ECKC: Great Drive by Nepveu for the Win; Latifi Earns Back-to-Back Micro-Max Championships

The final major karting event of the Canadian season wrapped up this past weekend as the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship completed another at the Jim Russell Karting Academy in beautiful Mont-Tremblant, QC. It was a cool and overcast weekend as the event hosted the Coupe du Quebec on Saturday before setting up the ECKC Championship finale with some classes coming down to the wire for titles and for who would join Team Canada for the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals.

Rotax Micro-Max has been an eventful class this season. The incredible talent the youngest class displays is great for our karting future and once again it was on display at the ECKC.

While Championship leader Matthew Latifi (Ferrolati Corse/TonyKart) elected only to start this weekend and secure the championship, rivals Thomas Nepveu (SH Karting/Zanardi) and William Chayer (KMS/Birel) were seeking victory and both raced hard until the final checkered flag.

Chayer won the prefinal just ahead of Nepveu, but Nepveu was excluded for a technical violation forcing him to start at the rear of the field for the Final. This didn’t distract Nepveu from the prize and by the end of lap two of the Final he was already up to third!

With Chayer leading the way, Nepveu set his sights on the leader by lap four had taken the lead. But Chayer didn’t lay down and he preceded to retake the lead and set the tone for a great race. The two traded blows for the lead, racing clean and hard all the way to finish line as Nepveu would score the win from the rear.

Latifi earned the Championship title for the second straight year with Chayer finishing second and Nepveu third. With all three already having secured spots on Team Canada for the Micro-Max Invitational at the Rotax Grand Finals, the tickets went to Alex Legare (Zanardi), Joshua Cunha (OK1) and Jeremy Tallon (Birel).

Canada’s Micro-Max team looks very good for New Orleans!

The event caps off yet another successful year for the ECKC, showing growth at nearly every event this year. With a strong support and huge growth in the Briggs & Stratton classes as well as growth in the youngest categories of Rotax, the series has plenty to look back on this year as we know it is already looking forward to 2014!

Micro-Max Championship Podium
(Photo by: Cody Schindel/CKN)