Split Tire Selection for Rotax Senior Final

Everything in the Rotax Senior division came down to a gut check decision only moments before the National Final was about to begin.

The Mosport circuit was showing signs that it could dry up, but the surface was still very much wet and when the group of 31 racers rolled off the grid, the choice of tires was split almost 50/50.

On the front row, Prime Powerteam teammates Marco Filice and Patrick Woods-Toth were on opposite strategies with Filice on rain tires and Woods-Toth on slicks.

It was a very slick warm-up lap and Woods-Toth did his best false start attempt to earn those on slicks an extra lap to get some heat in their Mojo tires.

Filice used his extra grip to get up the hill first but he was chased closely by Gianluca Savaglio (REM/Kosmic) and down into corner six, Savaglio scored the opening lap lead. Just before completing the opening lap, a number of racers slid off the track in the final corners, including Adam Ali (REM/Kosmic) and it got the attention of the race officials.

The rain tires didn’t prevail for long and the likes of Filice, Savaglio, Cole Hooton (Prime/BirelART) and Kevin Foster (SH/SodiKart) quickly began to fall down the running order.

The first to make the slicks work was Adam Ali and he scored the race lead on lap three and quickly pulled out a big lead while Savaglio’s race was done on lap four.

At lap five, Woods-Toth had moved back into second place with Diego Ramos (PSL/BirelART) in third followed by Jason Leung (BCR/Kosmic) and Ayden Ingratta (SpeedLab/CRG) and the four were really mixing it up.

Ali grew his lead to six seconds at the halfway mark but it appeared his early race pace had run out as Leung was now into second and lapping more than a half-second quicker.

Lap traffic also played a factor and Leung blistered off some amazing laps to close the gap and find the rear bumper of Ali on the final lap.

But he came up short and Ali just narrowly held on to the finish line to successfully defend his Canadian National Championship in Rotax Senior. Leung had to settle for second place while Ramos and Woods-Toth crashed in the final corner on the final lap, moving Ingratta into third, Laurent Legault (BCR/Kosmic) into fourth and Ramos back to fifth.

Following the race, Ali was initially accessed a penalty for short-cutting the track on the opening lap and this meant that Leung got to enjoy the victory lap with the checkered flag but the call was reviewed and Ali was reinstated with the victory.

Leung and Ingratta joined him on the podium while Ramos entered the scales without a nosecone and thus, came in underweight. This meant Ben Cooper Racing secured three top-five finishes with Legault fourth and Timothe Pernod (BCR/BirelART) fifth.

With the win and his podium in Mont-Tremblant, Ali secured the ticket to the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals in Portugal and he will join Canadian Open winner Woods-Toth and Canada Final champion Kevin Foster on Team Canada.

Canadian Karting Championship Rotax Senior Final Results