AB Shootout: Dunning and Deen On Top in Briggs Senior Lite

As it has across our great country, Briggs & Stratton 206 racing is growing at a great rate and with 33 drivers entered this weekend at Strathmore, it was without a doubt, the big show. Veterans and rookies aged between 14 and 70 battled it out all weekend long for the top spot with two drivers taking home race victories in completely different fashions.

Saturday was all Skylar Dunning. The 2016 Briggs Weekly Series number one ranked driver in Canada dominated the day, scorching to the pole-position in qualifying, winning the PreFinal with relative ease and pulling away to a massive victory in the Final, looking like he was on cruise control while the rest were in overdrive.

In the race for second, it was a battle of three and Levi Schmidtke managed to work his way by Adam Dowler and Taveer Deen in the closing stages to earn the spot. Moving up from Junior, this weekend was Schmidtke’s first race in Senior Briggs and he impressed. Closing out the top-five was John Kwong in one of three top-five finishes he had on the day.

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Sunday was a completely different race altogether. While Dunning was able to nail down the fast time in Qualifying again, the pack was with him when it came down to the races and big pack racing resulted.

After a nail-biter of a PreFinal Tanveer Deen was on the pole-position with Adam Dowler alongside. Dunning and Coltin McCaughan made up row two while Schmidtke was fifth.

Shuffling in the opening laps allowed Dunning to gain the early advantage but he was unable to break free as Deen and Dowler chased. At times in the first half of the race, the lead pack of drivers exceeded ten karts and many drivers were right in the hunt.

With less than five to go, Dowler made his move for second in anticipation of making a move at the leader, Dunning. But instead, Deen slipped back through in corner two the next time by and regained the spot. A lap later, he pulled the same move on Dunning to take the lead.

With the white flag displayed on the nifty scoring board (other tracks take notice), Deen held the point while Dunning and Dowler came together in turn two as the packed pushed deep into the corner. Coming out of the mess was Schmidtke followed by Griffin Dowler, Adam’s younger brother, and Kwong while Dunner and Adam Dowler fell to fifth and sixth.

Navigating the rest of the track, nobody had enough to make a move and Deen completed the great day of racing with the victory. Schmidtke scored his second runner-up finish of the weekend with Griffin third. Kwong posted the fastest lap of the race in taking fourth with Dunning rounding out the top-five.

Tanveer Deen made the right moves at the right times to win on Sunday (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)

The full weekend race report will follow on CKN shortly. Stay tuned.