PR: KMS North America picks up its first Canadian National Title

William Chayer was victorious in Rotax Micro-Max (Photo by: Cody Schindel/CKN)

Last weekend KMS North America attended its first ASN Canadian National Championship with 7 drivers in the team. Two Micro Max drivers, William Chayer and Jeremy Tallon, a Mini Max, Gianluigi Palego, Natael Cantin in Junior Max, 2 Senior Max drivers, Garret Britton and Olivier Bedard and a DD2 Masters driver Keith Miller.

William Chayer would steal the show all weekend. After grabbing a surprise pole position by 1-tenth of a second in Micro-Max,heat 1 Will would lead the way until the last lap of the race where he would be spun around in a racing incident demoting him to 6th place. Heat 2 would again be an eventful race. While leading early on he would be turned around on the home straight and collected at full speed by the driver in 5th. The crash would take both drivers into the ambulance, but after a quick check over William was determined to get back in the kart and start the race over. In doing so the grandstand would make a huge roar at William’s arrival on the grid. William would go onto win the heat after his biggest crash in his karting career, showing his fighting character. A 2nd in heat 3 would put William on pole position for the final. Will would jump into the lead early on but would drop back to 2nd. After making some small errors early on in 2nd he would not be able to close the gap and would go onto finish 2nd. In the final, he would make a great start to take the lead, after the opening lap, Will would drop back to 3rd, but would soon take back 2nd. Now he would have over a 1 second gap to close to have any chance of taking the win. Lap after lap Will would close in on the leader to within striking distance. Leaving it to the last lap when he would pounce in turn 5 to take the lead and take his maiden Canadian National Title. A hugely popular victory for the young man out of Quebec.

Our 2 drivers from out west, Keith Miller and Garret Britton would come into the event with no real expectations. Keith would struggle to get to grips with turn one of Goodwood Kartways early on in the weekend but would soon overcome his problem. Disaster would hit Keith early in heat one while trying to avoid a turn one incident. A bent chassis would be the outcome. After missing heat two to rebuild a new frame Keith would head out into heat three with the aim to shake down the kart, but again disaster would hit after losing his wheel into turn one hitting the wall at full speed causing Keith to fall out of the kart injuring his hip and ribs. He would go on to complete only a few laps of the pre final to save himself for the final, but with 2 laps to go in the final Keith would retire due to his injuries.

Garret on the other hand would struggle in qualifying and the early heats, but after finding an engine fault. Garret would find some pace and come through to finish top 15 in the last heats. Not a bad effort for his first time at the Canadian Nationals, especially in the Senior Max category. Garret would start 17th for the Pre Final and after a tough few opening laps would go on to finish 15th. In the final, Garret would move forward again to finish just outside of the top 10 in 11th place. A great effort for Garret and we look forward to having him race with us in the near future.

Olivier Bedard would qualify in 4th in Senior Rotax and would go onto finish 4th, 6th and 30th in the heats, giving Oli a 13th position start for the Pre Final. After a tough start to the Pre Final, Olivier would go onto claim a 6th place finish with a high possibility of making the podium in the final with the speed he was showing. After another tough start, the gap to the 3rd place driver would be too difficult for him to overcome, leaving Olivier to finish a lonely 4th place. His attentions now turn to the last round of the ECKC in Mont Tremblant in September where he is leading the championship.

Natael Cantin struggled all week long for pace and after an accident in heat 2 he would go on to start 17th for the Pre Final. Come Sunday morning he would find some speed and would go on to finish in 8th place. A fantastic finish from where he started on the grid. Natael would run 6th in the final until the last lap where he would be involved in an incident trying to hold onto 6th place. Nat would finish 11th after the crash, a tough break for Natael after a difficult weekend.

Our Mini Max driver Gianluigi would struggle in the racing after showing some great speed in testing. After several crashes in the races he would not finish the final on Sunday.

In Micro Max Jeremy Tallon would find it difficult all through testing and the heats, struggling to find any pace, but come championship Sunday he would turn up like a different boy posting his best laps ever around his local track. He would start from the back of the field in the final to move up to finish 6th on track after a grueling 25 lap race. In doing so, he would set his PB time of 40.6 betting his previous best time by 2 tenths of a second. Great effort for JT in the finals.