On a very cold and windy day at Mosport International Karting for the first race of the 2014 Eastern Canadian Karting Championship, those in attendance who braved the weather were rewarded with some excellent racing in all classes.
Rotax Junior took a slight blow before the day even started as Mexican Patricio O’Ward (SH Racing/FA Kart) was forced to withdraw from the competition after he aggravated an previous injury and was not able to compete at pace.
On track, lots of new faces in the Junior Rotax division were no match for Gianfranco Mazzaferro (Ferrolati/TonyKart) as the defending Canadian Rotax Junior Champion was rarely challenged on Saturday en route to victory. Mazzaferro qualified just off the pole-position by 0.007 seconds, cruised in the prefinal, and then fought off a mid-race challenge from Tyler Ripani (Pserra/TonyKart) to score the victory.
Ripani made a charge at the halfway mark, but after a two-lap battle he just couldn’t keep up with Mazzaferro while Roman DeAngelis (KoeneUSA/TonyKart) drove to the podium in his Canadian Rotax Junior debut.
Cedrik Lupien (SH Racing/FA Kart) recovered from a crash in the prefinal to finish fourth with American David Illavia (J3 Competition/Kosmic) rounding out the top-five.
