PSLKarting.com

Monday, May 16 2011

Team PSL Karting was back racing in Canada a week ago as the Eastern Canadian Karting Championship got underway at Goodwood Kartways in Ontario. The joint forces of PSL, PSL Atlantic, PSL Ontario, and the newly minted PSL Montreal combined to race 27-strong in the opening event, and the group scored five poles, five wins and fourteen podiums in a weekend doubleheader.

The stakes in the series have gone up considerably this season as new for 2011 the ECKC will be awarding three spots on Rotax Max Team Canada and PSL is looking to add to its cast. Nicholas Latifi and Felipe Fraga each earned PSL Grand Finals spots from the Gatorz Challenge of the Americas, and Michael Vincec and Rene Martinelli doubled the team total in winning championships at the Florida Winter Tour. After opening weekend in Canada, Team PSL sees another very familiar name in contention to return to the Olympics of Karting: Pier-Luc Ouellette.

The 2007 DD2 World Champion won his title at Al Ain Raceway, and with the event scheduled to return to the United Arab Emirates this season it is nearly a perfect circumstance for the Canadian star. Over the last five years, PLO has only missed out on Team Canada once - but that once came when the National Championship was contested at Goodwood in 2009. After the Saturday final, one could understand if Ouellette had a growing hate for the famed Ontario track.

After missing out on pole by less than a half-tenth, Ouellette followed with a win in the prefinal to earn pole for the final. With the race then unfolding very much as the prefinal did, he was looking to repeat his pass for the lead in the turn nine hairpin at Goodwood when he found water on the track from a displaced barrier! Moments after bidding for the lead, Ouellette was down in seventh and a long way from the podium. He fought his way back to third, then had no such drama on Sunday. After locking down the front row with PSL teammate Nicholas Latifi on pole, Ouellette won the prefinal with fastest lap and dominated the final. He now bids Goodwood adieu once again, and heads for home.

Michael Vincec is another PSL driver with championship aspirations, even though he has already qualified for the RMC Grand Finals. Likely to drop his Saturday start after clutch problems forced him to the back after the prefinal, Vincec then ran the day second on Sunday from beginning to end. Samuel Fontaine was also on the second step of the podium, his coming in the first Rotax Junior race of the schedule, and Jeffrey Kingsley scored a pair of runner-up finishes in a very large Rotax Mini-Max field.

Showing the strength of CRG across a number of classes, Paul Carvalho swept Masters DD2 for PSL Ontario, and Dalton Jewell did the same in Honda Senior aboard his four-stroke CRG RS4. Sean Kennedy scored a pole position and pair of podiums in Honda Junior, and Russell Kroon did the same in Honda Masters to reach the total of fourteen.

The Eastern Canadian Karting Championship resumes May 29th at Karting Trois-Rivieres where for the first time in Series’ history, Team CRG will truly race at its home track. For more information on the world’s #1 CRG dealer, please visit pslkarting.com.

Pier-Luc Ouellette - 3rd, 1st

Nicholas Latifi - 5th, 4th

Eric Simon - 17th, 8th, PSL Ontario

Marc-Andre Bourgeois - 14th, 14th

Michael Vincec - 11th, 2nd

Pearce Herder - 6th, 14th, PSL Ontario

Gerald Caseley - 26th, 8th, PSL Atlantic

Taylor Gates - 9th, 9th, PSL Ontario

Nathan Kelly - 10th, 16th, PSL Atlantic

Johnny Flute - 12th, 15th, PSL Ontario

Kenneth O’Keefe - 17th, 14th, PSL Ontario

Christian Medieros - 18th, 19th, PSL Ontario

Samuel Fontaine - 2nd, 4th

Marc-Antoine Cardin - 5th, 6th

Sasha Aleksic - 7th, 12th, PSL Ontario

Tyler Kashak - 19th, 8th, PSL Ontario

Gavin Reichelt - 15th, 9th

Alexandre Fortin - 11th, 18th

Sarah MacKay - 28th, PSL Atlantic

Jeffrey Kingsley - 2nd, 2nd

Gianfranco Mazzaferro - 6th, 16th

Paul Carvalho - 1st, 1st, PSL Ontario

Russell Kroon - 2nd, 3rd, PSL Ontario

Andrew Massey - 4th, 4th, PSL Ontario

Dalton Jewell - 1st, 1st, PSL Ontario

Sean Kennedy - 3rd, 2nd, PSL Ontario

William Campbell - 5th, 5th, PSL Ontario