#KartStarsCanada
Treadwell and Joshi Double Up at KartStars Opener
Much nicer weather welcomed racers back to Goodwood Kartways on Sunday morning for the second half of the opening weekend of KartStars Canada competition. Following Saturday’s cold and wet day, sunshine and warmth were the perfect conditions for racers to duke it out for victory in the eight remaining Finals that were on tap.
Here’s our Sunday Briggs Report.
KartStars Senior – Treadwell goes two-for-two on the Kubica chassis
For the second day in a row, Jon Treadwell (Kubica Kart) dominated. On Sunday it was in KartStars Senior, a hybrid of Senior and Masters drivers that featured 22 racers, where Treadwell led every lap of the Final and secured his second victory of the weekend.
The starting grid for the Final was shuffled after some excitement in the Prefinal forced a few frontrunners to start from the rear including Brennan Taylor (BirelART). Treadwell led from the pole position and fast qualifier Michael Ing (Awesome Kart) pushed him past Anthony Boscia (BirelART) on the opening lap.
Ing ran on the rear bumper of Treadwell for the three laps until Gavin Goldie (Intrepid) made a move for the position. Ing came firing back three laps later to regain second with Boscia following him through into second.
This set Boscia up for a pass for the second spot with two laps to go and a shot at Treadwell on the final circuit. Treadwell dropped to the inside line and defended the first sector perfectly. Boscia tried looking in corners six and seven but no luck and Treadwell kept him where he wanted all the way to the finish line.
Boscia wound up second at the line with Ing in third and Goldie just off the podium in fourth. Anthony Quezada (Kubica Kart) was a little further up in the road in fifth, ending a great day after showing up just for Sunday’s race.
Briggs Junior – Joshi works his magic again to double up
A second driver was able to complete a weekend sweep as Elijah Joshi (Intrepid) waited for his moment to get the lead for the second day in a row and capitalized when it mattered most to get the victory.
Stefano Picerno (Exprit) led from the drop of the green flag with Joshi slotting in behind him. Joey Lecce (BirelART) traded the spot with Joshi in the first three laps but by halfway, Joshi and Picerno were able to break the draft and make it a two-kart race.
On lap nine Joshi made his move and swiftly moved past Picerno for the top spot and for the final two and a half laps Picerno just didn’t have enough to battle back for the lead. Joshi ended up with a small gap so he didn’t need to defend on the final lap while Picerno was caught by Connor Rhodes (TonyKart), who worked by Lecce late in the race but ran out of time to make an attempt at Picerno.
After tangling on the final lap of the PreFinal and having to start the main from the rear of the grid, Jordan Di Leo (Intrepid) and Declan Black (Intrepid) were able to recover to fifth and sixth in the results, needing more laps to get back into podium contention.
Briggs Cadet – Like father, like son, Pavan takes the victory
After seeing his father drive to victory earlier in the day in VLR Masters, Asher Pavan followed it up with a win of his own in Briggs Cadet, albeit maybe not how he wanted it.
Pavan (Parolin Kart) led the field to green from the pole position but immediately came under pressure from Leo Da Silva (LN Kart) who snuck up the inside of corner four to grab the lead.
Slipping back to third as Theodore Tsatsanis (Exprit) also worked his way by on the opening lap, Pavan didn’t give up and regained the lead on lap four.
At the halfway mark, Ethan Tyers (Intrepid) worked by Da Silva to grab the second spot and then started to pressure Pavan for the lead.
Unfortunately on lap eight, the red flag brought the race to a halt. A scary accident involving Domenico Crupi (LN Kart) ended the Final race a few laps early but we are happy to report that Crupi is in good spirits after a quick trip to the hospital. He has an ankle injury that will sideline him for a number of weeks but is already looking forward to getting back in a kart when he is healed up.
On the same lap the accident happened, Tyers had passed Pavan for the race lead but with the red flag, the official results are scored to the last completed lap and this awarded Pavan the win over Tyers and Da Silva.
A courteous gesture on the podium saw Pavan invite Tyers onto the top step to share the honour as a great gesture of sportsmanship.
In the race within the race for the younger Mini Briggs racers, Tsatsanis finished fourth overall and took the top Mini Briggs honours over Melville Dos Santos (TonyKart) and George Ho (TonyKart).
Briggs Junior Lite – Zhao fends off Tyers in the late stages
The race for the win in Briggs Junior Lite was between the trio of Prefinal winner Ethan Chan (Intrepid), Quinn Tyers (Intrepid) and the fastest qualifier David Zhao (Intrepid).
Tyers was quick to move into the early race lead as he received a push from Zhao on the front straight to move Chan back to third.
After pulling away from Chan, Zhao was patient until the halfway mark when he overtook Tyers for his turn in the lead.
Tyers waited until the final lap to look for a way past but Zhao defended the track well. Leaving no room to sneak up the inside of any corner, Zhao rounded the corner with his arm in the air to celebrate his first KartStars Junior Lite victory. Tyers had to settle for second place while Chan fended off Noah Landry (Intrepid) on the final lap to barely hold on to the final podium spot with fifth place going to Oliver Rayoff-Pearce (Intrepid).
The KartStars Canada series will be back on track during the Canada Day long weekend when the series takes a trip down the 401 to Point Pelee Karting in Leamington, Ontario on July 1-2.
