The final day of the 2013 Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals brought excitement and ambience to the NOLA Motorsports Park facility as Saturday played host to six Grand Finals, crowning world and Invitational Champions. It was the best weather New Orleans has given us all week with off and on sunshine throughout the day. After a great opening ceremony in which Aretha Franklin sang the American National anthem, followed by a flyover from the local US Air Force it was time to go racing.
The Rotax Max Junior final was a non-stop battle all the way through the field. Drivers from all nations turned the intensity of racing up at the drop of the green flag from lap one until the very end. Tom Harvey (United Kingdom) built a huge lead to start the Final as carnage erupted behind him, but as the laps wound down his lead shrunk and on the final lap things got crazy. Harvey lost the lead heading into corner three to Brett Ward (United Kingdom), but a last corner pass on Harvey by American Juan Correa, made the New Orleans crowd jump to their feet, as Correa crossed the line to earn the USA their first Grand Finals Title. Race fans were subjected to non stop action throughout the entire race. Ward would have to settle for second while Zhou Guan Yu of the United Kingdom completed the podium.
The only Canadian driver in this feature race was Jeffery Kingsley who was introduced to the all to familiar bad luck that our Canadians have been experiencing all week. Off the start Kingsley was involved in a wreck that pushed him quite far back in the field. He was forced to battle with a large pack in the rear who were driving quite aggressively. Being bumped around out there Kingsley managed to pull of a 26th place finish.
