Serravalle Perseveres to Canadian Open Victory in Junior Max

Talk about a rookie season in Rotax Junior for Leonardo Serravalle.

Less than nine months ago, Serravalle made his first-ever two-cycle start after graduating from Briggs Junior, and this past weekend, he became the undisputed Canadian National Rotax Junior Champion with a victory at the Canadian Open, following up his title at the Canadian Karting Championships only two weeks prior!

This weekend wasn’t easy, although the results make it look that way.

Serravalle (Racing Edge Motorsports / Kosmic) started the weekend at SH Karting by qualifying on the pole position in Super Pole Qualifying, where the top-six drivers from timed qualifying were given only two laps to set their best time. This was in the dry on Friday afternoon after morning showers soaked the SH circuit for almost all of the morning practice sessions.

Saturday morning, the rain returned, and in the first heat race, Serravalle led the field into corner one, but overshot his entry and slid into the outside barriers. He resumed the race and picked up a few positions, but it was not the start to the heat races he had imagined. Alexis Baillargeon (HM Propela / Kart Republic) scored the heat one victory over Jeremy St-Cyr (PSL Karting / BirelART) and Jackson Morley (Prime Powerteam / BirelART).

St-Cyr navigated the heavy rain best during heat two to score the victory over Baillargeon, while Cole Medeiros (Racing Edge Motorsports / Kosmic) took third, with Serravalle only managing to finish P7.

Alexis Baillargeon – Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN

As the sun came out, the rain tires were switched to slicks for the final heat race. Serravalle finally converted his pole position to a win in heat #3, beating Jackson Lachapelle (HM Propela / Kart Republic) and St-Cyr, who scored the most points to secure the pole position for the PreFinal.

Sunday was a completely different day of weather, as a little fog in the morning was cleared out by sunshine and blue skies and much warmer temperatures.

Dominating the PreFinal, St-Cyr pulled away from Medeiros to ensure he had the best starting spot for the Final, while Serravalle recovered to P3, scoring some very valuable points in the RMC Ontario and RMC Quebec championships.

Jeremy St-Cyr leads the field through corner one – Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN

With all eyes on the Final, the Rotax Juniors put on a show.

Early on, St-Cyr had the lead until contact with Medeiros in the hairpin sent both drivers wide. As collateral damage, both Lachapelle and Serravalle were trapped on the wrong side of the track and had to check up big time, falling well down the running order on lap two.

This allowed Baillargeon to slip into the race lead, but it only lasted a lap as he and Morley made contact just before corner two, bringing both of their karts to a stop and out of contention.

With all the chaos, Brando Londono (HM Propela / Kart Republic), who started the race in P11, found himself in the race lead on lap 4, followed by Leo Da Silva (Racing Edge Motorsports / Kosmic) and Ari Theodoropoulos (Prime Powerteam / BirelART). Serravalle was back in P12 with St-Cyr and Medeiros a little further behind him.

Lachapelle’s championship hopes were finished on lap three as well, as he made contact with another driver exiting the tree turn and was forced to retire.

Londono led until lap nine when Da Silva moved himself into the race lead. Theodoropoulos pulled the same move the following lap to move into P2, and Londono started to slip down the order.

Lap after lap, Serravalle worked his way back towards the leaders, moving into P2 on lap 14 and setting his sights on his teammate Da Silva.

With two laps to go in the 18-lap Final, he pulled the trigger into corner one and took the race lead from Da Silva.

Keeping his teammate at bay for the final two laps around the SH Karting circuit, Serravalle celebrated his second major victory in three weeks, and with it, secured both the RMC Ontario and RMC Quebec championships, earning him an invitation to join Team Canada for the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals in Bahrain later this year.

Leonardo Serravalle receiving his RMCGF ticket – Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN

Da Silva notched his best result as a Junior in P2, while Theodoropoulous was third to cross the finish line, followed by his teammate Stefano Lanzillotta (Prime Powerteam / BirelART), scoring his best result as a Junior as well.

Unfortunately for Da Silva, his result did not stand after a protest resulted in a technical infraction, excluding him from the results. This moved Theodoropoulos up to P2 and put Lanzilotta on the podium for the first time.

Finishing just behind Serravalle in the RMC Quebec standings, Jeremy St-Cyr scored his second invite to the Rotax Grand Finals and will get to represent Team Canada for the second year in a row, after competing in Mini Max last year in Italy.

Jeremy St Cyr receiving his RMCGF ticket – Photo by: Cody Schindel / CKN