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| September 22, 2006 News |
| EKN Trackside: Stars of Karting National Finals - Friday Report |
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 | KLS Racing's Lorenzo Mandarino was quick all day, leading both ICC timed sessions
(Photo: Todd McCall - otp.ca) |
The sport’s only true coast-to-coast national championship will wrap up this weekend in Toronto, Ontario as the Snap-on Stars of Karting National Finals will crown the best drivers in five racing classes following a season of head-to-head competition. EKN previewed the overall point races in all five Stars categories throughout the past week leading up to today’s action, which was filled with a day of practice for roughly the 130 drivers who have made the trek to Canada.
Big news hit the paddock early as it was learned that Eastern Division ICC champion Phil Giebler is currently in Europe testing for the American A1GP team, which is running next weekend in Zandvoort, thereby cutting the national title chase to just three drivers. Gary Carlton, Jordy Vorrath and Tad Funakoshi are all in the hunt for the crown.
The drivers hit the track this morning to sample a new layout here at Woodbine Raceway, Canada’s most popular horse racing facility. The Stars officials were originally going to use the same layout from last year but some minor adjustments were made for safety reasons. The track (pictures below) is quite tight and, not surprisingly, pretty bumpy. The rubber is not going down very quickly, and most drivers are still struggling with grip. In fact, the ICA cars were faster than their ICC counterparts earlier in the day, as the shifter pilots were not able to put all their horsepower down during the morning sessions.
 | Tony Kart USA's Joel Miller is stepping up in his effort toward the ICA championship
(Photo: Todd McCall - otp.ca) |
The track is running in a clockwise direction with the front stretch running along the west side of the circuit. Turns one and two are right-hand corners with the track narrowing on the exit, leading to a quick left kink that spills into the tight left-hand turn three. The drivers then motor off to the right-hand turn four which opens to the bending backstretch that was used as the main straight at last year’s event. After hard-braking, the drivers then take two right-handers with the second running over a three big dips at the exit of the corner. After working through a tight left-hand kink, the karts head to a tight 180° left hand corner that is quite narrow at entry and will likely be the primary area for contact throughout the weekend. Heading back toward the paddock, turn nine is an increasing radius right-hand before a tight left-hander. A quick left at turn 11 before a 180° right hand turn, sweeping to the last corner and back on to the straight.
In the timed sessions, Lorenzo Mandarino (GP) showed the way in both ICC on-track runs, hitting the 43-flat mark in the first run and an unmatched 42.8 in the final session. Point leader Gary Carlton (CRG) was ninth in the initial timed run but advanced to sixth in the second session, only to lose the time after being too wide at the scales. Six-time winner Jordy Vorrath (Intrepid) was third in the first run but fell to tenth in the final session of the day. Tomorrow will be very interesting, as qualifying will set the order for all three heat races.
 | In his first weekend in the ICA division, Italian Motors Michael Hogg has made an impression on the paddock after day one
(Photo: Todd McCall - otp.ca) |
In ICA, the title chase was made quite interesting as point leader Jess Peterson (Intrepid) did not break into the top ten all day, while primary challenger Joel Miller (Tony Kart) led the way in the opening session was second in the final run. Aside for Miller’s continued pace, the most impressive driver on the track was rookie ICA pilot Michael Hogg (Italkart). After running the entire year in the JICA category, Hogg made the decision to jump to ICA and he was second in the opening session and topped the final run in fine fashion.
Rain hit late in the day, splitting the second ICA run in half as the second group was faced with a wet track. While a handful of drivers hit the track on slicks, four teams switched to wets for the second half of the session, with Brandon Bealer (Kosmic) turning the fastest wet laps over Jake Rosenzweig (CRG), Nick Tonkin (Birel) and Alex Wikell (Tony Kart).
Eric Gerrits (First Kart) led the way in Spec Racer, although Brandon Adkins (Margay) has the title all but wrapped up. Brendan Langlois looked good in JICA during his debut with First Kart, pacing the first session over Sergio Pena (Maranello) while Dusty Davis (Maranello) topped the final time run. In Cadet, Dylan Nobile (Nevoso) and Sage Karam (Birel) each spent time on top of the charts.
Gatorz Pole Qualifying will kick things off tomorrow morning, setting the grids for the three heats races, two of which will run Saturday afternoon. Championship Sunday will feature the final round of heat races and the main events.
 | | Front straight heading into turn one |
 | | Exiting turn two looking toward turn three |
 | | Exiting turn four looking at the bending back stretch |
 | | Exiting turn seven heading into a sharp turn eight |
 | | Exiting turn nine, looking up toward turn 10 |
 | | Turn 11 exit heading into turn 12 |
 | | The last corner is a wide, flat-out corner |
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