2009 ASN CANADIAN NATIONAL KARTING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The historical track of Goodwood Kartways hosted the 2009 ASN Canada FIA National Karting Championships over a five day period from Aug 5th to the 9th. The prize? A trip to the international Rotax challenge in Egypt for the World Championships. Only six seats were left, two in the Rotax Junior, two in Rotax Senior and two in Rotax DD2. 

There were also four other classes on hand for the Canadian championships; Rotax Micromax for the 7-10 years old, Minimax for the 10-13 years old, Canada Juniors and Seniors (4 strokes). With Wednesday and Thursday for practice and Friday for the qualification and the first heat, Saturday for 2nd and 3rd heat and finally Sunday for the prefinals and finals, my weekend was full... [read more]

Temperature was perfect for racing. Sun from Wednesday to Saturday and mild temperatures. Sunday saw some fog, rain and thunderstorm until it finally cleared up for the finals. Friday start taking his tolls on some drivers as they start taking risks on a very technical track. A few of them spun out, some harder than the others. The championship for some drivers stopped there and others drove while being hurt. Cameron Morrisson (above) was one of those who spun out hard. But he still pull it together and ran in both Rotax Junior and Canada Junior. 

Ok now with the races, class by class...

Canada Junior (4 strokes) 
From the start of the race Ryan Klutt showed that he didn’t came for nothing. Qualified 1st and winning heat 2 and 3, he went to the prefinals starting first. The track was still wet and Reid Arnold started fast from the outside staying in Ryan’s shadow for a few laps to finally overtake him and finishing first. Ryan Klutt came 2nd followed by Bryson Schutte.

So the finals started under the sun. Reid Arnold started 1st. He was also the defending champion in Canada Junior as he won the 2008 edition. Then disaster struck, after the second lap, Reid spun out and hit the tires hard. He was unable to restart his engine ending all hopes to retake his title. So Ryan Klutt took the lead and never looked back taking the 2009 Canada Junior title. 
 
Final 5:
1. Ryan Klutt  
2. Bryson Schutte  
3. Josh Dunand  
4. Sean McPhee  
5. Alex VanSnick 

Canada Senior (4 strokes) 
In this class, a lot of experienced drivers. Many of them had regional titles under their belts over the years and all of them wanted to add the national tittle.

The event was very close and seriously disputed, some tempers flared up as a few of the drivers came close to fight it off.
Qualifying saw Darryl Timmers do a super time of 42.686 as he drove the almost perfect line for that lap. He went on to win the first and second heat and finish 3rd in the last one. Rain played a big role during the prefinals as he started in first place but the other drivers played the draft to get back on him. He finally finished 4th.

Kevin Monteith was our new leader. Again the drivers played the draft during the finals, changing leaders on every lap. 3 laps before the end, on a bold move from the outside, Gary Klutt (Ryan Klutt older brother) took the lead and kept it until the end with Kevin Monteith hot on his tail. Gary Klutt becomes the 2009 national champion. 

Final 5:
1.Gary Klutt  
2. Kevin Monteith  
3. Darryl Timmers  
4. Gerald Caseley  
5. Evan Hayden 

Rotax Senior: 
This was kind of odd seeing the seniors that early in the finals. Usually you keep the best class for the end. But this wasn’t the “best” class for this year.

A driver to follow was Pierre Luc Ouellette, 2007 world champion in Rotax DD2  and 2nd in 2008 in the same world championships in Italy. The qualifying were hotly disputed. Every single drivers pushing their karts to the limits. Finally it was Jean Francois Lafontaine on Arrow taking first place, followed by Pier Luc Ouellette and his little brother Hugo Ouellette, both on CRG. Pierre Luc and Hugo went on to dominate all 3 heats. During the prefinals Pierre Luc stayed in front while Hugo took 2nd place in a very uneventfull race.

The finals were looking to be the same but after a rough start, many drivers lost their karts in turn 2 and 3. While they were trying to clear the karts up, Pierre Luc was driving fast in front and also lost it in turn 3 hitting one of the karts hard. His race was over. This left Hugo Ouellette in front. He never looked back to win his first national title and a trip to Egypt to represent Canada. Marco DiLeo on Intrepid took the second place to get the other ticket. 
 
Final 5:
1. Hugo Ouellette  
2. Marco DiLeo  
3. Massimo Scotti  
4. Michael Vincec  
5. Jonathan Tetreault 

Rotax Micromax: 
After the seniors comes the little drivers. Always fun to see, always as exciting as if it was the seniors. Those little drivers are the future of this sport. All the greats started at this level. Ayrton Senna to Lewis Hamilton. Last year saw one of the future stars of the United States racing at the Canadian Nationals and it was a pleasure to see Santino Ferrucci show his driving skills. USA…remember this name. The kid will go far.

