EDMONTON, AB - The ASN Canada FIA Canadian National Karting Championships were held from Aug. 11-13 at Stratotech Park, just outside Edmonton this year, and the track itself played a big part in the weekend. Mark Stevens and the entire crew that hosted the event did a phe­nomenal job preparing the facility to host the National event.

Also a big part of the event - maybe a lit­tle bigger than some hoped - was the film­ing of the Star Racer show for Discovery Channel. Everywhere you looked camera­men, soundmen and camera crews were following the drivers that were 'hopefuls' on the upcoming show.

"It takes a little getting used to," said Devin Cunningham as he walked to his kart for the ROK final. "It's fun, but it is a little extra pressure."

The weekend consisted of practice, qualifying, heats, prefinal and final, so drivers had plenty of time to learn the track and to move up after a poor qualify­ing session.

Formula Senior a Surprise

In the headline Formula Senior, the bat­tle looked to be between pole-sitter Lorenzo Mandarino and Tom Cadieux. The two were the fastest in qualifying, but no one told either Mike Vincec or Kyle Marcelli that those two were supposed to battle it out for the win. Chris Green was also a bullet, but he and Mandarino had problems in the prefinal and would have to start the final from the back.

Mandarino rocketed his way through the field, doing all he could to get to the front. "From starting back here, I think a podi­um is possible," he said before the race - he was right.

He made his way to third, but there was no catching the leading duo. Vincec and Marcelli were gone from the drop of the green flag. Vincec built a lead and held Marcelli at bay. Vincec, who had just come off a big win at the Barrie Grand Prix, was hitting his stride, and was ecstatic to be crowned Canadian Champion.

"This is fantastic," Vincec said. "We were a little off in the beginning of the weekend, but we got it together. I knew after the pre­final we were good. In the final I couldn't shake Kyle, but he couldn't gain on me either so it worked out okay."

Although Vincec was happy, the rumour going around the pits was that it was poetic justice. At Barrie, earlier, many feel he was slighted when the Star Racer picks were announced. The called Vincec up to the podium, just to tell him he was too young to qualify. Now, with Vincec winning the headline class - beating the Star Racer drivers - there were a few more smiles than usual.

In RotaxMax Sr, the brother duo of Hugo and Pier Luc Ouellette, along with Christophe Boisclair, looked like the driv­ers to beat from the east. Blake Choquer was fast from the west. But it was 35 and over driver Dennis Yasar who took the original pole before being disqualified in tech, making the likeable BRAC Systems driver start from the back in all the heats.

When it came to the final, Boisclair wouldn't be denied, and he took the win from Hugo Ouellette and Blake Choquer.

Runaway in Rotax Jr.

In Rotax Junior it was Braydon Ouellett who took the win in the final over Tyler Wheeler and Max Riddle. Ouellett made a break early on and was never headed.

Fifth-place Josh Korenyi drove a strong race, after really struggling in the begin­ning of the weekend. He was punted off the track on the final lap and came to stop in the grass past the finish line but his transponder didn't 'hit' - that's how far he was in the grass. It was good to see the offi­cials make a quick decision to reinstate Korenyi to his proper position.

The other Rotax class - DD2 - was a sparse field, but I expect with the speed, reliability and now open chassis for this class, it could become the 'new shifter' (you heard it here first).

Pier Luc Ouellette put on more of a demonstration than a race as he simply ran off and hid every time the green flag dropped. Behind Ouellette, Scott Campbell, JF Valour and Chris Beith enjoyed good races.

Beith - who is the son of the track owner - basically came from the back of the pack in the final after finding some speed. He tangled with Tom Cadieux on the final lap to snag fourth, but it was a good run for the local, and I think DD2 is the class of the future for the elite drivers in Rotax.

Rob Oakman has retired - twice now -but he came out of retirement a few weeks before the Nationals to run a Canada Senior race that he won. Winning in the 4-stroke drafting wars - where friends are everything - is tough at the best of times. Oakman used his 'friends' to get to the front after chucking his kart into the grav­el in the prefinal.

The plan for just about all the Canada

Edmonton was to split up the two Herder brothers. Kyle and Pearce had a plan to work together to pull away from the field. They did it in one of the earlier heats, and the rest of the drivers saw the writing on the wall for their chances.

"There isn't much we can do when the hook up together," said Greg Rempel after one of the heats.

Not According to Plan

The Herders did get split up in the final, but Kyle moved to the front and tried to control the pace until Pearce arrived on the scene. Pearce never got there, and the bat­tle was on. Drivers teamed with each other to provide one of the most exciting races of the weekend with three karts all heading across the finish line side by side. Oakman won by 0.008 over Dave Patrick and by 0.022 over Kyle Herder.

Oakman was now two for two, and promptly announced his retirement -again.

In Canada Junior, it was much the same story as Canada Senior, albeit with only two drivers. Kevin Monteith and Keenan Harris built a huge lead, and it came down to the final straight with Monteith edging Harris for the tide.

Also on the card at Stratotech was the final for the ROK cup and Kevin Glover won over Sean MacDonnell and Devin Cunningham. Glover got the biggest sur­prise when he came out of park ferme as Lorenzo Mandarino and a few friends douced Glover with the ice chest.

Stratotech Park did a fantastic job host-ing the event, and now Cameron Motorsports will have a high benchmark to rise to as it was announced that Hamilton will host the 2007 ASN Canada FIA National Karting Championships.