Asher Pavan is Coming for the Crown

Asher Pavan is one driver on our watch list for 2025 that’s primed for a big Canadian season. A force to be reckoned with, Asher’s karting rise has been truly unprecedented since recovering from a traumatic crash in 2023. Asher’s talents were on display throughout last season as he firmly established himself as a frontrunner in Canada’s Mini and Cadet fields. With 2024 culminating in him becoming the Briggs Cadet National Champion and Mini ROK Vice Champion.

Looking to capitalize on his momentum from last season, Asher made his way down to the U.S this winter to elevate his performance and truly establish himself in a class of his own for the Canadian karting season.

“I feel confident this season. We’re already getting on track at my home track, Goodwood, ready to work hard and hopefully add more titles by the end of the season.” 

For Asher, his winter would consist of two different championships, competing in Mini ROK at the ROK Cup Florida Winter Tour throughout the early months and then taking on Mini Swift at SKUSA Pro Tour at the beginning of April.

Although this wasn’t Asher’s first time racing in FWT, this year was different. Now with some major Canadian championships and podiums under his belt, Asher was looking to take his race craft to the next level and hopefully stand on the international podium for the first time.

“I loved racing in Florida; I think the racing is much more aggressive and the level of competition is much bigger. Any hesitation when you pass results in getting passed!”

Asher’s first rounds of Florida went well as he managed to pick up where he left off in 2024. Arriving at round one in Orlando, Asher immediately found himself in the top ten while consistently flirting with top-five results. This set the tone for the weekend as Asher found exactly what he was looking for, getting plenty of race craft experience throughout the heats and prefinal in a tight mini field. But it was a comeback drive from eleventh to fourth in a dicey wet final on that stole the show on Sunday, giving us a peek of what was to come from Asher for the rest of the winter.

Round two, also in Orlando, was a similar story for Asher, with him doubling down on consistent appearances in the top five and coming away with another fourth place, only narrowly missing out on his elusive international podium.

Round three in Texas threw Asher a curveball, taking on the unfamiliar Speedsportz Racing Park. Even with the challenges of learning a new track, Asher kept things competitive, keeping himself among the top drivers and putting in quick times in many of his sessions. Although once again missing out on a podium finish, Asher had felt he had made many gains in his driving, specifically improving his braking technique, which is a fundamental building block to a driver’s development.    

Asher racing in Texas (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)

“There’s so much to learn racing on these tracks, my favourite new track was in Texas at Speedsportz. It’s a technical track that rewards smooth driving. I think the most improvement was in my race craft and my braking!”

Luckily, Asher’s winter season wasn’t over yet, for his final race before the Canadian Season, he took on the SKUSA Pro Tour Winter Nationals, also taking place at Speedsportz. It was obvious that his warm-up week from FWT made a huge difference, allowing Asher to quickly get on pace in a brutally competitive Mini Swift field.  

After an up-and-down week where Asher showed many flashes, he went into Sunday starting in a confident seventh place for the main event. Immediately on the green flag, Asher jumped to a short-lived third place before slipping back down to sixth. After successfully fighting off the attacking Zane Burgess from behind, Asher finally went to work putting in fast laps and pulling in the leading group.

Once caught up to the leaders, he put on a clinic, efficiently navigating past the next few karts up to second place. Asher didn’t stop there, he then put in purple laps to catch up to the leader and teammate, Enzo Digennaro. Keeping the pressure on Digennaro in the final lap, Asher narrowly missed out on the win but finally got his first international podium he’d been working towards all winter.

“It was a really close finish, and I wanted the win badly, but I was still very happy for my teammate for my own first international podium finish. It was nice that my team, Parolin Motorsports, had two finishers on the podium that day!”

Many factors went into Asher’s successful winter campaign. Asher’s team of supporters is countless, but there are a few that he highlighted and credited with this standout performance. When speaking to Asher he emphasised his long-time tuner and coach Brian Bettencourt as a catalyst to his ongoing success, along with Marco Maestranzi and the rest of the Parolin team in the U.S. Finally, his most avid supporter, Father Mark Pavan who has been with Asher every step along the way of his racing journey.  

“My Dad never misses a practice or a race and loves karting as much as I do. It’s pretty fun to be one of only a few father-son racers on track!”  

His dad was also crowned the Florida Winter Tour VLR Masters Champion.

For Asher, this was a big step forward in his racing journey and driver development, but it’s not his final step.

Now into spring, Asher plans to build on this momentum into many different Canadian events, including ROK Fest, Kartstars and the Canadian National Championships at Mosport Karting Centre. With his successful result in round one of SKUSA Pro Tour, he’s planning on continuing with the championship into the summer.

Overall, Asher is primed for a big season in Canada and the U.S, and we are excited to see if Asher can double down on his winning ways throughout the rest of the 2025 season.