The Briggs Cadet racers stole the show at the KartStars Canada National Championship. Taking to the high-speed Shannonville Motorsports Park circuit, 29 drivers lined up for the main event and with a unique Shannonville Bear trophy up for grabs, there were some hungry racers looking to take home the glory.
The Cadets had three opportunities to race for a Bear on the weekend and every one of them came right down to the wire, with three different drivers taking home the wins.
Starting with Friday night’s Briggs Cadet Pro race, a non-points bonus class to give these racers their first wheel-to-wheel weekend action.
With the sun setting, David Zhao (Intrepid Kart) was able to navigate through the lapped karts and keep himself ahead of the lead pack to score the first win of the weekend, followed closely across the finish line by Hudson Urlin (Nitro Kart), fastest qualifier Quinn Tyers (Intrepid Kart), Decklan Deonarine (TonyKart) and Justin Di Lucia (Intrepid Kart). It was a great battle to the end and the perfect setup for a great weekend of racing.
On Saturday it was KartStars Cadet taking to the track. 27 young racers took part under beautifully sunny skies and a very hot race track. With battles all over the 1KM circuit, it was tough to choose which pack to follow during the main event.
Converting his pole position into victory wasn’t easy for Di Lucia but he strategically positioned himself where he needed to be on the final lap and pulled off the perfect final lap pass to cross the finish line first, edging out Zhao by 0.039 seconds with Urlin 0.166 seconds behind at the line. Deonarine was also close at the finish line by having to settle for fourth place while Asher Pavan completed the top five.
For Sunday’s Briggs Cadet main event, the grid grew to 29 racers, the largest field of drivers to take the green flag on the weekend and it was another exciting shootout.
Di Lucia was once again on the pole position and he led the first nine laps of the race with a pack of five emerging in the race for the lead. Quinn Tyers made his move with two laps to go and he brought Urlin and Zhao with him, sending Di Lucia back to fourth. Urlin wasn’t done there, after coming up just short in the two previous races. He snuck underneath Tyers exiting the final corner and it was a drag race to the finish line with Di Lucia also in the mix after passing Zhao in the back section.
Less than six inches separated Urlin and Tyers at the finish line with Di Lucia half a kart length away from another win.
The victory capped off an awesome weekend for Urlin, who scored three podium finishes, one on each step. Tyers and Di Lucia scored their second trips to the podium with Zhao finishing fourth and Leo Da Silva (TonyKart) wrapping up the top five finishers.
