted to split up the lead duo and did so in both the second and third heat race on Saturday.
After a second and third place effort in his first two heats, Caseley found trouble in heat three, and a DNF really hurt his point total. This left Cacciavillani and Edgar to battle up front and in heat three Cacciavillani was able to best the Birel teammates from his seventh place starting position while Lafontaine finished second and Edgar third.
After the heats, Lafontaine led the way into the Saturday afternoon Prefinal with Cacciavillani beside him and Cyr behind him with Edgar and Lauren Fortune (OK1) completing the top-five and Caseley down in ninth.
The exciting prefinal saw karts running all over the Goodwood facility. Once again Lafontaine and Cyr broke away while Cacciavillani desperately held on in third. Capitalizing on a mistake by Cyr, Cacciavillani was able to break the draft and then get by Cyr with four laps remaining. He then set his sights on the leader of Lafontaine and made a nice move to the inside of turn four to take the lead with two to go. Moving to a defensive mode, Cacciavillani held of many attempts by Lafontaine and would win the prefinal setting himself up nicely for Sundays Championship final. Lafontaine settled for second with Cyr third. Gerald Caseley rebounded nicely to finish fourth with Edgar fifth.
All that is left on Sunday is the Championship Final where it will be all out for the Canadian title in the Briggs & Stratton Senior division.
