Tight Battle in DD2 Culminates with Pernod as Champion

Lucas Pernod earned his third straight Team Canada invitation for the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals over the weekend at the Max Karting Group Canada Final in Warburg, Alberta.

After coming up one position short at the Canadian Open, Pernod shifted his focus to the Canada Final in Western Canada as his next chance to score a ticket, but little did he know that the fight at the top would be an even bigger challenge.

On Saturday, Pernod (PSL-SCR/BirelART) started the day off strong with the pole position in Qualifying which saw the top runners only put a few push laps on their only set of MOJO tires for the entire weekend. Gianluca Savaglio (REM/Kosmic) and Matthew Taskinen (CRG Racing/CRG) were only a tenth of a second off his pace, while Albertan Griffin Dowler (Apollo/OTK) and American Macy Williams (CB/JV Kart) were also close on the times.

The PreFinal was an all-out war with Pernod getting the win over Taskinen and the intensity picking up that these drivers were all very hungry for a ticket to Worlds.

A perfect start from Taskinen allowed him to beat Pernod to the apex of corner one gave him the early race lead on Saturday. Pernod kept close with him early in the race, but Taskinen’s pace never slipped and he would eventually pull away and score the race win on day one. Dowler, Bennett MacKay (SCR/BirelART) and David Williams (CRG Racing/CRG) completed the top five while Savaglio had a lap one spin end his chances of a quality result.

On used tires, Sunday’s Qualifying session differed greatly from Saturday’s. Drivers got faster lap after lap and the driver on top changed almost every time a kart crossed the timing line. As the last to cross, Pernod stole the pole position for the second day over Savaglio and Taskinen again.

The racing was a little different on Sunday too as the battle ended up being for second place.

Pernod jumped out to the early race lead while Savaglio fought very hard to maintain the second spot in the opening laps of the Final from Taskinen.

Letting the race leader pull away, Savaglio and Taskinen went toe-to-toe for all 15 laps for the runner-up spot, with Savaglio doing everything he could to keep the position.

Celebrating the big win and the award that came with it, Pernod threw his hands up in the air at the finish line and was all smiles at the scale line.

Savaglio would manage to hold on to finish the race second, which gave him enough points to finish P3 in the weekend championship while Taskinen had to settle for third at the finish line and P2 in the points. Macy Williams and Dowler rounded out the top five in the race, catching the race for second on the final lap but running out of time to join the action.