CKN Club Racing Report: Mosport International Karting Association

As the Fall season and cool weather rolls into Canada and kart racers prepare for the winter off-season, karting clubs across the country are wrapping up their club championship seasons. Taking this opportunity to reflect on some of the club racing championships, we here at CKN will roll out a rundown of club championship results.

Starting things off, we look back at the Mosport International Karting Association, which is located in Bowmanville, Ontario.

The Mosport International Karting Association (MIKA) offered a total of eleven classes in 2013 and one of few karting clubs in Canada who offered classes for both competitors with Honda and Briggs & Stratton 4-cycle competitors. Both classes had fair numbers in the 2013 season. Aside from the four cycle classes MIKA also offered the popular Rotax classes with some of the top drivers in Ontario competing on a weekly basis. The club traveled to Goodwood Kartways to compete with the TRAK championship this season as well for an inter-club event. The one low light of the season for many MIKA members was the cancelation of the King of the Hill event, where MIKA racers compete on the Driver Development Track at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. The event is very popular among karters in Ontario, but construction to the DDT facility forced MIKA officials to remove it from their schedule.

In preparation for the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship season opener, MIKA hosted a club race the week prior and it by far was the largest club race of the season. Drivers from all over the country made their way to Mosport for the race with full grids and great racing across the board.

Briggs Junior:

Class Members: 8
Average on race day: 3.9

MIKA’s champion in the Briggs Junior champion in 2013 was Tyler Bouillon as he took home five wins during the season and didn’t finish below third throughout the year. Logan Cusson came second in the championship 178 points behind the leader. Cusson’s highest placed finish for championship points was second which he took four times during the season. Third in the Championship was 2013 Canadian National Champion Tyler McCoullough who raced a part time schedule at MIKA taking home five wins for the five races that he raced this season.

Honda Junior Heavy:

Class Members: 6
Average on race day: 3.5

Ross Beaton was the overall champion in Honda Junior at MIKA as he won a total of nine of the 12 races this season. The battle for second at season’s end was close with Turner Blodgett edging out Gregory Matuszak for second in the championship by just 4 points at the end, the difference being Blodgett’s two wins to Matuszak’s one.

Briggs Senior:

Class Members: 11
Average on race day: 4.3

Briggs Senior was a close championship battle as three drivers were in the championship hunt from the beginning of the season. Jordan Kroon ended the year as champion bringing home four wins this year. The class vice-Champion was Jeff Forsey as he was able to take second in the championship with two wins during the season and multiple podium positions. Three points behind Forsey was Katie Smilovsky in third. Smilovsky won two races this year but due to a few poor results earlier in the season she found herself she just missed out on second in the championship.

Honda Senior:

Class Members: 10
Average on race day: 7

Honda Senior was the senior category or class of choice on a weekly basis at the MIKA championship. Bailey Jacobs ended the year with seven wins victories on route to the championship and his two drops were third place finishes. Sean McPhee who ran Briggs in ECKC stuck to his Honda route at the club level as he was the vice champion in Honda Senior with four wins. Twelve points behind Sean in third was Cody Fenton whose single win and multiple podiums during the season got him onto the championship podium.

Honda Masters:

Class Members:14
Average on race day: 9.4

Honda Masters had the closest championship battle during the season as it just came down to one point when it was all over. Rob Brown took home the championship ahead of Stephen Goebel as the two drivers combined for 9 wins in the season. Russ Kroon came third in the championship taking two wins earlier in the season, but with two missed races and a couple poor results Kroon would find himself more than a 100 points behind the leaders at seasons end.

Rotax Junior:

Class Members: 12
Average on race day: 8

MIKA’s Rotax Junior Champion for the 2013 season was Davide Greco. Greco took home six wins aboard his TonyKart chassis and finished the season off with 940 points. William Campbell was the class runner up with his single win at the opening round of the championship. Third place in the championship went to Alex Murphy, who won three races in the second half of the championship to move up to third in points after having a couple bad finishes to start his season.

Rotax Senior:

Class Members: 13
Average on race day: 7.5

With an Impressive senior Rookie year. Tyler Kashak took home one of two club level championships in Rotax Senior in MIKA. The OK1 pilot won eight finals in the class too, resulting in a point total of 946 points by the end of the season. Kashak’s closest rival in 2013 was Kenneth O’Keefe who won three races during the season along with seven other podium finishes giving him second at championship’s end. Sean Kennedy came third in the championship 200 points out of second.

Rotax Masters:

Class Members: 6
Average on Race day: 4.2

Shayne Sheppard ended his karting career as the Rotax Masters Championship taking home nine wins and two seconds. Glen Wylie was second in points winning three races and David Shutiak was third only 50 points back.

For the 2014 karting season MIKA is going to combine Briggs and Honda engine packages to for Four-Cycle Senior and Four-Cycle Junior classes.