A contingent of Cup Karts Canada division drivers was onsite this past weekend for the Cup Karts North East event at Oakland Valley Race Park in upstate New York.
Gerald Caseley expressed “It was important for me to be there to support the newest division of the Cup Karts family. Since we were supported throughout our first year in Canada. Giving a little help to Anthony Cirillo, the Cup Karts North East promoter, was the right thing to do”.
The Cup Karts North East events #2 and #3 were held at Oakland Valley Race Park. It is located in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains in New York State and is owned by Tim Hannen. The events had over 100 registered participants.
Demers Motorsport and the Kart E-parts.ca team were on site with Canadian drivers Mathieu Demers (Senior Heavy and Masters), François Giguère (Senior Medium), Simon Pepin (Legend) and Carson Bartlett (Senior Lite).
Francois noted “The Cup Karts North East event stands out from other divisional events that we have attended in Canada because it was all about small teams and had a “Club” feel to the race. No big teams were present and more pop-up tent and family teams brought a different vibe to racing”. Simon Pepin noted “Quick chats with OVRP members helped with baselining the gear ratio, we were welcomed and everyone was friendly. I hope we will be able to help these guys out when they visit us at Cup Karts Canada events as they did for us! We were here mainly to assess the Vega Red and develop our PSL Karting Birel setup. We found tough competition and friendly faces”.
The back-to-back race weekend saw all kinds of weather which started with record-high temperatures of 34 deg Celsius on Friday for practice. Saturday started as a nice day but was cut short due to delays in thunderstorms and tropical rains. Saturday finals were mostly done on a wet track. Sunday provided a totally different experience from Saturday with a dry track. This allowed drivers to really do their homework and experience Vega Reds in all weather. Demers dialled in on Saturday by qualifying on Pole. “My focus was to learn our way with Vega Red tires. I am leaving here with experience and homework to work on.” Pepin finished with great results in the Legends class, ending with a 3rd on Saturday despite the heavy rain. Sunday was a perfect day to put all the homework to the test. Pepin with pole position starting on a dry setup picked up a well-deserved win leading by 4 seconds. “We learned the Vega Red requires a different driving approach compared to the Vega Blue we used to race on in Canada. Nothing major was done to our baseline setup to achieve these results”.
After the drivers debriefed it seems to be the general consensus that there are minimal changes required for kart setup when using Vega Red vs Vega Blue you simply may need to adapt your driving style.
Francois Giguère ended 7th on Sunday’s final after huge improvements to his driving lines.
Carson Bartlett ended 4th on Saturday and 13th on Sunday in a very busy 23-drivers’ field.
Caseley invited the new American Cup Kart friends to meet at our Canadian tracks Trois-Rivières (June 9th -11th), Lombardy (July 7th – 9th) and Goodwood for August (4th – 6th).
