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Mt-Tremblant Attracts Over 260 Entries for Coupe de Montreal!
Miserable weather doesn’t deter Quebec’s finest from competing at their favourite venue
The second round of the Coupe de Montreal karting championship brought racers to the iconic TAG Karting Academy in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, for a weekend that tested both skill and resilience.
Despite being the kickoff to the new Rotax Max Challenge Quebec series, Mother Nature had other plans, delivering a cold, wet, and misty atmosphere that lingered over both days. Saturday offered a mix of dry and damp sessions, while Sunday’s promised dry skies never materialized—rain and fog persisted with temperatures barely reaching 10ºC.
Still, the Canadian karting community showed up in full force, with more than 260 entries across 12 competitive categories. The intensity was turned up in Rotax Senior Max and Briggs Senior, where full grids meant Last Chance Races were required to set the stage for the 36-driver Finals. It was a true endurance test in Tremblant, both on track and in the paddock.
Rotax Micro Mini
A strong group of 23 youngsters filled up the grid in Rotax Micro-Mini Max. The challenging conditions in Qualifying saw all but one driver roll onto the circuit with treaded rain tires. The lone driver to opt for slicks was Yousef Adi (REM/Kosmic) and it took him a few laps for him to build some temperature into his MOJO tires and for the track to come to him, but in his final few laps of the session, he managed to post the fastest time and take the pole-position.
Rotax Junior
The Juniors were one of the lucky drivers who got to qualify and race their PreFinal on slick tires during the weekend, as they took to the track on Saturday afternoon for these sessions. This also meant that the only time they competed on rain tires was their Final on Sunday.
Rotax Senior
The first of four rounds in the new RMC Quebec kicked off this weekend in Mont-Tremblant as part of the second stop on the Coupe de Montreal calendar. Extremely challenging conditions prevailed over the weekend, with cold temperatures and rainy conditions keeping everyone on the lookout for any opportunity to gain an advantage.
Rotax DD2
Two drivers were in a league of their own over the weekend in Rotax DD2 and both were named Lucas. Back in the saddle with his eyes on another ticket to the Rotax Grand Finals was Lucas Pernod (PSL/BirelART) while Lucas Nanji (HM Propela/Kart Republic) continues to seek his first opportunity to join Team Canada.
In the rainy conditions, the pair continuously lapped 1 second a lap faster than their competition, pulling away in both the Prefinal and Final races.
Pernod maintained control in both races while Nanji kept him honest, hoping for an opportunity to take advantage. Pernod never faltered and celebrated the victory at the finish line ahead of Nanji. In the battle for P3, Nolan Bower (Premier/OTK) held the spot on track, but he had an off early in the race that resulted in Ludovic Sabourin (HM Propela/Kart Republic) having to take action. Bower was assessed a penalty for unsafe re-entry that knocked him off the podium and promoted Branco Juverdianu (PSL/BirelART) to P3. Bower only lost one position with the penalty, while Sabourin recovered to finish P5.
Lucas Pernod (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)
Rotax DD2 Masters
Trading out his NASCAR for the weekend, Kevin Lacroix joined his son in some Coupe de Montreal action in Mont-Tremblant.
Maximilien Gareau (CRT/BirelART) led the field of 24 to the green flag, and the group managed to get through the opening corners without any issues.
Attacking his teammate early, Francois Dulac (CRT/BirelART) took the lead on lap two from Gareau while Marc Andre Levesque (HMR/OTK) continued his charge towards the front. Leveque was unable to qualify on Saturday and had to start the PreFinal from the rear.
From eighth on the grid, Lacroix was also on the move as he moved up to P2 on lap four. Chasing down the race leader four laps later, Lacroix moved into the race lead, passing Dulac.
Lacroix pulled away from there, crossing the finish line well ahead of Dulac, who just narrowly fought off Levesque in the final laps.
But the results were adjusted after the race, as Lacroix was penalized twice, once for being out of lane on the start and a second time for short-cutting the track during the race. The added 10 seconds moved him down to P3 in the final ranking, with Dulac moving up to score the race victory. Levesque also had a short-cutting penalty, but it didn’t cost him anything, and he was awarded the runner-up position.
Maximilien Gareau (577) and Francois Dulac (513) lead the DD2 Masters field (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)
Rotax Masters
Celebrating his first victory of the race season, Simon Proteau (Premier/TonyKart) managed the tricky conditions best in Rotax Masters, to lead every lap of the Final and finish more than 9 seconds ahead of his fellow competitors.
Francois Bourassa (SC Performance/OTK) recovered from an eventful opening pair of laps to settle into P2 for most of the race, while Francois Joubert (TonyKart) overtook Sebastian Cloutier (SC Performance/OTK) with two laps remaining to score the final spot on the Coupe de Montreal podium.
