Boyle and Bower Go Two-for-Two in Kart Stars Competition at Innisfil Indy

The second half of round two for Kart Stars Canada took place at Innisfil Indy on Sunday and once again it was a scorcher as temperatures soared into the mid-thirties.

On the docket for the day was the continuation of the Rok Cup Canada classes, while a trio of Briggs & Stratton categories completed their single-day events.

As the championship chases begin to take shape, a pair of drivers scored their second race win in a row to help build up their position at the top of the championship standings. Austin Boyle (Exprit Kart) and Nolan Bower (Exprit Kart) backed up their wins at Goodwood Kartways last week with convincing victories on Sunday as the Goodwood team swept all four Rok Cup race victories. With that being said, round three, the Kart Stars Canadian Championship, does have a points multiplier, meaning no driver is running away with a title just yet.

The Finals started with the Rok Shifter.

Davide Greco (Intrepid) had a great bounce-back weekend to dominate the category. He was no match for his competitors, and following a perfect launch from the standing start, Greco was off to the races. He would pull out to a five-second victory over Lucio Masini (RS Kart), while Chad Campbell (Formula K), who was back in the kart seat after a few seasons off, completed the podium with a third-place effort. Round one winner Dante Lerra (GP Kart) could only manage a fourth-place finish, while Ayden Almeida (GP Kart) was fifth.

For the second race in a row, Giles Gallie (GP Kart) was the highest finish Shifter Masters driver to earn that trophy.

Davide Greco (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)

There may have only six drivers in Rok Senior, but the tight-knit group was exciting to watch all weekend long.

From the pole-position, Nicky Palladino (Exprit Kart) jumped out to the early lead, but round one winner Nolan Bower was hot on his heels. Behind, Robert Soroka (RedSpeed) had his hands full of Kai Dalziel (Kosmic) and Andrew Maciel (TonyKart).

The front two pulled away with Palladino even opening up a small gap to Bower until disaster struck on lap seven. Coming down the hill before the main straight, Palladino’s RPMs soared to the sound of a lost chain. Bower and the rest of the field easily navigated around the slowing kart as heartbreak struck last year’s Briggs Junior Canadian Champion.

It was smooth sailing from there for Bower, who drove off to his second race win in a row. In a great fight for second, Maciel got the best of Soroka and Dalziel, while Eamon Lowe (TonyKart) completed the top-five.

Nolan Bower (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)

Next up was Rok Junior. All weekend the starts were very important for the drivers on the outside row and when the group dashed into corner one, Austin Boyle maintained his pole-position spot, but Ayden Ingratta (RedSpeed), slipped back to fifth from his front-row starting spot. Ingratta was the only driver who had the speed to challenge Boyle.

Quickly, Boyle checked out on the field, while Joseph Launi (RS Kart) had advanced to second ahead of Matte Ferrari (TonyKart), Lorenzo Morsillo (Exprit Kart) and Ingratta.

Ferrari worked his way by Launi a few laps in, but his pace just wasn’t as quick as Boyle out front, meaning he just couldn’t close in on the leader. Ingratta got by Morsillo at the same time to move up to fourth and had his sights on Launi next.

By halfway, Boyle was gone, Ferrari was solidly in second place and Ingratta had moved into third and that is how the lead pack ran to the checkers. Boyle scored his second win in a row, while Ferrari earned his first big podium appearance since moving up to ROK Cup. Ingratta was third, followed by Launi and Morsillo.

ROK Junior roll into corner one (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)

The VLR Masters category saw a new driver emerge on the top of the podium as Daniel Montagner (GP Kart) managed to maintain his great pace all race long to keep a hard-charging Frank Launi (GP Kart) from scoring his second race win of the season. John Cariati (Intrepid) came home a distant third, while Igor Manukhov (Exprit) and Jim Flewwelling (GP Kart) completed the top-five.

With a dozen karts on the grid, Mini Rok was once again a class getting plenty of attention when they took to the track this weekend.

In Qualifying, we saw the top-three karts separated by only 0.057 seconds as Jordan DiLeo (Intrepid) topped his new teammate Christian Papp (Intrepid) and race one winner Ryan Maxwell (Energy Kart).

The Final saw DiLeo jumped out to an early lead from the pole-position as Maxwell had a slow start into corner one and slipped back to third behind Stefano Picerno (Energy Kart).

Some very fast early laps helped DiLeo build up a lead, while Maxwell spent a number of laps behind Picerno before finally getting by his teammate and that would be the order at the finish line.

Santiago Ramirez (Intrepid) was fourth at the finish, but he came in light at the scale house, surrendering the position and moving Jordan Smith (GP Kart) and Jensen Burnett (Energy Kart) into the top-five.

Jordan Di Leo (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)

Two Briggs drivers muscled their way around the Innisfil circuit to secure their second race wins of the weekend. Zach Boam (BirelART) added the Kart Stars Senior win to his Briggs Senior win the day prior and Gavin Goldie (Exprit Kart) did the opposite, winning his Junior Lite Final following up from Saturday’s Kart Stars Junior win.

Boam had Levon Beaudin (BirelART) and Daniel Demaras (Intrepid) join him on the podium, while Christian Menezes and Braeden Fowler were on the podium with Goldie.

In Briggs Junior, Nicholas Gilkes (BirelART) scored the win over Anthony Boscia (BirelART) and Hunter Twyman (Awesome Kart), who moved up from Junior Lite to Junior on race day.

Following back-to-back races, Kart Stars Canada has two race weekends off before they host their big summer event, the Kart Stars Canadian Championship. Back at Goodwood Kartways, round three will be worth 1.5x points and will be spread over three days. More details to come soon.