It’s been a very busy month of February so let us catch up on some of the action that’s happened so far.
The Rotax Winter Trophy took place over two weekends at the Orlando Kart Center a few weeks back and there was huge participation, especially amongst Canadian drivers and teams. Chasing the first invitations of the year to be awarded for the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals there was a lot of interest in the event and it caught the organizers a little off guard when they doubled in size from their events a year ago.
After a trying opening weekend that featured just about every curveball the event did not expect, the second half was much smoother when additional help was brought in. Following two events that featured great racing throughout, two Canadian drivers secured overall class championships and locked their places on Team Canada.
In a very competitive Mini Max championship battle, Alexis Baillargeon utilized his two Final wins to score just enough points to stay ahead of Englishman Albert Friend, who was racing with Premier Karting. This is Baillargeon’s fourth ticket in a row to the Rotax Grand Finals.
Securing his third straight invitation to the RGF since his return to karting was Olivier Bedard in the Rotax DD2 category. He notched an opening weekend victory that put him on top of the standings and then went on to sweep the second and third rounds to punch his ticket to Italy.
Other notable results from the Rotax Winter Trophy included: Nathan Dupuis finishing second place overall in Rotax Junior, Ayden Ingratta taking a win in R3 and fourth overall in the championship in Rotax Senior, David Laplante finishing third overall in Rotax Masters with a win to his credit. Also finishing third in the championship was Matthew Taskinen in Rotax DD2.
Canadians will have three races to qualify for the Rotax Grand Finals in Canada this year, starting with the Canadian Open in Quebec on July 19-21, followed by the Max Karting Group Canada Final in Alberta on August 2-4 and then the Canadian Karting Championships in Ontario on August 16-18.
