ECKC: Rotax Drivers Double Up on Soggy Sunday at Goodwood

While Mother Nature delivered a perfect day for Saturday’s activities at Goodwood Kartways for the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship opener, Sunday was a completely different story as drivers arrived to a wet track and a morning drizzle. The cloud cover continued throughout the morning and just when everyone thought the track would dry out, another spurt of rain would fall sending everyone into a frenzy to switch their tires. Finally, just as the PreFinal races were coming to a close, and with the majority of Briggs Senior on dry tires, the skies really opened up and it poured rain.

Following a short delay to let the heavy rain pass and to clear some puddling waters, the Final races hit the track as drivers battled for race two of the ECKC.

Here is our Sunday Rotax Max report a four of the five classes saw a repeat winner. Click here for the Sunday Briggs Report.

Saturday Results | Sunday Results | Photo Gallery

Rotax Mini-Max

American Luca Mars led the way in Mini-Max Qualifying as the drying track challenged the young drivers on their rain tires. When it came to racing, Saturday race winner Justin Arseneau was the man in charge again as he quickly went to the lead and controlled the PreFinal.

In the Final it was much of the same as Arseneau scooted out to the lead while Mars, Adam Moor and Ryland Duesburry chased him on the opening lap.

After sliding to fourth in turn three, Mars made quick work of Moor and Duesburry before the opening lap was complete to regain second. Inching closer to Arseneau, it appeared there was going to be a great battle for the lead.

However Arseneau made no mistakes in the challenging conditions and kept Mars at bay. Leading every lap, Arseneau doubled-up to build a big points lead, early in the championship. Mars settled for second just over a half-second back at the finish line while Moor was impressive in the rain to take third. Austin Boyle and Lorenzo Morsillo rounded out the top-five with many of Mini-Max drivers really struggling in the rainy conditions.

Justin Arseneau

Rotax Junior

Thomas Nepveu led the Junior Max drivers to the green flag in the Final but the Quebec driver found himself in trouble on the entry to turn four and found himself off in the grass after touching the slippery outside curb. Patrick Woods-Toth, Xavier Harris and the rest of the field cruised by before Nepveu found his way back to the asphalt and the race was underway.

Being pressured by Harris, Woods-Toth kept the Saturday winner at bay as the laps ticked off. He was smooth and aggressive at the same time to manage the Goodwood circuit. Slowly opening up a lead from Harris, Woods-Toth was in control and he never looked back en route to victory.

A double podium for Harris earns him the early championship points lead while Mackenzie Clark rounded out the podium in his first ECKC weekend as a Junior. Fast Qualifier Emma Delattre finished fourth ahead of Mark Davis while Nepveu recovered to finish seventh.

Patrick Woods-Toth

Registration is open for ECKC round #2 in Mont-Tremblant. Tire purchase no longer required during the registration process! Get your entries in now on ECKC.ca.

Rotax Senior

Last minute switches to dry tires for Qualifying paid off as Davide Greco narrowly bettered Saturday’s winner Marco DiLeo for the pole-position while the fastest on treaded rubber was Thomas Simard down in thirteenth.

Greco maintained the pace to overtake DiLeo in the closing stages of the PreFinal and set up for a great battle in the Final.

However after gaining the lead into turn one, it was short lived as Greco ran wide in turn five, through the grass and to tail of the field. Di Leo gained the lead while BC’s Ben Maxfield slid into second. Ryan MacDermid started third, but his engine appeared to have some water issues on the start as he struggled to initially get up to speed.

Driving on his home track like he has so many times, Di Leo was simply unstoppable in the wet and just like Saturday, he cruised to victory to sweep the weekend.

Behind him, Ben Maxfield was keeping the leader in his sights until he had a partial spin in corner eight. Thankfully, he had enough of a gap to third that he didn’t lose a position and maintained the second spot to the finish.

In the race for third, MacDermid was holding off Marco Signoretti as the two were duking it out for the final podium position until Greco joined the party. Greco didn’t take long to overtake the two, taking advantage of their inner battle and moved into third. His pace was by far the fastest, posting the quickest lap of the race.

Before the finish, Signoretti was finally able to move clear of MacDermid to take fourth.

Marco Di Leo

Rotax DD2/DD2M

Even with the completely different conditions on Saturday, it was a complete repeat in Rotax DD2 on Sunday.

Tyler Kashak was unstoppable in the rain, pulling out to an 18-second victory over Ethan Simioni. Justin Luik was third again, but this time he was nearly an entire lap behind as Kashak’s fast lap was nearly 1.5 seconds quicker than Simioni and and almost 2 seconds quicker than Luik.

It was a similar feat in DD2 Masters as Joe Crupi blew away his competitors. He was almost 20 seconds ahead of Alexander Mankovski at the finish line with Andrew Calabrese third.

Tyler Kashak

The Eastern Canadian Karting Championship will resume in two weeks time when the series shifts to the province of Quebec. The Jim Russell Karting Academy in beautiful Mont-Tremblant hosts round two on June 2-4. Online registration is now open on ECKC.ca.