Weekend Roundup: Canadians at the Winter Cup and Florida Winter Tour

While the snow and cold continue to make it impossible to race in Canada, many Canadian drivers have travelled to continue to stay active. This past weekend, there were races in the USA and Italy, that saw Canadian participation. Here is a roundup of the results.

Winter Cup – South Garda Karting, Lonato, Italy

The European karting season is officially underway, and this past weekends Winter Cup, the unofficial kick off to the season for my major teams and factories, might prove that it’s a bit early to be karting. Snowfall during the week leading up to the race played an effect on event practice and turnout, but once the racing began, the white snow had cleared away.

Three Canadian’s were in attendance, two of them coming off podium results at the WSK Master Series event two weeks prior. In the KFJ category, for drivers aged 12-15, Parker Thompson was back aboard his familiar Energy Corse chassis, hoping to continue his great start to the season. After opting out of a day of practice due to the snow, Parker only managed a 24th place qualifying effort in the 87 driver field. With 5 heat races on tap, Thompson is still coming to grips with the European driving conditions, scoring results of 7-8-12-6-17, for a total of 50 points, good enough for 17th in the rankings and avoiding the Repechage (Last Chance Race). While racing inside the top-ten in the Pre Final, Thompson would be involved in a crash that would sideline him for the race, leaving him a with 25th place result and a deep starting position for the Final, in which he drove all the way to an 8th place result.

In the KF category, drivers aged 15+, Lance Stroll and his Scuderia Karting Zanardi Kart also looked to build off the momentum gained from a podium result at La Conca, while Zachary Claman DeMelo continues to settle into his position under the CRG factory team tent. De Melo posted a brilliant eighth place qualifying effort, while Stroll found himself down in 41st in a field that saw 71 drivers qualify within a second of the pole-position! DeMelo’s heat race results were all over the map as he posted a 18-2-11-4-0 in his five heat races, finishing off with an impressive heat win. For Stroll, he would utilize his consistency an improve in every heat race with results of 8-7-5-5-10. When the points were tallied the two Canadians would be ranked 13th (DeMelo) and 15th (Stroll). Sunday would not favour either driver very well, as De Melo finished 25th in the Pre Final, and 24th in the Final, while Stroll recorded results of 29th in the Pre Final and 22nd in the Final.

Florida Winter Tour – Homestead-Miami Speedway, Florida, USA

The second round of the 2013 Florida Winter Tour officially kicked off it’s two-weekend format at the Homestead-Miami Speedway for the Formula Kart classes. With most drivers using the weekend as a tune up for next weekends Rotax races, small fields came into effect. A handful of Canadian’s were in sunny Florida for the event, including three youngsters in TaG Cadet. On Saturday, the trio qualified together in eleventh for Roman DeAngelis, thirteenth for Matthew Latifi and fifteenth and Antonio Serravalle. All three were able to push forward in their two heat races, ranking sixth for Serravalle, seventh Latifi and tenth for DeAngelis. However some bad luck in the Final would see DeAngelis and Serravalle not finish, while Latifi held on to score a respectable eleventh in his first outing in the TaG Cadet class.

On Sunday, the youngsters were back in action this time led by Latifi in qualifying as he posted the ninth fastest time followed by DeAngelis in fourteenth and Serravalle in eighteenth. But with good luck comes the bad, and for Latifi a DNF in heat two would see him fall down the order to rank twenty-first, while DeAngelis advanced into the top-ten in ninth and Serravalle moved to fifteenth. It would be much of the same in the Final, as DeAngelis battled inside the top-ten, eventually crossing in tenth, while, Serravalle and Latifi would earn DNF’s with Serravalle coming up only two laps short.

Matthew Latifi

In TaG Junior, Gianfranco Mazzaferro and Devlin Defrancesco would represent the Canadian flag in Florida, with Mazzaferro posting an impressive seventh place qualifying result, while Defrancesco was thirteenth. Following the inverted heat races, both drivers were into the top seven, with Mazzaferro fifth and Defrancesco seventh. While trouble would keep Mazzaferro from completing a lap in the Final, Defrancesco ran a great race to finish sixth on Saturday.

Putting in another great qualifying lap, Mazzaferro qualified P6 on Sunday, with Defrancesco once again in thirteenth. The heat racing wasn’t too kind to either driver as Mazzaferro would battle just inside the top-ten in both heats, ranking ninth when combined, while Devlin’s trouble continues with him ranking eighteenth. In the Final both drivers would be involved in race incidents, with Mazzaferro eventually crossing in fifteenth and Defrancesco two spots behind him.

Gianfranco Mazzaferro

Finally, one Canadian competed in the TaG Senior division as Aleki Liverant prepares for next weekends Rotax race. Qualifying fifteenth, advancing to tenth after the heats, Aleki would hold his position through the lengthly Final to finish a respectable tenth on Saturday. On Sunday, it was much of the same for Liverant who would qualifying thirteenth before finishing in tenth for the second straight day.