CKN Predictions: Rotax Micro-Max – 2014 ASN Canadian National Karting Championships

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 and Nathan Kelly 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 6.

Rotax Micro Max

Heading this years National picks in Micro Max is Thomas Nepveu with a 1.67 average between the three CKN Analysts. The SH Racing pilot has dominated the year in Micro Max thus far, winning races in both the ECKC and Coupe du Quebec championships and leads in the points in both series as well. With the great year he has been having it is hard not to see Nepveu on top of the box come SuperSunday.

Second on the list is Patrick Woods-Toth with two second place picks and a fourth giving him a 2.67 average. Although Patrick has only raced one ECKC round, he has been a podium threat in the Coupe du Quebec championship, and he also leads the Mini Rok Championship in the Rok Cup Quebec series. It is also worth mentioning that Woods-Toth was the highest placing Canadian in the Rotax Micro Max Invitational at NOLA Motorsports Park last November bringing home a third place finish in the Final.

Jeremy Tallon is third on the list and had an average of 3 from our panel. This year Jeremy has come a long way as a driver after working with Ben Cooper and KMS North America. He has been Nepveu’s challenger for most of the year in Both ECKC and Coupe du Quebec, winning a race in each championship. However in order to win Tallon must close the gap to Nepveu to bring home a National title.

Next up on the CKN Predictions in Micro Max is PSL Karting’s Justin Arseneau. This year is his first year in the National ranks and he has had some impressive races thus far. For those who don’t know, Arseneau has been working with former GP2 competitor Julien Jousse and it has certainly helped a lot. We see Justin as a shoe in for a top-five performance at this years Nationals.

William Michaud is the first wildcard pick from our National panel receiving a projected third place finish by one of our analysts. Next up was Gianluca Savaglio, as the young Intrepid driver was quick at the beginning of the season but hasn’t raced on the national circuit since the first two rounds of the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship. The final member on the list was Louis-Charles Gelinas who will be making his first appearance at the Canadian National Championships in Mont Tremblant.

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!