We are heading back to Canada’s east coast this weekend as the CKN Summer Tour rolls into Dieppe, New Brunswick for the Championship Kart Racing Association Summerfest at East Coast Karting. Last summer we made our first voyage to Gerald Caseley’s ECK and from the moment we rolled out of the paddock, we couldn’t wait to return. The club enjoys every minute of every race day, and does it with a fast-paced schedule on track and chilled out vibe throughout the day and night off track.
The CKRA Summerfest is held over two days and for Caseley, it is a chance to help groom his racers for the Canadian Championships. Each year, Gerald Caseley Racing/PSL Moncton takes a group of racers to Canada’s premier event and so he treats the Summerfest race with a similar schedule and format.
“It’s the one race each summer that we try and step the race format up so it replicates the way the Nationals are structured,” explains Caseley. “Each year we try and send a group to the Canadian Nationals so this gives them an idea how that event is run. And I am proud that this year CKRA has 14 confirmed members traveling Mosport in August.”
So this weekend drivers and their families will roll into East Coast Karting on Saturday morning and prepare their machines. Practice gets underway just after lunchtime with Qualifying and SuperPole taking place Saturday evening. A unique part of SuperPole is that for each category when the top-3 drivers return to the grid to put in their SuperPole lap, the direction of the track is determined by a flip of a coin. Heat races follow and finish out the day’s racing activity.
On Sunday, racers return in the morning for a PreFinal and Final to determine the SummerFest winners, with many great awards being handed out at the podium ceremony. With only four Briggs & Stratton classes being raced at CKRA, it doesn’t take long for everything to happen and for those racers who travel from different provinces, finishing in the early afternoon on Sunday provides them with a chance to drive home in decent time.
To challenge the racers, Saturday’s activities will run the track in the clockwise direction, while on Sunday drivers tackle the track in the counter-clockwise.
“I like to challenge the racers and help them develop the skills needed to adjust their driving for different tracks, so running both directions for Summerfest is not only fun, it’s beneficial to the drivers,” continues Caseley. “And the flip of a coin for SuperPole, well that’s just plain exciting, especially for the out of town drivers who come to race.”
In addition to the club racing, the event is also a chance for a rental kart race that challenges many parents to put on a helmet and race their children. CKN was a part of that race last year as well and it is one of the many reasons we were excited to return to Moncton, even if we did get picked on by the racers on many occasions.
The club is also running a charity race this weekend to raise funds for a local school who has introduced a karting program to their curriculum.
“We have a school that put a kart program into their curriculum. It’s a high school and they reward their better students a chance to race them and I’m happy to support it.”
Finally, The CKRA Summerfest will have support from PSL Karting this weekend as Canada’s biggest race team and North American distributor for the BirelART product line will travel from Trois-Rivieres, Quebec to provide product support at East Coast Karting.
