Hamilton, Ontario – July 9, 2008 - Six members of the Cameron Motorsports National team were in action over the weekend as the Brian Stewart Racing Karting Championship raced its third round at Kawartha Speedway. Continuing the trend of winning across North America, the team scored a win, two podiums and four top five results from six starts. For the second consecutive race in the series Enrico Menotti scored a victory in Rotax DD2 as he dominated the competition on his way to sweeping the day. On pole position by over two tenths after posting a 36.019 second lap Saturday morning, the hardest Menotti had to work on the day was in the prefinal where a less than stellar call for green saw him drop to second. He then worked back to the point on lap four and set the best lap of the field on seven in stretching the winning margin to 2.2 seconds. In the main event Menotti got the holeshot into turn one and never looked back on his way to his second series win for Cameron/CRG. He lapped even quicker than in the prefinal, and did so on fifteen of twenty to create a winning margin of over five seconds. Cameron Hogg was also in the DD2 field for Cameron/CRG and after qualifying fifth at 36.918 seconds he carved into it and set a best lap of 36.385 in the prefinal. It was the second quickest lap of the heat and moved him to the inside of row two for the main. When the main event took the green Hogg jumped to second initially before giving it back and beginning a race-long scrap for the podium. The position changed hands at least five times before Hogg settled for P4. Debuting
a Cameron/Maranello chassis in the Brian Stewart Racing Karting Championship
at Kawartha was Rotax Senior rookie Melissa Curran - but the day began
in disastrous fashion. Qualifying P13 of 25 created a bad situation
that got much worse when she tangled with another kart working lap
four of the prefinal and was left looking at the entire field to start
the main. Sitting on row twelve, the pint-sized pilot had a tall order
to fill, but duly delivered the goods. Picking her way through turn
two carnage on lap one, Curran made a considerable jump before taking
even more on the first lap when she was one of few in the mid-pack
to have any sort of momentum after the start. Tuner Curtis Fox corrected problems with the power valve and changed the jetting heading to the main and the result was a climb all the way to fifth by the checker. “Curtis was bang-on when it came to the final,” Curran said of her tuner’s call. “He had everything running perfect, the motor sounded awesome and I was just flying! I had no idea where I was in the race, although I knew I had made it up quite a bit when I saw the three TonyKarts. I was very happy with how the day ended considering it didn’t get off to a good start. Top five made me very happy!” Jeffrey May had a similar start to his day in Rotax Junior after he qualified P14 of 16 at 37.979 seconds, but just as with Curran things would turn around. May set the second quickest lap of the prefinal at 37.181 and climbed to fourth over ten laps. The charge continued in the main where May slotted fifth from the start and took one kart per lap over the next three to chase down the leader. He set the best lap in the field on seven and was on the bumper of the leader when disaster struck. Looking for the lead in the prime passing area leaving the oval, May got on the brakes too hard and went around. The engine refused to re-fire and May was out at half distance. The front-running junior will have little time to dwell on the incident, as he is back on track this coming weekend with Stars of Karting. Cameron/CRG shifter pilot Addison Rayner was the second Cameron driver on the podium Saturday, his coming in F125 Senior. After qualifying off-pole and maintaining the spot through the prefinal, Rayner slotted fourth at the start of the main event before working his way forward. He passed into third on lap two, took second on lap three, then set the best lap of the race in running down the leader. It took lap traffic for Rayner to arrive on the bumper of the leader and he capitalized to take over working lap seventeen. Yet it was not to be on this day and the lead switched back on the final lap, Rayner taking the second step of the podium. Rounding out the Cameron Motorsports roster at Kawartha was Mini-Max racer Nelson Learn. After qualifying seventh with a time of 40.897 seconds Learn cut a half-second away in the prefinal when his best lap was 40.385 seconds. Learn would also have a premature end to his day as his Mini-Max final ended in turn one. Next Canadian action for the Cameron Motorsports National Team will be at the fourth round of the Ontario Regional Karting Championship beginning July 25th at Mosport International Karting. For more information visit www.cameronmotorsports.com |
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