Friday Rotax Junior winner Ryan Martin (KGK/TonyKart) continued his fine form on Saturday, posting the fastest time in Qualifying, but only 0.083 seconds ahead of his KGK teammate Jeff Fulham (KGK/Kosmic).
The prefinal started with a bang as fourth place starter Clay Van Eerd (CVE/TonyKart) climbed up and onto fellow Ontario driver Austin Riley (Racing with Autism/Energy Kart) and the two wound up in the dirt. Lots of action through the quick prefinal shuffled the grid mid-pack, but up front Martin and Fulham pulled away to secure the front row for the Final.
Another crash in the first corner, this time at the start of the Final held up most of the second half of the grid as karts spun everywhere. The very narrow section of the track has plagued the Rotax
Juniors all week long thus far.
A great start by Fulham moved him into the lead with Martin, Garrett Gulenchyn (TonyKart), Nolan Vogel (BBR/Kosmic) and Zachary Sinclair (SKZ/Energy Kart) in tow.
But Martin’s speed was just too much for Fulham and he returned to the point by lap four, now with Vogel all alone in third, and Gulenchyn leading a large pack for fourth.
Coming up from the rear after being caught up in the opening lap melee, Riley and Van Eerd caught that pack for fourth and began picking off drivers one by one. Eight laps later, Van Eerd had worked up to fourth, Kellen Ritter (BBR/Kosmic) was now fifth and Riley sixth.
But nobody could match Martin out front as he scored his second win of the weekend. Fulham ran strong to finish second with Vogel completing the podium. Van Eerd and Ritter rounded out the top-five.
Much like the Rotax Seniors, tire strategy will come into play on Sunday. Some drivers have no new tires left, some have two and we believe one driver still has a full set. Regardless, it will be another great day of racing.
