Pernod and Lemieux Families Join Epic List of Siblings to Compete for Team Canada

At this year’s Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals in Bahrain, Team Canada will have not one, but two pairs of siblings taking to the track.

Siblings on Team Canada are nothing new as no less than six pairs have participated in the RMCGF since its inception just over 20 years ago. The Grand Finals is a very attractive event and qualifying can be difficult, but for some, it’s a dedication to compete in the only true world championship on equal machinery.

This year the Pernod brothers, Lucas and Timothy, along with the Lemieux siblings, Frederique and Antoine, join the list. In both cases, the families have been to the Grand Finals before, as this will be Lucas’s third RGF while Antoine returns for the second year in a row.

They join a list that features some pretty special names in Canadian Rotax karting history.

The Ouellette brothers were the first, with Pier-Luc having two Rotax Grand Finals titles to his credit in 2009 and 2011.

Bryce and Blake Choquer have both competed in multiple Rotax Grand Finals, but interestingly enough, never competed in the same year. The same can be said for Nicholas and Matthew Latifi. Just as Nicholas began his car racing career toward securing a seat in Formula 1, Matthew arrived on the scene and raced on Team Canada.

Cedrik and Samuel Lupien both competed in multiple RGFs starting in Mini Max and qualifying all the way to Senior. The same can be said for the Dowler brothers, Griffin and Noel, the pair competing side by side in the paddock tent in 2019 and 2021.

And most recently, the Ali brothers, Adam and Daniel, competed together in 2021 and again in 2022.

For the Lemieux siblings, this will be the first time Team Canada has featured a brother/sister combination and only the second time we can recall a female racing on Team Canada after Coco Chi competed last year in E20 Junior.

The Rotax Grand Finals will take place from December 3-9 at the Bahrain International Circuit. Follow along with the action on CKN all week long.