The anticipation has been building all summer long and after major karting events across this great country of ours from May through August, Canada’s premier kart racers have come in troops and invaded the Jim Russell Karting Academy in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec for the 2014 ASN Canada FIA Canadian National Karting Championships.
Nine classes will do battle this week and the event will feature approximately 175 drivers from provinces as far west as British Columbia and east as Nova Scotia. Three of those classes will utilize the Briggs & Stratton LO206 engine platform with the remaining six powered by Rotax Max engines.
While every driver will be seeking National glory in their respective classes and entering their names into the record books, four National Champions will earn invitations to join Team Canada at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals, held this year in Valencia Spain. Those invitations will be awarded to drivers winning in Rotax Junior, Rotax Senior, Rotax DD2 and Rotax DD2 Masters.
CKN is already trackside for the event, with our usual CKN Live Blog for those at home, as well as updates as they happen on the CKN Social Feed and results posted to our competitions page when available. Be sure to check out https://www.canadiankartingnews.com/live to follow the action beginning with Canadian Tire SuperPole Thursday.
With views on predicting who should fare well in working toward those goals, Canadian Karting News has prepared unique class previews for this year’s National Championships, with staffers Cody Schindel, Neelan Nadesan, Nathan Kelly and Jason Holland submitting predictions for each class. Taking into account results from this year in the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship, Western Canadian Championship and Coupe du Quebec; last year’s performances in Goodwood, and their general track record, drivers were ranked by the CKN panel. Then, taking the average of the four ballots, an unofficial class ranking was created. Drivers that were not listed on all four ballots were issued a score of 11.
Rotax Junior
Interestingly enough, the turnout for this years Canadian Championships in Rotax Junior is quite small. With the ECKC peaking at 29 entries earlier this year, only 20 drivers have entered in Mont-Tremblant, showing that the program really needs a turnaround from coast to coast, and fast.
As a winner of four races in the ECKC this season, Gianfranco Mazzaferro tops the CKN predictions with a clean sweep for number one from the panel. When he is on his game, he has been tough to beat and aside from a hiccup on the streets of Trois-Rivieres, Mazzaferro will be the one everyone is chasing in Tremblant, where he will seek his second Canadian Rotax Junior title, and third in a row.
As the only driver to really challenge Mazzaferro this year, Cedrik Lupien enters the weekend with the second highest prediction ranking. While two have him picked to finish second overall, the other pair of panelists feel he will rank a little further down the order. We know he is pumped to challenge Mazzaferro and will jump at any opportunity to take the lead.
Riding another mid-season high into the Canadian Championships, Alexandre Lacroix scored the third best average and will enter the weekend on a hot streak courtesy of two wins in Trois-Rivieres. Lacroix hasn’t had great success in Tremblant recently but he are sure he will be quick with his SH Racing power.
Roman DeAngelis is fourth driver in our predictions and the top rookie on the list. DeAngelis has had a busy year thus far racing in almost every major series in North America and will be pulling double-duty this weekend, competing in Briggs Junior as well. Coming into the Nationals he sits in the top-five in Rotax Junior ECKC points and has done some testing at the Mont-Trembant facility as well.
Rounding out the top-five predictions is Tyler Ripani. After having a good start to his final year in the Rotax Junior category, Ripani hasn’t quite shown the same form in the mid-season. Hoping to end things on a high before moving up to the Senior ranks, we expect Ripani to really give it all he has in Mont-Tremblant.
Fresh off his Western Canadian Championship title and ticket to the Grand Final, Clay Van Eerd ranks sixth, just ahead of Jordan Slipacoff, Samuel Lupien, Nataël Cantin and Alex Murphy. All five of these drivers have the opportunity to jump into the top-five and make a splash this weekend when everyone is watching.
Notably, second and third from the WCC have also made the trek to Tremblant as it will be interesting to see where Ryan Martin and Nolan Vogel slide into the very challenging eastern competition.
| Driver |
Pick 1 |
Pick 2 |
Pick 3 |
Pick 4 |
AVG |
| Gianfranco Mazzaferro |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1.00 |
| Cedrik Lupien |
2 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
3.00 |
| Alexandre Lacroix |
4 |
4 |
2 |
6 |
4.00 |
| Roman DeAngelis |
5 |
6 |
4 |
2 |
4.25 |
| Tyler Ripani |
3 |
5 |
7 |
3 |
4.50 |
| Clay Van Eerd |
8 |
8 |
5 |
4 |
6.25 |
| Jordan Slipacoff |
6 |
7 |
6 |
11 |
7.50 |
| Samuel Lupien |
9 |
3 |
11 |
7 |
7.50 |
| Natael Cantin |
11 |
9 |
8 |
8 |
9.00 |
| Alex Murphy |
7 |
11 |
9 |
11 |
9.50 |
| Ryan Martin |
10 |
11 |
11 |
9 |
10.25 |
| Taegen Poles |
11 |
11 |
11 |
10 |
10.75 |
| Nolan Vogel |
11 |
11 |
10 |
11 |
10.75 |
| Jeff Fulham |
11 |
10 |
11 |
11 |
10.75 |
Please Note:
– These are strictly predictions offered up for CKN readers, and not any type of formal ranking.
– With no official pre-entry list, predictions were based strictly on those who are qualified through the ECKC, WCC and Quebec Cup.
– These are just for fun, read and enjoy!
