Brian Stewart Racing Karting Championship
Round #1 -- Saturday Report
May 17, 2008
The venue may have
changed Saturday but the story remained the same as a pair of Ontario’s hottest
Rotax Max Challenge drivers scored commanding class wins for the second
straight weekend on the Regional scene. Frank Launi and Kevin Monteith
dominated in respective classes as the third season of the Brian Stewart Racing
Karting Championship presented by AtoZ Capital Corp. and MG Tires took its
green flag at Sutton. Large margins were the order of the day in all classes as
drivers and tuners wrestled with the conditions before sun shone on main
events.
Rotax Mini-Max hit double
digits for the second straight week in Ontario as the youngsters latch on to
the growing class. Weather reeked havoc on the field in qualifying though as
only seven of eleven karts posted times, Artem Korolev leading all with a
47.240 second lap that topped Michael Taibi and Cameron Morrison. Korolev then
repeated the chart-topping performance in the prefinal where Morrison moved
forward to second and Harrison White crossed third. Gio Pizzale-Rhead was the
only other kart circulating in the same area code, but he was much closer in
the main event. Morrison grabbed the point at the start with Korolev slotting
into second and Pizzale-Rhead third. Korolev then took the lead on two and
never looked back in stretching to a nine-second win. Behind, Morrison and
Pizzale-Rhead were set to settle the podium. Gio worked past on three, and
though Morrison would never lose touch, he’d never get by either. The pair
crossed just over a tenth apart and well clear of the rest of the field. Scott
Nagel was a comfortable fourth while Julius Makos was fifth.
Makos fared much better
in his other start, winning Junior Medium in convincing fashion to begin the
day. Many of the same names dotted the lineup and Nagel was on pole from Jamie
Quinn and Makos before a wet ‘n’ wild prefinal shuffled the deck. Makos crossed
first to take pole for the main with Nicholas Ledson taking second, Korolev
third, Taibi fourth and Nagel fifth. When the feature took the green flag a
trio jumped clear of the pack with Korolev leading Taibi and Makos. Once clear
of the rest, Makos wiggled his way to the head of the line and put the field to
bed. By lap ten of twenty the outcome wasn’t in question, and by the checker he
was ten seconds clear. Taibi was hunting Korolev for second approaching half,
but after taking the spot working lap seven he ran wide on the exit of one
beginning lap eight and looped it on the grass. The result was a fall to
eleventh, and Korolev had a free pass to the second step. Tristan Gill was then
third, but Nico Fattore was coming calling. Carving forward from last after the
opening lap, Fattore took nearly took a kart per lap to arrive on Gill’s bumper
by half distance. Running lap eleven he dove inside at the final hairpin but
contact delayed both - and collected Nagel who then launched up and over Gill.
Officials issued a black flag to Fattore one lap later and Gill resumed third
and took the final spot on the podium. Nagel was the quickest kart on the track
in the second half and worked his way back to fifth in crossing behind Nicholas
Ledson.
The slimmest field
Saturday was in Rotax Micro-Max where four karts were chasing Florida Winter
Tour Champion Grant Quinlan from qualifying. Matteus Makos was second, Clay Van
Eerd third, Ryan Mohan fourth and Devlin De Francesco fifth after taking to the
track minus a transponder. Makos then capitalized at the start of the prefinal
to seize the lead and duly held it for ten laps to win by three seconds from
Quinlan. Van Eerd kept third while De Francesco moved forward to fourth ahead
of Mohan. The final would see moves as well as after Makos had the early lead,
Quinlan got by and raced seven seconds clear heading to checkers. Makos was
second, holding off De Francesco who worked to third and crossed inside of a
second. Van Eerd was fourth, and Mohan fifth in the debut of Micro-Max in Ontario.
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