The first weekend of the 2023 calendar year is complete and so is the first major race of the year.
Kicking off what is going to be a very busy winter of races in the sunshine state of Florida, Cup Karts North America hosted their first race of the year, their WinterNationals, which was also the first round of their four-race South Championship.
Tackling the 103rd Street Race Complex in Jacksonville, Florida, Briggs racers were challenged to a circuit that once hosted major North American and International races.
Fifteen Canadian karters were part of this Briggs 206 only event, with representation in every category and when the checkered flags flew on Sunday, four raced their ways onto the Cup Karts podium.
Highlighting those results was a valiant second-place effort by Muskaan Sattaur in Briggs Junior. Moving forward from ninth on the starting grid, Sattaur pushed forward and nearly came home with the victory. Joining her on the podium with a fifth-place result, and giving Ricciardo Kart their second podium in class, was Nathan Dupuis.
In total, there were five Canadian drivers in Junior with Max Franceschello finishing twelfth, Hunter Patterson fourteenth and Charles-Olivier Dionne and unfortunate DNF.
Making his return to the Winter Nationals, Hudson Urlin drove himself to a third place finish in the Briggs Sportsman division while Andrew Adams scored an impressive second place finish in Briggs Cadet.
For their efforts, all four of our podium finishers took home some great prizes from Cup Karts including tools, fuel jugs, and shop vacs.
Strapping a helmet back on for the first time in years, Ron Henrie just missed the podium in the Legends division, crossing the stripe in sixth place, two spots ahead of Michael Forget while Eli Yanko was a DNF.
Steven MacVoy was one of two Canadians competing in two classes and he finished sixth in Senior Heavy and fourteenth in Masters.
The other driver two compete in a pair of classes was Aidan Shimbashi. He entered the largest class of the weekend, Senior Medium, which featured 35 entries. After being split for Qualifying and the heat races, all 35 lined up for the Final and Shimbashi wound up 21st.
Shimbashi also competed in Senior Light with three fellow drivers from Ontario. He was the highest finisher in fifteenth, with Khloe Drummond just behind in eighteenth, while Nicki Palladino was twentieth and William Adams was twenty-second.
Cup Karts Canada’s Gerald Caseley was track side to support the Canadian drivers when requested as well as to help out the Cup Karts North America staff to help their event run smoothly.
“It was a great event and I’m happy to see how many Canadians we had this year. Last year there was only a couple, so the growth and interest in awesome for our Briggs racers to have somewhere to come race during the winter months. I have a really good feeling about the Spring Nationals at Charlotte in March and anybody that has interest can reach out to me with any questions they might have about competing.”
The Cup Karts North America Spring Nationals will take place on the kart circuit inside the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina on March 3-5. Last years event was massive and all signs are pointing towards another major success. Learn more about the event on the http://cupkarts.com website.
Photos by: Rocket Gear Media. Check out the full gallery on the Cup Karts North America Facebook page.
