Editors note: We will save our individual class race reports until the end of the weekend.
It was a very, very busy day at Goodwood Kartways as the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship opened up their 2016 championship season.
Racers, officials and just about everyone at Goodwood couldn’t have asked for a better day of weather with nice and warm temperatures, plenty of sunshine and just a slight breeze in the air.
On track, there was more than enough action to go around. Unfortunately there were two incidents today that required some medical attention, delaying the schedule a bit. But we are happy to report that both Dale Curran Jr. and Kelsey Hann returned to the track on Saturday after their incidents, with Curran jumping back into his kart for the PreFinal and Final after crashing hard in morning warm-up.
In regards to the racing today, those that were on hand were treated to some of the best ECKC racing we’ve seen in years.
Don’t forget to check our ECKC Photo Gallery, as we update it each day. Click here!
As predicted and expected, Briggs & Stratton Senior was one of the highlights. The class featured 45 drivers, meaning after qualifying, the group was split up for two PreFinals with the top-17 from each advancing to the Final. What a Final it was with so much action all over the track. The battle for the lead and ultimately the win came down to four karts and the final corners, but at times the lead pack exceeded ten karts. Taking the win was Marco Signoretti with Jeff Kingsley second, both drivers are also regulars in Rotax DD2 and opted to run double-duty this weekend at Goodwood.
Ryan MacDermid scored the biggest win of his young career in Rotax Junior, sweeping the day in the process. In Rotax Senior it was Cedrik Lupien coming out on top, taking advantage of Gianfranco Mazzaferro late in the race, while Kingsley was perfect in DD2.
To see the full unofficial results from Saturday, click here.
There was also a lot of contact throughout the day, resulting in plenty of penalties being handed out by officials, one of which removed Gavin Sanders from winning in Briggs & Stratton Junior. Drivers need to calm down at Goodwood and hopefully it cleans up a bit for Sunday.
In total, there were 178 entries on Saturday, making it one of the largest in the six year history of the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship. Although that number will fall a bit on Sunday as some of the TRAK club members have opted to only race on Saturday, it is still great to see such a strong turnout of drivers taking part in National competition.
Looking at Sunday, more great weather is in the forecast as we wrap up the opening round of the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship.
