SKUSA Winter Series: Arseneau Drives Home X30 Junior Win; Woods-Toth Finishes Second in X30 Senior

What a final day at the SKUSA Winter Series for our Canadian drivers. Taking the AMR Homestead-Miami Motorplex for Sunday’s action, three Canadian drivers drove their way onto the SKUSA podium, all in impressive fashions.

Justin Arseneau has been on the cusp of a victory ever since he moved up to the Junior category a year ago and finally, he drove home the win in X30 Junior. After a great start from third on the grid, Arseneau slotted in behind his Speed Concepts Racing teammate, and Saturday race winner, Luke Lange early on. He made a move for the lead on lap four but Lange countered it before the lap ended and from there he just managed himself in second, ensuring no other drivers would catch up.

Waiting until two laps to go, Arseneau made his move and stuck it, taking the lead for good. With his head on a swivel, he defended well for the final two circuits and erupted with celebration as he crossed the finish line to take the win. Lange settled for second place and the championship lead after round one, while Jeremy Fletcher finished third, impressively driving all weekend with a cast on his broken arm.

Mackenzie Clark had a day to forget as after qualifying fourth, it was all downhill in the races, coming into trouble and crashing in both the PreFinal and Final.

Only moments after Arseneau took victory, the X30 Senior grid hit the track to close out the days events.

After qualifying sixth and winning his PreFinal, Patrick Woods-Toth started on the front row alongside his Rolison Performance Group teammate Ryan Norberg. The two had a great start and rocketed off into turn one and while Norberg pulled out an early lead, Woods-Toth had to defend his position from the hungry pack, and he did so in impressive fashion.

From there the race up front was a bit of a snooze as Norberg built up a small lead and Woods-Toth hit his marks every lap to pull away from the chasing pack, but never within striking distance of the leader. Norberg drove home the win while Woods-Toth earned fastest lap honours by a mere thousandth of a second. He also scored the best finish by a rookie Senior driver of the weekend, while fellow rookie Arias Deukmedjian finished third for the second day in a row.

Earning the third podium of the weekend by a Canadian was Masters Shifter driver Dan Monteiro. Tackling the new 175cc IAME SSE shifter engine, Monteiro held his own on route to the podium finish. Also in the Shifter race, but amongst the Pro division drivers, Randy Tang wound up ninth.

In Mini Swift, Cole Newton moved up four spots from where he started to place nineteenth. It was a very eye-opening experience for the young driver to race amongst one of the most competitive groups of Mini drivers in North America.

The second and final round of the 2019 SKUSA Winter Series will return to the AMR Homestead-Miami Motorplex in a months time. The drivers will be faced with a new challenge at Homestead where they will hit the track in the opposite direction of what was used this weekend.