Exciting Return for KartStars Canada at 3S Go-Karts

It was a very busy labour day weekend for karting and one of the programs in action was KartStars Canada, who returned to 3S Go-Karts in Sutton for round four of their 2021 championship. It was a nice return to a circuit with plenty of karting history and this time with a little more than a week to plan out the action.

Using a slightly different track configuration than last year, racers were challenged on the circuit near Sibbald Point Provincial Park. All of the racing was completed on a dry track, but heavy overnight rain on Saturday set up for a wet start to Sunday’s action.

With CKN being split between two events on the same weekend, we must give a shout-out to Emily Billings for helping us out with her notes from Saturday’s races. Here’s a roundup of who scored the race wins over the weekend in the penultimate round of the season.

Rok Senior

With a great run from the outside on the start, Nicky Palladino (TonyKart) jumped to the lead in the Final. Nolan Bower (Exprit Kart) kept the pressure on, but Palladino didn’t fold and held off the challenges to take the race win and help his championship points total.

Third went to Matte Ferrari (TonyKart) who helped get Palladino into the early lead and then fought off Andrew Maciel (TonyKart) for the final step of the podium.

Rok Junior

Ayden Ingratta (RedSpeed) was the only Junior driver to break into the 38-second time bracket in the Final, pulling away to a massive 12-second margin of victory.

Second went to Christian Valverde (Exprit Kart), who had his hands full of Ethan Pollack (Exprit Kart) all race long, while Braedon Fowler (Exprit Kart) and Sara Vico (Exprit Kart) were just behind in fourth and fifth.

Rok Mini

There was a familiar storyline in the Rok divisions at Sutton as in Mini Rok it was once again the driver from the outside of the front row that managed to get the lead through the opening sequence of corners. Jordan Di Leo (Intrepid Kart) kept himself clean around the outside of Christian Papp (Intrepid Kart) to gain the early advantage, and then led every lap of the Final to score the victory, his second of the season.

Papp had to settle for second with the pair almost tied going into the final race of the season, back at Goodwood.

Third went to Mayer Deonarine (Exprit Kart), who overtook Rocco Simone (Exprit Kart) on lap five to get the final podium spot. Quinn Tyers (Intrepid) was also able to get by Simone and earned himself a fourth-place finish.

VLR Masters

Cayden Goodridge (Exprit) was back to his winning ways in VLR Masters on the weekend, pulling away to a massive 13-second victory in the Final.

Second place went to Paul Rhodes (Exprit), who held on for dear life in the closing laps to fend off Alex Mankovski (Intrepid Kart) and Andrew Valenzano (Intrepid Kart).

Briggs Cadet

For the first time this season, we had a different race winner in Briggs Cadet.

The pressure was on from the drop of the green flag from Ethan Chan (Intrepid Kart) as he hounded Christian Papp (Intrepid Kart) in the opening laps.

On lap three, Chan had a look up the inside of the grid corner, but he backed out at the last second. Trying to push him through, Rocco Simone (BirelART) got into the back of Chan and the contact between the three sent them all scattering, with Simone erupting with the lead.

From there, Simone kept a great pace up front and took his first Briggs Cadet win of the year, with Chan finishing second and Papp third.

KartStars Cadet

In Saturday’s KartStars Cadet race, Papp notched another first-place trophy by holding off Simone after trading the lead a few times. Third place went to Chan as the trio swept the podium on the weekend in the young guns class.

Briggs Junior Lite

Another driver to take his first victory of the season was Talon Clarke (Intrepid Kart) in Briggs Junior Lite.

In an exciting battle match the front four, Clarke led all the way from lap two to the checkers, holding off championship leader Nico Picerno (Exprit Kart), Nathan Dupuis (Intrepid Kart) and Joey Lecce (Intrepid Kart) as the top-four all crossed the finish line within a second of the race winner.

Briggs Junior

Ayden Ingratta (Exprit Kart) scored his second win on Sunday in the Briggs Junior Final, taking the checkers by five seconds with all the action going on behind him.

Jumping to the lead at the start was Michael Ing (Awesome Kart), but Ingratta recovered the top spot on lap two and on it got worse for Ing on lap three, as Gavin Goldie (Intrepid Kart) climbed up the back of Ing in the grid corner and forced the pair to stop and untangle themselves.

Braedon Fowler (Intrepid Kart) accepted the gift of second place and cruised to the podium finish from there. A slight tap exiting the grid corner from Christian Savaglio (Tonykart) sent Sam David (Intrepid Kart) for a spin with just over a lap to go, allowing Savaglio to complete the podium. David was able to get back going and maintained fourth just ahead of Declan Black (Intrepid Kart).

KartStars Junior

Combining the two Junior Briggs classes together on Saturday pitted 21 drivers on track in KartStars Junior.

The first to the finish line was Ingratta, but he was found non-compliant in the post-race technical inspection.

Staying close to Ingratta all race long was Fowler, who was elevated to the top of the podium.

Gavin Goldie and Joey Lecce finished out the podium steps after a very close race for the final podium position.

Briggs Senior

On Saturday the Briggs Senior Final came down to the wire as Zach Boam (BirelART) and Ryan Brutzki (Ricciardo Kart) put on a great showdown on the final lap that ended in a drag-race to the finish line.

Separated by only 0.071 seconds, Boam just barely got the win over Brutzki, with Nicky Palladino (TonyKart) completing the podium, just under a second back of the race winner.

KartStars Senior

There was no touching Boam in KartStars Senior on Sunday as he secured his second win of the weekend by a massive 9.5 seconds and was the only driver to crack the 44-second lap time bracket.

The race for second saw Daniel Demaras (Intrepid Kart) fend off Steven MacVoy (Ricciardo Kart) and Jelena Latkovic (Intrepid Kart) in a tight battle for the remaining podium positions.

Briggs Masters

Brutzki got his revenge in the Saturday Briggs Masters Final as he went on to get the victory with relative ease.

Taking second was Daniel Demaras some four seconds adrift while Bruno Polo (TonyKart) took third.

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KartStars Canada will close out their 2021 championship season in two weeks’ time with the annual night race at Goodwood Kartways on September 18.