Weekend Recap: Canadians in Europe, WKA Man Cup and COTA Championship Finale

As karts have slowly began to put laps in at kart tracks across Canada, weather permitting of course, some Canadian drivers competed this past weekend at international karting events around the world.

From Sonoma, California to La Conca, Italy Canadian drivers were making their international presence known.

WSK Super Master Series and Rotax Euro Challenge

In Italy, Antonio Serravalle competed in the WSK Super Master Series at the famous La Conca circuit in the OK-Junior category. After qualifying 13th out of 56 competitors aboard his factory CRG kart, Serravalle struggled in the heat races, narrowly making it into the Final, ultimately finishing 30th overall. A shout out goes American Logan Sargeant, who swept the weekend in the OK category to earn his second victory of the season.

Only a few hours away in Genk, Belgium, Matthew Latifi was taking on the best European Rotax racers at the opening round of the Rotax Euro Challenge. He qualified 21st out of 54 karts but he too found some trouble in the heat races, ranking 40th and needing the Last Change Race to make the main event. Unfortunately, Latifi wasn’t able to transfer to big show, crashing in the LCQ.

Antonio Serravalle (Photo by: Wafe Project)

Challenge of the Americas

There were plenty of Canadian drivers taking part in the third and final round of the Challenge of the America’s in Sonoma, California. Three of them were able to stand on the podium with great performances in the championship finale, including two drivers who managed to finish on the championship podium in their respective classes.

Rotax Senior saw Canadian drivers Kellen Ritter and Coltin McCaughan share the second step of the podium with Ritter finishing second to Christian Brooks on Saturday and McCaughan behind Brooks on Sunday. As a stellar start to his competition in the Senior ranks, Ritter’s fabulous winter season saw him finish as vice-champion and the highest placed senior rookie.

In Rotax Junior, Matthew Taskinen earned his fifth straight podium appearance on Saturday with a third place finish but his streak came to end on Sunday, finishing just one spot off of a perfect championship. His hard work earned him the third step of the championship podium as well.

**Update: Awaiting the final results posting, we missed out on Canadian Marco Kacic finishing as vice-champion in the Rotax Mini-Max category. 

Kellen Ritter (left) stands on the second step of the Championship podium (Photo by: Sean Buur)

WKA Manufacturers Cup

Two Canadian Briggs & Stratton racers were a little too anxious to get on track at home, instead travelling down to the Mooresville, North Carolina for the WKA Manufacturers Cup.

Joining the Margay Karting race team, Charlotte Lalonde and James Dunn took on the Briggs & Stratton LO206 category.

Saturday saw the pair stand on both sides of the podium with Lalonde second and Dunn third. Stepping it up on Sunday, Lalonde took control and earned the victory with Dunn third for the second straight day.

Charlotte Lalonde and James Dunn (Photo by: Margay Racing)