Simon Proteau (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)
Briggs Cadet
In full control of the Briggs Cadet PreFinal, Jackson Colligan (BirelART) was leading comfortably until a minor error in judgment resulted in him spinning on the penultimate lap. Jumping out of his kart to pull it back onto the track, Colligan saw his rivals pass by before he was able to get rolling again, falling to P4.
In his first race outside of Ontario, Jackson Duncan (BirelART) led the Cadet field to the green flag with Mason Koury (BirelART) alongside.
It only took two laps for Colligan to regain the lead, quickly moving up from fourth on the grid. Duncan did his best to keep up, but couldn’t quite match the pace while Liam Fontaine (Parolin) settled into P3 on lap five. And that is how they crossed the finish line with Colligan ahead by 4.5 seconds.
Unfortunately for Fontaine, his engine failed post-race tech, and he was excluded from the results. This moved Eddie Chang (SodiKart) onto the podium in P3 with Zackary Losier (BirelART) and Koury completing the top-five.
Jackson Colligan (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)
Briggs Junior
Chaos at the start of the Briggs Junior Final saw pole-sitter Thomas Bernier Brandao (TonyKart), who won the Prefinal by 13 seconds, get tagged into a spin, resulting in karts scattering, trying to avoid him. When Bernier got pointed in the right direction, he was running through the grass, and another kart stopped him from returning to the surface in corner two, and instead, he decided to rejoin the track in corner eight, back in the lead.
While the officials were determining how to penalize him for shortcutting half of the track, Bernier had opened a big race lead until lap five when a mechanical failure ended his race in corner six.
This put Maddox Gauthier (BirelART) into the race lead after he passed Ethan Gawranski (Roby Kart) on lap two.
Leading the rest of the way, Gauthier never looked back and celebrated the race victory at the finish line.
Behind, Kristopher Goulet (BirelART) charged through the field from 14th on the starting grid to finish runner-up. Hugo Fauteux (Formula K) had a great drive to finish on the podium in P3.
Maddox Gauthier (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)
Briggs Senior
The biggest category of the weekend featured plenty of entertainment, as many drivers struggled to keep their karts pointed in the correct direction in the tricky wet conditions.
One driver was able to master the conditions and left everyone in his wake. Competing in his second category of the weekend, Lucas Nanji (Kart Republic) was nearly perfect in the Briggs Senior Final. He started the race on the pole position and fought off an early challenge from Eric Lessard (Intrepid) on the opening lap.
After building a gap back to second place, Nanji delivered consistent fast laps to pull away from the field, winning the race by a massive 8.9 seconds. Lessard kept a safe gap back to Szigeti for the rest of the race to cross in P2, but he was given a 3-second penalty that demoted him to P3, with Szigeti moving up a position.
Tyler Barban (CompKart) could only manage P19 in his group in Qualifying Saturday, but his kart came to life on Sunday, leading to a fourth-place finish ahead of front-row starter Mathis Goulet.
Lucas Nanji (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)
Briggs Masters
The Novak brothers dominated the Briggs Masters division in the rain on Sunday.
The pair finished 1-2 in both the Prefinal and the Final with significant margins, as Anthony led Vincent across the finish line to give HM Propela a solid result.
Third place went to round one winner Mike Larouche (Formula K), who just didn’t have the pace to keep up with the Novaks this time around. Jessica Plante (TonyKart) and Serge Boisvert completed the top five in the field of 26 drivers.
Anthony Novak (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)
Shifter
After struggling on Saturday in the wet conditions, Lucas Deslongchamps (PSL/BirelART) drove a masterclass in the Shifter Final on Sunday. Needing some fresh rain tires, Deslongchamps took the penalty to start at the rear of the grid, and when the green flag flew, he ripped off a blistering opening lap, passing the entire field of 13 karts!
As the only driver to post a lap time in the 1:05 bracket, Deslongchamps built on his lead every lap, eventually crossing 12.1 seconds ahead of second place.
Alexandre Gauthier (CRT/BirelART) was the next to cross the finish line, to lead the field of Masters drivers. Olivier Pichette (CRG) and Joseph Launi (Maranello) followed to finish in second and third in the Open Shifter division, while Franco Vassallo (PSL/BirelART) and Dominic Legrand (Maison du Roti/BirelART) were next across the finish line to join Gauthier on the Masters Shifter podium.
Lucas Deslongchamps (Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN)
Next up for the Coupe de Montreal is round three at SC Performance in Saint-Celestin on June 21-22. Registration for the event is now open on http://coupedemontreal.com.
For the RMC Quebec, the second event will be part of the fourth round of the Coupe de Montreal, taking place at ICAR Mirabel on July 4-5. A Reminder, this event will run on Friday and Saturday.
