Freeston Fends Off Laplante in Max Masters Showdown

There was a head-to-head showdown in Max Masters at the Max Karting Group Canada Final in Warburg, Alberta over the weekend.

With a ticket to join Team Canada at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals, two drivers stood above the rest throughout the weekend on the EKDRA Rotax Mojo Raceway circuit.

Those drivers were local star Jared Freeston (True North/OTK) and Ontario’s David Laplante (Premier/OTK).

While there were eight drivers in the category competing, the pace of these two just could not be matched by the rest.

On Saturday, Freeston held the advantage, convincingly sweeping the race day. Laplante was able to lead the opening two laps of the Final until Freeston retook the look. He remained close throughout the remaining laps but Freeston had a slight speed advantage to maintain a 3-4 kart length gap. Third in the race went to Matthew Cowan (OTK).

Sunday saw Laplante put the pressure on to start the day with the pole position while Audrey Tararaksin (OTK) also put in a great lap to go P2 in Qualifying.

Laplante converted that pole position into a PreFinal win over Freeston, setting up for an interesting Final.

With Freeston holding the tie-breaker, meaning Laplante needed to win by two positions, he was forced to get creative in the Main event if he wanted to win the title.

Taking the immediate race lead, Laplante slowed him pace to try and back up Freeston to the pack. In the opening laps, it was working as five drivers found themselves in the hunt and Freeston had plenty of pressure from behind while unable to overtake Laplante for the lead.

Just prior to the halfway mark, Tararaksin tried a pass on Freeston that failed to work and ended with him going for a trip through the grass on the exit of corner five. This broke the pack up and the Laplante was left to duel Freeston on his own.

After ten laps, Laplante finally surrendered the race lead to Freeston and that sealed the championship. Freeston celebrated the win and the title at the finish line five laps later and booked his ticket back to the Grand Finals. Billy Cleavelin (Apollo/OTK) finished the race in third place while Cowen wound up fourth in the race, but third in the overall championship.

Freeston joins Team Canada for his second attempt at the Grand Finals, ironically at the same Sarno circuit he competed on in 2019.