HRKC Hosts Epic Ontario Inter-Club Challenge Championship Finale

The inaugural class of Ontario Inter-Club Challenge Champions were crowned on Sunday evening at the Hamilton Karting Complex following an intense and exciting third round of competition.

Another stellar turnout of racers saw 179 entries compete on race day, making an average of 203 entries and an average class size of 34 karts between the three Inter-Club races this season.

Adding three more victories to their total this season, MIKA members had a great day at Hamilton, while TRAK racers secured two more wins and the host HRKC only got one on their home turf. In the Championship hunt, both TRAK and MIKA secured three titles each while the HRKC was snuffed.

It was a rather unusual day of weather that added an extra element to the event with foggy skies and moisture in the air to start, a short stretch of hot and humid sunshine in the middle of the day and then there was a threat of rain in the late afternoon that kept everyone on their toes deciding which direction to go with the kart setup.

With a race day full of action, Qualifying, two heat races, a Super-Heat and a Final, there was no shortage of competition and the results were epic with great battles right up until the finish line in just about every category.

Cadet

It wasn’t an easy feat but Jayden Francisco scored another Inter-Club Briggs Cadet victory and became the only driver to win in all three rounds of the challenge this season en route to the championship.

After some very competitive heat races, Francisco and Asher Pavan emerged from the pack of hungry Cadets and continued their battle from the Canadian Championships.

Francisco controlled the race lead for most of the race and Pavan made a few nice attempts to take control in the final laps, but just couldn’t complete the pass on his rival and had to settle for a runner-up finish.

Taking third place was Lincoln Lima who initially finished behind Marco Fazari, but Fazari was issued a penalty for passing under yellow that moved him back to fourth. Fifth went to Carlo Lot, who emerged from an intense race for the final step of the podium.

In the Cadet B Final siblings Valentino and Francesca Alpinelli were separated by less than 0.1 seconds to finish 1-2 and earn themselves a transfer spot to the A Final. Robert Tronchi joined them on the podium after just edging out Ricky Ramdin at the finish line with Tristan Francisco finishing P5.

Junior Lite

The final lap of the Junior Lite main event saw three drivers duking it out for the race win. Ethan Tyers led the trio as the last lap sign was displayed and he defended down the inside line of the Hamilton circuit. He managed to keep the lead through corners one, two and three, but his very tight line in corner four allowed Lorenzo Pigliarolo to perform the perfect overcut and take the race lead.

With a push from Blake Fregeau on the exit, Tyers had a good run back up towards corner nine and got into the back of Pigliarolo, moving him off the racing line. Tyer slipped by and into the race lead while Fregeau tried to follow through.

Half a lap later, Tyers would be the first to the finish line, just ahead of Pigliarolo and Fregeau. However, a five-second penalty to Tyers for the contact moved Pigliarolo back to the top of the results. Fregeau would end up as the runner-up and with it, crowned the Junior Lite Champion. Tyers would slot into P3 while Andrew Adams and Maxwell Willetts completed the Inter-Club podium in fourth and fifth.

Junior

There was a little chaos in the closing laps of the Briggs Junior Final as teammates Ari Theodoropoulos and Jackson Morley were in control of the race with a nice gap back to the race for third place. However, that gap disappeared quickly when the pair decided to battle for the race lead with three laps to go. Sloan Sterling, Leonardo Serravalle and Nigel Longley joined the party for the race win and it was a wild final two laps.

Serravalle was able to take advantage on the final lap and gain the race lead when the lead pair got defensive. Through corners nine and ten, the pack was two-by-two behind Serravalle and entering corner eleven it went from bad to worst for the initial race leaders. Contact between Sterling, Morley and Theorodopoulos resulted in all three running off track with only Sterling able to continue, albeit well down the running order.

Serravalle rounded the final corner to secure his first major race win while Quinn Tyers managed his way through the wreckage to finish as the runner-up. Longley was the next to the finish line followed by Declan Black and Ethan Chan.

With his fourth-place finish, Declan Black scored just enough points to secure the championship.

Senior

For the third straight Ontario Inter-Club Challenge race, Briggs Senior was the largest group to take to the track, this time with 51 competitors. The heat races were intense and the SuperHeats helped determine the starting grid for the main event, the final event of the afternoon in Hamilton.

David Barnes and Logan Pacza led the field of 40 to the green flag and it was a frantic set of opening laps.

Barnes led Logan Ploder during the opening laps and on lap six, Gianluca Savaglio slipped by Jordan Prior for P3 and this set off a bit of a flurry of events over the next two laps.

Contact from behind in corner four pushed Pacza into Prior, ending both of their races and also claiming Owen McCarthy, the fastest qualifier from earlier in the day.

Raul Canuto and Nick Folino found their way through the chaos to move up fourth and fifth, albeit well behind the lead trio.

On lap ten, Ploder and Savaglio drafted by Barnes to move the leader back to P3 and on the final laps it was a showdown between the two for victory.

Savaglio was able to snatch the lead with two laps to go, but Ploder pulled off a remarkable pass around the outside of corner two to regain the lead. Leading the rest of the lap and not giving Savaglio a chance to pass, Ploder celebrated another great race victory at the finish line.

Savaglio crossed in P2 and sealed the championship, while Barnes was just behind in P3.

Raul Canuto held on to P4 while Gavin Goldie caught and passed Folino late in the race to secure a spot on the podium in fifth.

In the Senior B Final, Eric Moore pulled away to win. Nathan Powell and Jacob Hill joined him on the podium.

Senior Heavy

Jonathan Treadwell out-duelled Christian Savaglio in the Briggs Senior Heavy to score his first Ontario Inter-Club Challenge win of the season. The pair pulled away from the pack during an intense opening few laps.

Driving through the field en route to a third-place finish was enough for Vassil Tchiplakov to confirm the championship. Working with Michael Ing, the pair tried to catch the race leaders but were unable to close the gap so they duked it out for the third step of the podium.

Fifth place went to Patrick Leleivre who overtook Devan Morrison with two laps to go.

Masters

From the outside of the front row, Ian MacIntyre drove as deep as he could into corner two to overtake Rich Folino for the race lead. This was pivotal in taking victory as Folino came under attack from Darryl Timmers and Tim Salvatore and the battle for P2 allowed the race leader to pull away.

MacIntyre would lead every lap of the Final and score maximum points to overtake David Miller in the chase for the championship as well, adding another title to his karting career.

Salvatore pounced on the opportunity to overtake both Folino and Timmers on lap ten and then cruised to finish P2 in his first race since the start of the season. Folino regained P3 on the final lap from Timmers, who wound up with a penalty post-race for ‘failure to leave racing room’, which moved Zach Boam and Miller up to fourth and fifth in the final results.

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Each of the members from the supporting kart club, HRKC, TRAK and MIKA, are commended for their support of this awesome program. The Ontario Inter-Club Challenge was the best-attended and one of the most competitive programs of the season in Canada.

2024 champions were awarded a brand new Briggs 206 racing engine along with a commemorative championship pennant to recognize their title.