John Cariati (Intrepid Kart) scored an unexpected victory in VLR ROK Masters on Sunday at the KartStars Canada Nationals.
On a drying track, all of the Masters switched back to slick tires for the Final after watching a single driver in ROK Senior manage to win in the race prior.
Like he did all weekend, Joe Crupi (TonyKart) jumped out to the early lead and built up a very big lead, until disaster struck. The officials noticed his rear bumper detached and on lap four, Crupi received the meatball flag, ending his chance after dominating all weekend.
As the race for second suddenly turned into the race for the lead, there were a number of karts all in the mix. John Cariati and Alexander Mankovski (Intrepid) were two of them, while Igor Manukhov (Exprit) and Anthony Simone (Intrepid) were also right there.
Cariati inherited the lead when Crupi pulled off and fought off his good friend Mankovski all the way to the checkered flag. Mankovski had his hands full with Simone that kept him from really pushing Cariati at the end.
Celebrating the win with the biggest smile in the paddock, John Cariati will return to South Garda Karting in Italy for the ROK Cup SuperFinal this fall, after competing in the event in 2018.
Mankovski wound up second at the finish line, followed by Simone. However, Simone was delivered an unsportsmanlike penalty for a post-race incident, that knocked him off the podium and Manukhov up to third overall.