OK back to racing. This year the U.S was also on hand with FA team showing up in force. Devlin Defrancesco being the driving force at this level for Team FA. Gabriel Amaral didn’t took it for granted as he took the qualifier. Starting from 1st place in all the heats gave Gabriel a huge boost. Devlin and Allan Moreau showed him that starting from first place didn’t garanteed him the win as they disputed first place in all the heats. The prefinals saw Devlin retake his due. The finals saw the same. Devlin dominating while his closest opponents were taken out by other drivers or spin out like Gabriel who did a front flip out of his kart after a hard hit. Thankfully he wasn’t hurt and kept his smile.  

Final 5:
1. Devlin Defrancesco  
2. Tyler Ripani  
3. Austin Riley  
4. Jakob Sevigny  
5. Gerrit Tiemersma 

Rotax Junior:
 Ontario was hoping to end a long drought as they got a hard time to send one of their own at the world championships. Not a lot of people believed in it except you humble contributor. I predicted the end of the drought and put two names on the table. Garret Grist and Austin Milwain. Then I remembered the Quebec juniors drivers…oupss.

One big name was missing. Jesse Lazare could not compete in the junior class as he was too young. So the 2008 Minimax Champion had to sadly sit that one out and could not compete in the minimax class for some technical reasons.
As usual, the juniors were very exciting. No driver really dominated the qualifying or the heats. Many had their time to shine. Steven Szigeti on TonyKart took the qualifier and the first heat leaving the second to Andrew Waring. He was back first on the 3rd heat.

So Quebec looked good to dominate the juniors once again. During the prefinals, Andrew Wearing, on Intrepid, came back in first place. The finals looked exciting. At the start, mayhem happened as many  karts bumped each other in turn 3 ending the race of Jeffrey May and Artem Korolev. During that incident Garret Grist came out of nowhere to take first place. Steven fought him to the end but Garrett Grist hanged on and got his ticket for Egypt while your humble contributor had a small grin on his face! 

Final 5:
1. Garett Grist  
2. Steven Szigeti  
3. Tommy Beshro  
4. Spencer Todd  
5. Ethan Livingston 

Rotax DD2:
The fastest were next. Pierre Luc Ouellette had another chance for a ticket back to the world championships. But it was going to be a hard fight as Frank Launi and Daniel Morad (yes the same Daniel Morad that raced for team Lebanon in A1GP) were also gunning for a chance to represent Canada. And that was pretty much it. Those 3 names were going to be in the top 5 in the qualifying, the heats and the prefinal.

Then it was the finals. The start was perfect, no bumps, no accidents. Then  motors started to fail. Drivers were left on the track wondering what went wrong. Disaster struck Pierre Luc once again as his kart was one of those who failed, destroying his hope to represent Canada again. Frank Launi cruised to victory followed by Daniel Morad and Sal Ditta. 
 
Final 5:
1. Frank Launi  
2. Daniel Morad  
3. Sal Ditta  
4. Darren White  
5. Zach Meyers 

Rotax Minimax: 
Seeing the minimax closing the event was odd as usually the seniors ends it. But  looking at the names was enough to understand why it was the top class of 2009. The best driver in his age group in North America was there…so was the second…and the third!! Jack West, Dore Chaponick both from the USA and Lance Stroll from Canada.

But one driver was more ready than the others. He had been prepared by his team and again…by your humble contributor.
Samuel Fontaine (CRG PSL Quebec team) was this driver. To put it simply, he dominated the minimax division only to finish 3rd in the last heat, to preserve his tires for the finals. He went on to win the 2009 nationals 4.3 seconds in front of Lance Stroll who still managed to get the best lap of the race. 

Final 5: 
1. Samuel Fontaine
2. Lance Stroll
3. Jack West
4. Dore Chaponick
5. Zachary Claman DeMelo

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In closing; with the last six seats to represent Canada taken for the World Championships, Canada as never been more well represented in all the classes. Canada won the Nation Cup in 2007 and they are well placed to win it again in 2009 
Next Canadian Championships will be held at the SRA international track (St Roch de L’Achigan, Quebec) in 2010 
My next event, ICAR karting track (Mirabel Quebec) on August 22nd and 23rd. Jacques Villeneuve (former F1 champ) will be racing in the Senior and DD2 class. 
 
Photo/Editorial: Gregory Lussier