It’s been less than two weeks since we opened up the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship season at Goodwood. Back in action this weekend, round two takes place at the ICAR Circuit for the second year in a row, with drivers tackling the 1KM semi-permanent track on the grounds of the Mirabel Airport just north of Montreal. A very racy circuit that features many passing zones is known for having very large aircrafts in the background as well as car racing on the full track located right next door. ICAR is a full service race facility with something for every type of racer.
The action at Goodwood was intense with only a few drivers able to break free from their competitors and take a double-victory, meaning the championship hunts are wide open across the board.
This weekend the ECKC features a new race format for the first time in their history. Instead of the two separate race days format, drivers will qualify and run three rounds of heat races on Saturday (due to time restraints, some classes will complete their third heat on Sunday morning). Tallying the points from the heats to reset the grids, drivers will return on Sunday to run in two separate Final races, each worth full points. With a weekend forecast full of mixed weather conditions, it will no doubt be an exciting weekend of racing with the element of surprise always on the table.
The official schedule and supplemental regulations for the event can be found on the ECKC.ca website or by clicking here (to download the PDF).
A couple of notes bits entering the weekend include:
- Zachary Claman DeMelo switching back over to Rotax Senior aboard a CRG Kart. DeMelo ran both Rotax DD2 and Briggs Senior at Goodwood with Intrepid, but has returned to familiar roots for ICAR, hoping to sweep the competition for the second year in a row.
- While DeMelo is out of DD2, Natael Cantin will make his debut in the category. Making the jump up from Junior, Cantin will compete with PSL Karting aboard a BirelART chassis at ICAR.
- Jean-Francois Lafontaine, Briggs Senior fast qualifier in both Goodwood races will not be in attendance this weekend due to a commitment with his university Formula SAE program.
- Last weekend at the Coupe de Montreal we saw an intense battle in Mini-Max between Thomas Nepveu and Justin Arseneau. Look for that friendly competition to continue with the potential addition of Dale Curran Jr. who has switched from the BirelART chassis to a TonyKart, but still with BCR.
- Last year at ICAR, the Briggs & Stratton Senior championship was thrown in a blender after some big incidents involving many front-runners. It will be interesting to see if the trend continues and we see more new winners this weekend.
- Briggs & Stratton Masters double-winner Marc Stehle will make one of the the longest treks to ICAR, travelling from Windsor, Ontario all the way to Mirabel, Quebec…a 930km journey. Initially not planning on competing the Quebec rounds, two victories and the points lead leaving Goodwood changed Stehle’s mind.
- Although it was initially announced that the ROK Shifter class was added to the Quebec rounds of the ECKC, that is actually not the case and they will not race at ICAR this weekend or at the Mont-Tremblant round.
- Once again there are a handful of our American friends competing in the ECKC in the Rotax categories. Welcome back and thank you for competing in the ECKC. Maybe one day we will get some racing in the Briggs & Stratton LO206 classes.
- Five drivers hope to remain unbeaten this weekend after sweeping their category at Goodwood including Stehle in Briggs Masters, Marcello Paniccia in Micro-Max, Thomas Nepveu in Mini-Max, Ryan MacDermid in Rotax Junior and Cedrik Lupien in Rotax Senior.
As always, we will have all the event coverage on CKN this weekend. Live timing will be available beginning Saturday morning, along with race results posted as well in our Competitions section. Photo galleries will also be posted each day too, beginning Friday.
