The Western Canadian Championship returned to Warburg Kart Track for the final day of competition. SuperSunday lined up every class for their championship final to crown this years Western Canadian Champions as well as award eight tickets to join Team Canada for the 2013 Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals, held later this year in New Orleans, USA.
The 1.2km track southwest of Edmonton has hosted some great racing this weekend and Sunday was no different. With sunny skies welcoming everyone to the track on Sunday morning, clouds did roll in during the lunch break, but the wet weather held off allowing everyone to stress just a little less when deciding on a setup.
The premier class of the weekend, Rotax Senior didn’t fail to impress every time they hit the track in Warburg. The prefinal saw the same kind of action the class displayed on their heat races. Early on, Bryce Choquer (BBR/TonyKart) was making a charge to the lead, but some hard racing saw him run wide exiting corner six, falling from second to seventh. Leading early on from the pole-position, Adam Dowler (Apollo/TonyKart) looked to have things under control, but contact from Zacharie Scalzo (Kevin Glover Karting/TonyKart) in corner five would see Scalzo climb up and over Dowler and them both off in the grass. All this action allowed Skylar Dunner (Kevin Glover Karting/LH Kart) to move into the lead and take the prefinal win with Tommy Lemaire-Ouellet (TonyKart) taking second. Choquer would move back to third while John Buzza (Kevin Glover Karting/LH Kart) and Travis MacDonald (TonyKart) completed the top-five. Scalzo recovered to seventh while Dowler would settle for eleventh.
With Rotax Senior as the final class of the day, everyone on site moved to the grandstands and fences ready for the best race of the day. As the green flag waved, everyone cleanly made it through the opening corners with Dowler making an very impressive move down the inside of one and outside of two to move from eleventh to seventh. Dunning led the early way, but Choquer made his move to lead on lap two, with Lemaire moving Dunning back to third as well.
Choquer began to build a small lead, while Dunning, Lemaire and Buzza duked it out for second. Dowler had moved into fifth and was doing his best to catch the front four with Scalzo on his tail. A couple laps later, Scalzo would make his way by Dowler and then Buzza to move into fourth and into the thick of the lead action.
Halfway would see Lemaire try a move to the inside in turn two on Choquer, but exiting on the outside would allow Dunning to move back into second. The same move would be make by Dunning two laps later, and Lemaire was back to second. The action continued with Lemaire and Dunning touching wheels and Lemaire moved on to second, while Scalzo was able to get by Dunning and it didn’t end there as with two laps to go, Scalzo made a last second dive to the inside of Lemaire for second in the tight corner one. The two would make heavy contact and both spin off track, allowing Choquer to gain a slight lead and Dunning back into second.
But the race wasn’t over, as a mistake by Choquer on the final lap allowed Dunning to catch right up to his bumper. Entering turn ten, the two would make contact with Choquer running wide and Dunning moving to the lead en route to the victory. A great race with a spectacular finish.
The victory puts Dunning on Team Canada for the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals, held this year in New Orleans, USA.
