Six Grand Finals Tickets to be Awarded at Warburg

The second half of the Max Karting Group Canada Final hits the track this weekend in Warburg, Alberta and six class champions will be awarded tickets to the illustrious Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals and join Team Canada in Portugal this fall.

The Canada Final is the second of three events across Canada this summer to award Team Canada invitations. The Canadian Open in Mont-Tremblant two weeks ago saw Alexis Baillargeon (Mini), Ryan Maxwell (Junior), Patrick Woods-Toth (Senior) and Lucas Pernod (DD2) secure their ticket and that changes things up a bit for this weekends race at Warburg. In three weeks at the upcoming Canadian Karting Championships in Mosport, six more tickets will be awarded to bring the total of Team Canada members up to 16.

So who’s leading the charge heading into this weekend’s event at the Rotax Mojo Raceway in Warburg? Let’s have a look.

The championship is comprised of every competitive session from the two Canada Final events, all with equal points weight. Drivers will drop their two worst sessions to determine their final points total.

Using the heat race format for points where your finishing position is the number of points you receive, with the exception of the session winner, who scores zero points. Thus, the totals add up quickly, especially in the larger classes. This means that anything is still possible this weekend in Warburg.

For the official points after round one, click here.

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Rotax Micro Max

With Baillargeon already on Team Canada, he has decided not to compete in Warburg and this opens the door up after his perfect score in Saskatoon.

James Bedard and Everleigh Kozakowski now enter the weekend tied for the top spot while Pieter Hoogland and Lennox Campbell are now very much still within striking distance.

As the weekend progressed in Saskatoon, Kozakowski became the closest rival to Baillargeon, finishing second in both the PreFinal and the Final and the pair both have the same number of points to drop. Also, when the drops are factored in, Hoogland is right in the mix too.

None of these drivers have been to the Grand Finals before, so we’re excited to see who prevails on Sunday in Alberta.

Position	Driver	Points Total	Potential Drop	Total
1	Alexis Baillargeon	0	0	0
2	James Bedard	17	8	9
3	Everleigh Kozakowski	17	8	9
4	Pieter Hoogland	31	16	15
5	Lennox Campbell	33	15	18
6	Christian Sanguinetti	38	18	20
7	Max Chi	40	16	24

Rotax Mini Max

After a very strong Sunday in Saskatoon, Antoine Lemieux enters this weekend with the advantage in Mini-Max. He never finished lower than third all weekend and that put him up 12 points on Bowen Gilbert as we have learned that Jackson Lachapelle will not be competing this weekend and gives up his second position in the standings.

Another driver to keep an eye on this weekend is Gabriel Balog. A pair of bad finishes due to contact resulted in two high scores that he can drop and that puts him right back into the running for the title.

Fifth place Louis-Thomas Pelletier will also not be in attendance this weekend giving way for Mathias Broerken and Teryk Bodenstab to advance into the top five with an outside shot at the title.

Position	Driver	Points Total	Potential Drop	Total
1	Antoine Lemieux	7	5	2
2	Jackson Lachapelle	18	14	4
3	Bowen Gilbert	19	8	11
4	Gabriel Balog	31	22	9
5	Louis-Thomas Pelletier	38	20	18

Rotax Junior

As one of the smaller classes at the Canada Final, Rotax Junior is also one of the closest.

BBR Karting teammates Coco Chi and Ziming Wang topped most of the sessions in Saskatoon and are separated by only two points after the drops are factored in. Also in the mix is Boss Patel, who quietly kept himself inside the top 4 in every competitive session.

With only four points separating these three as we enter Warburg, this one looks to come down to the wire.

Unfortunately Frederique Lemieux has decided to sit out this weekend, while Sterling MacKenzie has a bit of a hill to climb to get back into the championship hunt.

Position	Driver	Points Total	Potential Drop	Total
1	Coco Chi	6	4	2
2	Ziming Wang	11	7	4
3	Boss Patel	16	8	8
4	Frederique Lemieux	23	10	13
5	Sterling MacKenzie	34	14	20

Rotax Senior

With 22 entries set for this weekend in Rotax Senior, anything is possible.

Kevin Foster was dominant in Saskatoon and that gives him a nice advantage but as you scroll down the totals, accumulating points from one or two bad sessions adds up very fast.

While Jason Leung cuts his gap in half to the leader after drops, Noel Dowler is the biggest benefactor from the drops, except he won’t be racing this weekend.

Skylar Dunning, Griffin Dowler and Coltin McCaughan have scored Rotax Grand Finals ticket-winning victories at Warburg in years past, so they can’t be counted out of the championship just yet while Mark Newson is our wildcard this weekend in the mix.

Position	Driver	Points Total	Potential Drop	Total
1	Kevin Foster	3	3	0
2	Jason Leung	18	9	9
3	Skylar Dunning	38	22	16
4	Mark Newson	38	23	25
5	Griffin Dowler	43	26	17
6	Noel Dowler	46	32	14
7	Coltin McCaughan	48	22	26

Rotax DD2

Sadly, Rotax DD2 has taken a hit in the entries for this weekend.

Lucas Pernod scored his Grand Finals ticket at the Canadian Open, so he’s out and with only three entries this weekend, that puts Matthew Taskinen in the driver’s seat for a Grand Finals invitation.

Griffin Dowler and Dylan Ludwig are the other two entries this weekend, and while Dowler is only 7 points back, he did have a disqualification in Saskatoon that should leave that session as undroppable.

Position	Driver	Points Total	Potential Drop	Total
1	Matthew Taskinen	5	5	0
2	Lucas Pernod	20	11	9
3	Griffin Dowler	21	14	7
4	Andy Lloyd	24	10	14
5	Noel Dowler	27	15	12

Rotax DD2 Masters

In Saskatoon, Jared Freeston and American Derek Wang shared the top spot throughout the weekend with Freeston taking the advantage in Sunday’s PreFinal and Final races to hold the lead going into championship weekend.

Both have been to the Grand Finals before and are pushing hard to return and should put on a good showcase this weekend.

Sitting third is Ryan Berry with an outside shot at the title. He’s going to need to stay ahead of the lead two if he wants a chance at his first Grand Finals invite.

Position	Driver	Points Total	Potential Drop	Total
1	Jared Freeston	4	4	0
2	Derek Wang	8	4	4
3	Ryan Berry	23	11	12
4	Sylvain Coulombe	30	12	18
5	Rob Kozakowski	43	20	23

**All of our calculations are unofficial. Official results will come from the Max Karting Group.