The fourth and final round of the CIK European KFJ Championship was on track this past weekend on the English PF International Circuit.
Competing for the title in his final season of KFJ competition, Canadian Devlin Defrancesco and his Morsicani Racing TonyKart entered the event with hopes of regaining the championship lead and taking the overall title. With two SuperPole’s and a podium appearance at the series opener, the championship was possible, but some luck was needed.
However following a roller-coaster of a weekend that featured the failure of four engines, a 42nd place qualifying effort and the need to qualify for the main event through the Last Chance Qualifier, Defrancesco wasn’t able to come home with the title, instead finishing third overall in a championship race that featured one of the closest title races in the last decade.
Rain in qualifying relegated both Defrancesco and fellow Canadian Kami Moreira-Laliberte well down the order, with Laliberte 31st and Defrancesco 42nd.
A mixed bag of heat races on Saturday had Defrancesco move up in the rankings to 29th, just one position shy of directly qualifying for the Final, while Laliberte fell to 34th, only due to a DNF in his third heat.
The two Canadians made easy work of the Last Chance Race, finishing 1-2 and advancing to the Finals on Sunday morning.
A spirited drive by Defrancesco saw him advance all the way up to 13th through the PreFinal and Final, with Laliberte moving up to 24th in the Final. Unfortunately for Defrancesco, his main championship rival scored the race win and ultimately secured the title and when the final points were tallied, Defrancesco was respectfully ranked third overall, one of the highest rankings for a North American driver in CIK competition in many years.
Both drivers will now focus on the CIK KFJ World Championships, a one-round event held in Salbris, France on September 17-20.
