#CoupedeMontreal
Bouthillier and Belanger Highlight Stellar Opening Weekend
SH Karting hosted more than 225 racers for the first round of the Coupe de Montreal.
The first competition of the year is in the books as the Coupe de Montreal opened the season at SH Karting this past weekend.
Starting off very cold and wet, racers were challenged with rain tires for Friday’s practice and most of Saturday morning as well. It wasn’t until the lunch break and drivers meeting that the track fully dried, and remarkably, the sun started shining as the Qualifying sessions rolled out on track. Sunday was the best of the weekend weather-wise, with sunshine throughout the day and warmer temperatures finally arriving in the afternoon, providing perfect racing conditions for the Finals.
More than 225 entries filled up the grids in all eleven categories taking to the track. Briggs Senior once again eclipsed the maximum number of karts allowed on track, and therefore needed to be split into two PreFinals and a Last Chance Race to determine the starting grid. Rotax Senior was packed full of talent as racers from Quebec and Ontario prepare for the RMC Grand Finals ticket chases this season. Rotax Junior and Mini showed great growth from a year ago, while the Masters divisions, both Briggs and Rotax, once again provided some of the best wheel-to-wheel racing of the weekend.
The ASRQ supported the event with a full staff of marshals, some flagging and event for the first time, and some arriving with a nice tan after flagging at the Miami Formula 1 race the weekend prior. These ladies and gentlemen always deserve a shoutout for their support of our sport.
Check out our Coupe de Montreal Photo Gallery!
Highlighting the racing action, William Bouthillier (REM/Kosmic) controlled Rotax Senior all weekend long. Making his debut with Racing Edge Motorsports, he had a handful of teammates nipping at his heels, including Ryan Maxwell and Antoine Lemieux, but Bouthillier never faltered and led every lap of the Final to notch his first victory with his new squad. Maxwell remained close but settled for second, while Ayden Ingratta (Premier-Pfaff/OTK) was third to the finish line, but had a pushback bumper activation knock him off the podium, elevating Lemieux to P3.
Following a red flag on the opening lap, a number of drivers needed to restart from the rear of the 33-kart grid and had great recovery drives, including Olivier Mrak, who wasn’t even sure he would be able to restart, before driving through the field to finish P9. Leopold Schrevel was another who charged forward, finishing P14 in his first Rotax Senior start.
Saving the biggest class for the final race of the day, Briggs Senior roared around the SH Karting circuit nearly 24 hours after their PreFinal. The race was led early by Elliot Coulombe (BirelART) until Simon Belanger (SodiKart) came knocking on his rear bumper. From sixth on the grid, Belanger was in the lead by lap five and impressively was able to break the draft by himself. Pulling away from Bronson Hetherington (OTK) and Mickael Aubin Poirier (BirelART) by 3.2 seconds, Belanger notched another big victory in Briggs Senior. Aubin Poirier joined him on the podium in P2 while Leo Thomasson (SodiKart) stood on the third step first the first time.
Simon Belanger celebrating his victory in Briggs Senior (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)
Rotax Junior featured some carnage on the opening lap shuffle the running order as Alexis Baillargeon (HM Propela/KR) jumped out to an early lead. Caught up in the action was Cole Medeiros (REM/Kosmic), who slipped to P7 when he completed the lap. Putting his head down, Medeiros picked off every driver in front of him to regain P2 with only a handful of laps left. Cutting down the big margin that Baillargeon had built up, Medeiros put in his best laps of the race to catch the leader and pass him with two laps to go. Unable to contend with the late race pace, Baillargeon had the victory snatched from his hands as Medeiros scored another victory this season.
Jeremy St-Cyr (PSL/BirelART) was enjoying a great drive in P3 until a power failure ended his race early. At the finish line, Olivier Chasse (HM Propela/KR) had a great drive to P3 but a pushback bumper for him, and fourth-place finish Noah Landry (NBM-Premier/OTK), elevated Ahmed Mustafa (REM/Kosmic) onto the final step of the podium.
The remaining race results were:
Shifter/Shifter Master
- Charles Gauthier
- Lucas Deslongchamps
- Olivier Pichette
- Martin Gosselin **Masters Winner
- Dominic Legrand
Briggs Cadet
- Jackson Colligan
- Tom Gagnon
- Adam Bentaleb
- Eddie Chang
- Mason Koury
Briggs Masters
- Mike Larouche
- Mathieu Martin
- Simon Jobin
- Anthony Novak
- Brad Rogers
Rotax DD2
- Lucas Nanji
- Ludovic Sabourin
- Mathis Fontaine
- Alexandra Rioux
- Tristan Vanier
Rotax Masters
- Dominic Legrand
- Olivier Lelievre
- Simon Clark Lantagne
- Christophe Heront
- Sylvain Chenard
Briggs Junior
- Kristopher Goulet
- Thomad Bernier Brandao
- Dylan Renaud
- Hugo Fauteux
- Ethan Gawronski
Rotax DD2 Masters
- Marc Andre Levesque
- David Laplante
- Michael Mclean
- Yannick Hurtubise
- Eric Lessard
Rotax Micro-Mini
- Nicholas Lorusso
- Madox Pelletier
- William Choquette
- Brodie Mcdonell
- Francesco Cosco
Next up for the Coupe de Montreal is round two on May 31 to June 1 in Mont-Tremblant. This race will also be the first round of the RMC Quebec. Registration will open soon on the http://coupedemontreal.com website.
We hope to see you there!
