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Saturday Excitement at Innisfil Indy as Kart Stars Round 2 Gets Underway
Stehle, Boam, Goldie and Di Leo drive home the wins
Just a week removed from the opening round of the 2020 Kart Stars Canada Championship, round two kicked off at Innisfil Indy. Once again the program is split into two days, with the Briggs & Stratton categories competing in single-day competitions, while the Rok Cup Canada racers compete over two days.
The weather has been very hot and steamy, which helped aid in the track rubbering up.
Taking to the track for trophies on Saturday were Briggs Senior and Masters, along with Briggs Cadet and Kart Stars Junior.
In the Rok Cup Canada classes, which are vying for championship tickets to the Rok Cup SuperFinal in Italy, Qualifying took place, along with a pair of heat races. Topping the times in Qualifying were Nolan Bower (Exprit Kart) in ROK Senior, Ayden Ingratta (RedSpeed) in ROK Junior, Davide Greco (Intrepid) in ROK Shifter and John Cariati (Intrepid) in VLR Masters.
After a morning and afternoon of action, it was finally time for the Finals and the Briggs Masters started things off perfectly. While round one winner Marc Stehle (Charles Leclerc Kart) jumped out to an early lead, Steve MacVoy (Ricciardo Kart), Levon Beaudin (BirelART) and Daniel Demaras (Intrepid) worked together to close in before the halfway mark of the race. Unfortunately for MacVoy, his race came to an early end when the visor of his helmet broke off in the infield section, leaving it down to a race of three.
As the laps ticked off, Demaras was the only driver to make a move, slotting into second ahead of Beaudin. As the trio took the white flag it was go-time and Demaras made a move for the lead in corner three. Exiting side-by-side with Stehle, the duo traded rubber through corner four, five, six and seven before Demaras was finally able to complete the pass. Up the hill, he defended a little too hard and it opened up just enough room for Stehle to sneak up the inside and overtake before the final corner. With a final push from Beaudin, Demaras slipped back to third while Stehle scored his second win in a row.
Eli Yanko (TonyKart) cruised in fourth the entire race, while Cody Stellato (Exprit Kart) rounded out the top-five.
Marc Stehle (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)
Next up was Kart Stars Junior and in this one, there was no stopping Gavin Goldie (Exprit Kart). The youngster was on rails all day long and was able to check out from his competition early. Continuing to pound out fast lap after fast lap, Goldie eventually pulled out to a five-second victory over his competition.
Taking second was Christian Menezes (Intrepid), who held the position for the entirety of the race, as did Nicholas Gilkes in third. While the action in the race wasn’t upfront, there was plenty of passing throughout the midfield, leaving those on the fencelines with plenty to watch. Braeden Folwer (Intrepid) finished fourth while Mackenzie Milwain (TonyKart) was fifth.
Gavin Goldie (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)
Another driver was able to lead from flag-to-flag on Saturday as Zach Boam (BirelART) was a man on a mission in the Briggs Senior Final. He was able to jump out to an early lead and built on it as the drivers behind fought for second.
Breaking free in the battle was Jake Cowden (Awesome Kart), who went in pursuit of Boam in the second half of the race. It looked like he was going to run out of time until Boam dropped a wheel exiting corner one with two laps to go. This allowed Cowden to closer right up to the bumper of the leader for the final circuit. Cowden had a couple of peeks to the inside of Boam, but the race leader defended perfectly and was able to hold on and take the win. Cowden was P2 for the second race in a row, while Chad Webster (Intrepid) won the battle for third over Logan Ploder (Charles Leclerc Kart). Matthew White (GP Kart) was fifth.
Briggs Senior podium
Closing out the action was the biggest class of the weekend for the second straight event. 21 karts lined up for the Final and as expected, there was something to watch on every corner of the Innisfil Indy circuit.
Ryan Maxwell (Energy Kart) used a nice push from his teammate Jensen Burnett (Energy Kart) to jump out to the early lead over round one winner Jordan Di Leo (Intrepid). The trio was very quick out of the gate and began to pull away from the competition and were set to settle it on their own.
Di Leo didn’t take long to overtake Burnett for second place, overtaking on lap four before setting his sights on the race leader. Two laps later not only had he caught Maxwell but overtook as well and became the leader.
It was a very quick ten laps for the Cadets and before we knew it, Di Leo crossed the finish line first for the second straight race. Maxwell slipped back a bit by the finish and was second, while Burnett took third. Jacob Smith (GP Kart) cruised by himself for most of the race in fourth, while Rocco Simone (Intrepid) charged forward to finish fifth. Simone was also to the highest finishing Mini Cadet, earning the opportunity to stand on the podium alongside Christian Papp (Intrepid) and David Zhao (Exprit Kart).
Briggs Cadet charge into corner one. (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)
The group returns to Innisfil Indy on Sunday as round two will wrap up on the tight and twisty circuit. Rok Junior, Senior, Shifter and VLR Masters will continue their weekend competition, while Kart Stars Senior, ROK Mini, Briggs Junior Lite and Briggs Junior will run their complete race day.
