Eastern Canadian Karting Championship
ECKC: ICAR’s Own Justin Arseneau Brings it Home in Micro Max
Exciting racing in the Rotax Micro-Max category continued as another strong grid of youngsters took to the ICAR Circuit for the second round of the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship.
American Karsten Defonce (SH Racing/FA Kart) started out strong on Saturday as he took the pole-position from Justin Arseneau (BCR/BirelART) and Dale Curran (BCR/BirelART) in timed Qualifying. But it was Marcello Paniccia (PRO/Intrepid) who won the prefinal from fourth on the grid ahead of Defonce and Curran.
In the Saturday Final Paniccia had the lead from the start until he was passed by both Curran and Arseneau as the front three broke free. A few laps later however the class rookie would retake the lead after splitting up the teammates. On lap nine Arseneau snuck back by and from there he held off a charging Defonce and Paniccia at the line to win the race.
However, in post race tech, the second and third place drivers were excluded elevated Curran second ahead Duesburry third.
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Arseneau carried the momentum from Saturday to set the fastest lap in Qualifying on Sunday. Defonce bounced back to qualify second with Curran completing the top three again. In the Prefinal Arseneau won the race followed across the line by Defonce and Gabriel Savoie (SH Racing/FA Kart) as the lead group of racers were battling tooth and nail, lap after lap.
Defonce made a great start from the outside of Arseneau to take the early lead early in the Final. Even though Defonce gapped Arseneau and Curran at the start, the two BCR drivers caught up and worked by the FA pilot down the long back straight at the middle point of the race. From there Arseneau, Curran and Defonce ran in line to the finish as Curran and Defonce were close but not close enough to challenge Arseneau for the win. Paniccia finished fourth with Savoie completing the top five.
The Micro-Max racers celebrate on the podium by spraying winner Justin Arseneau (Photo by: Cody Schindel/CKN)
