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BARRIE, ONTARIO -
For the first time in the short history of the Sunoco Ron Fellows Karting
Championship presented by Toronto Star Wheels, the stars of the series
tackled a tough street circuit. The venue was the hugely popular Pepsi
Barrie Grand Prix presented by Pfaff Porsche on June 20-22. The massive
crowd was entertained over the entire three days with some great racing.
Leading the headline class, Formula Senior, was SH Karting's Jonathan
Fecteau, who dominated both rounds in his Tony Kart Vortex package. It was
the first time the highly rated Quebec driver had participated in the series
and he made an immediate statement. Behind him in both rounds were Kart
Depot's Tyler Givougue and Hurricane Racing's Trevor Daley. Pfaff Porsche
Birel driver Mike Roth, took the Pfaff Motorsports pole, but a spun gear in
round five while leading, causing him to retire from the race. Roth
impressed all with a stunning drive from 25th on the grid to a fifth place
finish in round six.
The Formula Juniors put on the most entertaining couple of races during the
entire event. PTK's Robert Wickens was looking to keep his current win
streak alive, despite loosing the pole to Birel's Daniel Morad. Wickens won
round five, but the epic battle of round six will be remembered for some
time as Morad nipped Wickens at the line by 0.031 of a second to end the
PTK's driver's win streak at five. Behind Wickens in round five was Morad
and Quebec's Jesse Labbe. Third in round six was Dan Twizzell.
Rounding out the two stroke classes was RotaxMax and perennial front runner
in Formula Senior, CMP's Frank Launi opted to field a Rotax powered CMP
chassis for Barrie. Launi took the pole and easily won round five, but a
small mistake took him out of the hunt in round six. Behind Launi in round
five were Mathew France and Jason Robar. In an action packed round six,
Robar climbed the top step of the podium followed by SRA Karting's Dennis
Yasar and Ottawa's Jamie Holtom.
World Formula Senior had Rick McMullen on the pole, but his day went
downhill in the first lap of round five, when he was involved in an
accident. CMP's Jason Bradimore won a race long battle with Rob Oakman, who
also took home the GM Racing award for sportsmanship. Chris Martin was third
in round five. Round six was action packed and when the dust settled it was
Jason Abrams bringing home the gold for Biesse Canada - the first win for
the new team. Behind Abrams came Paul Carvalho and Chris Martin.
The Canada Senior pole went to Marco Di Leo and he managed to convert that
pole into a round five win. Rob Oakman and Justin Mascoll followed him
across the line. Round six had David Patrick at the top of the charts, with
Mascoll second and Oakman third.
The Canada Juniors treated the fans to some heated action. Michael Mora took
the pole, but he wasn't able to transfer that into a win in round five.
Daniel Morad and Richard Boake were one-two on the track, before penalties
sent them down the order. This gave the round five win to CMP's Michael
Glaze, with Chris Biggar second and Morad third. In round six, Wickens
rebounded to take an extremely close win over Morad - who was on the podium
in every race he ran at Barrie - and Pearce Herder.
The Pratt & Miller 'appearance' award went to Holgate Motorsports.
The objective of the SRFKC is to help foster a professional environment for
kart drivers; help create a positive attitude towards appearance, conduct
and discipline; help foster the employment of the best practices for the
safe and fair running of competitions; and help kart drivers to move up the
racing ladder to automobile racing. At the end of the season, eight drivers
will be selected from the series, plus two drivers from the ASN Canadian
National Championships. They will be invited to a one-day evaluation test at
the Bridgestone Racing Academy at Mosport, provided they are 16 years of age
prior to the date of the test. Out of those 10 drivers, two will earn a full
scholarship to the 2004 the 2003 Bridgestone / FormulaCar Magazine F2000
Racing Series.
PHOTOS - MORAD 70 - WICKENS 66 - Daniel Morad and Robert Wickens both had
multiple podiums on the weekend Morad four podiums positions (one win, two
seconds and one third), while Wickens took three podiums (two wins and a
second)
FORMULA SENIOR START - Pfaff Porsche Birel driver Mike Roth (#90) had the
pole for Formula Senior, but it was SH Karting's Jonathan Fecteau who scored
the double win at Barrie.
PHOTOS BY ED GATNER/INSIDE KARTING
For more information, please contact:
Russ Bond, 905-852-2900 [email protected]
Brad Brown, [email protected] (416)-233-8727
Release prepared by Russ Bond Agency (www.russbondagency.com)
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