Entering new territory for the first time, Maranello North America wasn’t quite sure what to expect when they rolled into the ICAR Circuit in Mirabel, Quebec for the second round of the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship. A new track, a mixture of weather conditions and smaller group of drivers all we part of the challenge for the team from Hamilton, Ontario, but as the weekend wrapped up and the trophies were delivered, Maranello North America closed out the weekend leaving a very impressive mark that included four pole-positions, two race wins and two track records, all in the categories powered by Rotax DD2 engines.
In the Rotax Max DD2 category Fred Woodley displayed a dominating pace and nearly swept the entire weekend in the category. A pair of pole-positions, pre-final victories and final race victories were only interrupted by a questionable 3-position penalty in the Saturday Final. A slow start in the Saturday Final forced Woodley to race his way back forward en route to the win, while on Sunday he took the lead from the drop of the green flag and simply drove away from the competition. To close out the weekend, Woodley set the bar for the new track record on Sunday. For his efforts, Woodley marginally closed up the championship gap and holds the second position heading to round three.
Woodley was the lone Maranello driver in DD2 after team driver Ethan Simioni was forced to withdraw from the event after suffering a rib injury in practice only days before the event.
Fred Woodley (Photo by: Cody Schindel/CKN)
The pair of Rotax DD2 Masters drivers also left their mark on their category as Elvis Stojko and Stuart Clark stood on the podium on both race days. Each had a pole-position for their efforts with Clark topping the podium with a victory on Sunday. Stojko is inching closing to his first ECKC win and his pace this weekend shows that it could come sooner rather than later. With his second victory of the season and setting the track record on Sunday, Clark regained the championship points lead as well at the halfway point of the season while Stojko sits fourth.
Finally, Justin Luik continued to show improvement with a top-ten result in Satuday’s main event in the Rotax Junior category aboard his Maranello chassis.
The teams efforts now shift back to their home province of Ontario. With the next two events of the season, the second round of the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship and the ASN Canadian National Karting Championships taking place at Mosport Kartways, Team Maranello will be spend a good portion of the next two months at the track near Bowmanville.
Trevor Wickens, Maranello North America Team Manager:
“It was a great weekend for the team. Weekends like that don’t come often so it’s nice to have all the hard work repaid.”
Interested in joining Maranello North America? Arrive and Drive opportunities and Prime Power Racing Engines are available. Contact Trevor Wickens by email today, trevorwickens@gmail.com.
Stuart Clark (597) and Elvis Stojko (589) – Photo by: Cody Schindel/CKN