What a day of racing in Sonoma, California.
There were mixed emotions for the Canadian drivers in attendance at the SKUSA Pro Tour SpringNationals at the SimRaceway in Northern California, highlighted by a remarkable drive by Cedrik Lupien to finish third in the X30 Senior Saturday Final.
Lupien had to chop his way through the field after qualifying way back in thirty-first position, advancing up to ninth in the PreFinal thanks to some heads-up driving, avoiding the plenty of action that happened on track including a crash between the leaders. In the Final it was much of the same as once again, many of the leaders made contact in the opening laps creating an early race frenzy that Lupien safely avoided.
But it wasn’t just his opening lap heroics as Cedrik had to claw his way forward in the final five laps of the 25-lap main event and he finished it off out-dueling Luke Sellikan, Brandon Jarsocrak and Zach Holden, all drivers who have stood on the Pro Tour podium before.
“After qualifying 31st I never thought a podium was in reach for today,” said Lupien to CKN.
The race was won by PSL Karting’s Ryan Norberg followed by his teammate Marjin Kremers, who starting in eighteenth. Samuel Lupien also had a great drive, finishing seventh. Ryan MacDermid bounced around quite a bit in the Final, finishing eleventh while Logan Cusson crossed in twenty-fourth. Kellen Ritter was a DNF after breaking an axle.
Other Saturday Notes
Blake Choquer was thirteenth in X30 Masters. He’s still struggling to find that last little bit to get him up with the leaders this weekend. Gianfranco Mazzaferro was eighth in the S2 Stock Moto Final. He is looking for redemption on Sunday after noticing an engine issue after the race. Dale Curran was a DNF in Mini-Swift, he’s had a disaster of a weekend. The X30 Junior Final was circus that featured 13 DNF’s, including Thomas Nepveu; Thomas Simard was twenty-seventh.
On Sunday it’s a whole new race day, starting with Qualifying around 9:30AM local time.
