Rotax Senior Steals the Show at Stratotech Canada Final
American Macy Williams has a near perfect weekend to score the victory
The strength of karting in Western Canada was displayed this weekend as the Max Karting Group Canada Final rolled into the Stratotech Raceway for their first of two events this season.
It was the first time karts competed at Stratotech in over a decade and a unique challenge for racers of all disciplines. The hybrid-style track suited for bikes and small cars was wide, fast and flat-out, but provided some spectacular racing for our karting stars.
The Rotax Senior division stole the show this weekend as 33 drivers entered, including a few from the USA, who came with their eyes on one of the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals tickets that will be awarded to the champion. It was the largest field of Senior Max racers in more than a decade in Western Canada and a great showcase of the strength of karting in the region.
Qualifying was extremely tight with American Macy Williams (Apollo/TonyKart) just edging out Griffin Dowler (Apollo/TonyKart) by 0.021 seconds for the CKN Fastest Qualifier award. The top seven were covered by only 0.215 seconds and the top-23 posted a time within one second of the fastest lap.
Williams remained in control of the heat races on Saturday, sweeping all three of them to maintain the pole position for Sunday’s PreFinal. There was some shuffling of the top-five in the heats but Dowler will able to maintain P2 while Zach Claman DeMelo (RaceLab/TB Kart) moved up to P3 just ahead of Americans Oliver Hodgson (J3/CompKart) and Cooper O’Clair (J3/CompKart).
The J3 duo took over in the PreFinal to lock out the front row for Sunday’s main event with Williams and DeMelo lining up on row two and Dowler and Kris Dinkov (Vemme Kart) filling out row three.
The tensions were high and the start of the race was animated very early on as Bradley Bitz (OTK) and a number of drivers went for a wild ride exiting corner one, sending karts scurrying to avoid the spinning drivers but collecting at least six drivers before they even made it to corner two.
Williams was on the move early and jumped at the early race lead as she and Hodgson were able to open up an early lead.
Behind them, O’Clair and Demelo were battling for third with Dinkov, Dowler, Ian Qiu (BBR/Falcon) and Aidan Carruthers (Alloy Racing/OTK) in tow.
Just before the halfway point, Hodgson took his turn in the race lead and Williams remained locked on his rear bumper. The pair were opened up a large gap and the race was in their hands.
Using some lap traffic to her advantage, Williams pounced on the lead again on lap 11 in corner eight but Hodgson came right back and regained the lead again on the next lap.
The pursuit came down to the final lap and Williams was all over Hodgson looking for a place to get by. Hodgson defended all the way to the final corner where Willams was able to nudge him just enough to get him loose in the final corner and slip on by and celebrate the victory.
Hodgson settled for second place while Dowler had a great recovery from a slow start to complete the podium in third. DeMelo and O’Clair completed the top five just narrowly edging out Dinkov on the final lap.
