Challenging Conditions for Rotax Junior Final

The first National Final to take to the track at Mosport was under gloomy skies on a wet surface and given that the racers only had a 3-minute warm-up on the wet track an hour earlier, it was a little chaotic in corners one and two.

From fifth on the grid, Max Raymer (KGR/RedSpeed) spun in corner one and that collected a number of racers. More carnage in corner two saw Matisse Costantini (Prime/BirelART) and Yiming Wang (BBR/Falcon) sidelined while Frankie Esposito (Prime/BirelART) also had contact going up the hill that slowed him up after starting on the second row.

Christian Menezes (KGR/RedSpeed) and Jensen Burnett (Energy Corse/Energy Kart) were the only two to escape the opening lap without a hiccup and that allowed them to open up a nice lead on the field struggling for grip.

Leading the first half of the race, Menezes seemed in control but Burnett was mounting pressure on the race leader. He grabbed the top spot and began to pull away while the positions behind were changing often.

As the laps were ticking away in the 18-lap main event, Esposito had worked his way back to third place and was cutting huge margins out of the lead pair lap after lap. Lap traffic also played a factor, slowing up the leaders from time to time. With five to go, he overtook Menezes in the hairpin and on the next time by he passed Burnett up the hill in corner seven, finding more grip on the regular racing line than the rain line.

Burnett tried to stick with Esposito but his kart just couldn’t navigate the corners the same and Esposito was off to the races.

Taking the checkered flag, Esposito was the first to the finish line followed by Burnett and Menezes with Coco Chi (BBR/Falcon), who started the race from last on the grid, and Major Makovskis (PRO/CL Kart).

But the results didn’t stay that way as Esposito had a pushback bumper penalty from his accident on the opening lap, as did Chi, and this awarded the race win to Burnett, taking his second Rotax Canadian Championship in as many years.

Accumulating the most points between the Open and the CKC, Burnett was also awarded the Rotax Grand Finals invitation and he will join Ryan Maxwell and Ziming Wang on Team Canada in Portugal later this year.

Canadian Karting Championships Rotax Junior Final Results