The sun was shining beautifully in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec on Friday as the Canadian Open officially got underway. Motomaster SuperPole Qualifying was set to hit the track for all five Rotax Max categories, setting the tone for the weekend and allowing the drivers to set their best times without the aide of other drivers on track.
Drivers taking the top three positions in their respective categories were awarded prizes from Motomaster Canada, with $300.00 to first place, $200.00 to second and $100.00 to third.
In Rotax Senior, where 20 drivers are entered this weekend, Alberta’s Coltin McCaughan (Sodikart) gambled in the tw0-lap SuperPole session, utilizing his second set of new tires. The risk paid off, as he was able to post the quickest time and earn the outright pole-position for the heat races. McCaughan, who raced last weekend in the Western Canadian Karting Championship finale in British Columbia, drove across the country to be at the Canadian Open. Christopher Chanko (PSL/BirelART) also used his second set of new tires and was rewarded with second place while Emma Delatte (REM/Kosmic) slipped to third after setting the fastest lap in provisional Qualifying, although she did not use her new set of tires in SuperPole.
Junior Max saw Patrick Woods-Toth (REM/Kosmic) lead the way ahead of Justin Arseneau (ICAR/TonyKart) and Mackenzie Clark (PSL/BirelART). Woods-Toth blistered off a lap 0.14 seconds quicker than Arseneau, with none of the six drivers advancing to SuperPole using their second set of new tires. The United Kingdom’s Kai Hunter (BCR/Exprit) and Andrew Maciel (PSL/BirelART) wrapped up the top-five in an unimpressively small Rotax Junior category.
In his first start of the year, Tyler Kashak (Intrepid) topped the provisional Rotax DD2 Qualifying session, until Davide Greco (PSL/BirelART) laid down a flyer in SuperPole to overtake his fellow Ontarian by 0.024 seconds. Christophe Rizk from Lebanon was third, followed by Owen Clark (BirelART) and Isaac Marritt (PSL/BirelART).
Etienne LaSalle (PSL/BirelART) knew he was in the SuperPole session no matter what in DD2 Masters, so he only completed a couple slow laps in the provisional session, saving his tires. It paid dividends when he returned to the track, as he bettered American Derek Wang (PSL/BirelART) by just 0.029 seconds for the Pole-Position. Fabio Casanova (PSL/BirelART) was third.
Finally, young American Karsten Defonce (Energy Kart) was flying in Mini-Max Qualifying, posting a fastest lap nearly three-tenths of a second quicker than his fellow competitors, to take the $300.00 pay out. Monaco’s Charlie Wurz (BCR/BirelART) was second followed by Ayden Ingratta (AI/Kart Republic), Lucas Deslongchamps (BCR/BirelART) and Adam Bellafquih (BCR/BirelART).
All of the categories also completed a heat race on Friday afternoon, with all of the fastest qualifiers winning in their respective classes.
