Treadwell Secures the Senior Lite Title as an American Stuns the Competition
With the field down to 32 competitors, Senior Lite was back to running as just one group this weekend with a number of local competitors joining the action for the weekend.
American Christopher Mckeithan (Coyote Kart) kickstarted the weekend by stealing the pole position in Qualifying but all the talk from the weekend came from the events in the Saturday Final.
It was an all-out brawl on track, especially in the opening laps. While the first circuit was relatively clean, with the exception of front-row starter Chad Webster (Kubica Kart) spinning on the exit of corner four, laps two to six saw the early end for a number of competitors, mainly in the top half of the racing order including Mckeithan, Nicky Palladino (Ricciardo Kart), Ivana Tchiplakova (Ricciardo Kart) and Marcello Paniccia (Kubica Kart).
This shake-up saw Jon Treadwell (Kubica Kart) move into the lead with Vasil Tchiplakov (Ricciardo Kart), Marco Di Leo (Intrepid), Anthony Boscia (BirelART) and Matte Ferrari (Intrepid) in tow.
Treadwell extended his lead as Tchiplakov battled Di Leo for second place, a battle he would eventually lose with two laps to go. Taking the win and a huge bonus for his championship was Treadwell with Di Leo easily in second and Ferarri taking advantage on the final laps to move into third. Tchiplokov had to settle for fourth while Maddox Heacock (Ricciardo Kart) completed the top five.
Sunday’s events were much calmer on track as Mckeithan once again stormed to the pole position in Qualifying and won the heat race.
Treadwell, Palladino and Webster really put the pressure on Mckeithan in the opening laps but once the American got to the lead, he checked out on the field, especially as Treadwell and Palladino fought for the second position.
Eventually, Mckeithan would pull out to a four-second margin of victory while Palladino waited until the final lap to challenge Webster for second place. He would muscle his way to take the position away but the race director issued Palladino a one-position penalty for avoidable contact and that moved Webster back to second place and Palladino back to third in the results. Boscia and Tchiplakov rounded out the top five while Treadwell slipped back to sixth in the race, just not having the pace in the second half.
Sixth place would be more than enough though for Treadwell to secure the championship as tough weekends for Palladino and Gianluca Savaglio (CL Kart) opened the door for Treadwell to swoop in and take home the title. An impressive note when looking at the final standings, there were 71 different drivers to race in Senior Lite this season at Cup Karts.
