“2014 Canadian National Junior Champion heads to final round of ECKC this weekend at the Jim Russell Karting Academy with the lead in the championship.”
Gianfranco Mazzaferro, a member of the Ferrolati Corse Karting Team and the 2014 Canadian National Junior Rotax Max Champion, has been busy racing in both Canada and Europe as he looks to close out a dominant second year in Rotax Junior Max. With the successful defense of his 2013 Canadian National title earned this past summer at the Jim Russell Karting Academy located at the Circuit Mont-Tremblant, GF has held point at the top of the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship (ECKC) title run all season long.
This weekend GF takes a 184 point lead back to Jim Russell Karting Academy, situated north of Montreal, hoping to tap success for a second time. Mazzaferro started the championship with four straight prefinal and final wins to score a maximum of 1,000 points. A rough outing the Petit Monaco in Trois Rivieres has put his closest title rival back in the race for the Junior crown. Mazzaferro will need to be on the offensive to secure the top spot in the final tally.
“Ending the ECKC Championship at Tremblant is awesome,” smiles Mazzaferro. “We won the Nationals there this year, so we know we have a strong program. I gave up a lot of ground with a poor performance at the Monaco. To take this title we need to bring our A game for sure. With a ticket to Team Canada for the Grand Finals this November already in our pocket, our sole focus is taking the ECKC title.”
Following their Nationals win, GF and coach/tuner Will Allen packed up and headed to Salbris, France in late August to take in the final two rounds of the Rotax Euro Max Challenge action as a primer for the upcoming Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals. With only two months until the Grand Finals, the duo are looking to bring a new level on performance to the international event. This year will mark the 15th edition of the RMCGF and will take place in Valencia, Spain on November 25 – 29.
“Running the Euro Max Challenge is really an opportunity to see how drivers from other countries compete,” commented GF. “Our trip to the Grand Finals last year was not great and I want to improve. As we have seen in the past, anything can happen at the Grand Finals. Canadians have had success there and I really want to do my best for Team Canada.”
Event testing for ECKC runs on Thursday and Friday. Saturday will see qualifying, prefinal and finals. Sunday brings a second day of wheel-to-wheel action with another round of qualifying, prefinals and finals to close out the Canadian karting season.
For more information about Gianfranco, visit his website at gianfrancomazzaferro.com. For more information about the Ferrolati Corse Racing team, visit their website at ferrolaticorse.com.
