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.
The d’Orlando brothers were the two to beat in Rotax Mini-Max on Saturday as Michael (KoeneUSA/TonyKart) qualified on pole ahead of brother Nicholas (KoeneUSA/TonyKart). Xavier Harris (Goodwood/Intrepid) was third before his former Micro-Max rivals William Chayer (KMS/Birel) and Alexandre Legare (PSL/CRG).
In the Prefinal Michael took the lead and built a two second gap over Harris and Legare as Nicholas was caught up in an accident. American David Morales (BENIK Kart), who had a tough qualifying session, enjoyed a great race moving him up from ninth on the grid to fourth in his first race in Canada.
In the Final Michael grabbed the holeshot going into turn one followed by Morales who made a great move to go from fourth to second. From the rear Nicholas was flying driving back to second and closing in on his brother by nearly half a second a lap in the closing stages. But he would run out of laps as Michael d’Orlando scored the win. The closest on track battle was between Harris and Lachlan DeFrancesco (BENIK Kart) for third. Harris held the position for a majority of the race with DeFrancesco trying to overtake all over the track, however he could not find a way by. Harris would take the position at the finish, but a post-race technical infraction removed him from the results and moved Defrancesco onto the podium.
