Sunoco Ron Fellows Karting Championship presented by Toronto Star Wheels - Chiovitti comes through at home!

Chiovitti comes through at home!
Birel's Chiovitti takes Formula Senior, while Justin Mascoll
and Robert Wickens collect double wins


SUTTON, ONTARIO - Rounds three and four of the Sunoco Ron Fellows Karting 
Championship presented by Toronto Star Wheels were held at 3S Go Karts' 
track in Sutton, Ontario. It was the first time the series had visited the 
facility, and Birel's Juliana Chiovitti upheld the family honour by taking 
round four in the headline Formula Senior class.

"It is great to win here at home," Chiovitti said after the final Formula 
Senior race of the day. Earlier the same day, Chiovitti had finished third 
behind Pfaff Motorsport Fast Qualifier and round three race winner, 
Mississauga's Travis Walker. Formula Senior Points leader, Picton's Mike 
Roth in his Pfaff Porsche Birel took second after spending much of the race 
glued to Walker's rear bumper. "Too much tire pressure. For the first five 
laps the Pfaff Porsche Birel was great - then it was junk. I just had to 
wait for round four later in the day."

In the final race - round four - Roth took the early lead with Walker and 
Chiovitti hot in pursuit. Roth slipped wide in the barn turn after leading 
several laps, and Walker saw an opening to take the lead. "I saw Mike go 
wide and I went for it," Walker said. "But I had too much rear brake and 
hit Mike, it was a bad deal. Student hitting mentor isn't good" The 
incident took out both Roth and Walker. "I knew I was wide, and he just 
slid into me - it was a racing incident," Roth said. Chiovitti stormed home 
to take the win. Behind her came Birel's Mark Sampogne and Ottawa's Tom 
Cadieux aboard his CRG. "I knew it was coming," Chiovitti said of the 
incident between Walker and Roth. "I respect Mike as a racer, it was too 
bad he was taken out like that."

Briggs & Stratton World Formula was a titanic battle between two drivers, 
Pfaff Motorsport fast qualifier, PTK's Justin Mascoll and Gold's Rob 
Oakman. They battled every lap of both rounds swapping the lead numerous 
times in some of the best racing the series has seen this year. Mascoll 
hung on to win both rounds, while Oakman was second in both rounds. 
Rounding out the podium in both rounds was Ajax's Jason Bradimore. "It was 
a tough clean fight," Mascoll said, and Oakman agreed. "Justin is good to 
race with. It was clean - and it was fun." Mascoll also took home the GM 
Racing winner's circle award.

Canada Senior was all Burlington's Kris Martin, as he took the early lead 
from Pfaff Motorsport fast qualifier Marco Di Leo. Martin won both rounds 
on the track, but failed post race tech - a shame for the well-respected 
karter.  This disqualification gave the round three win to Oakman. 
Leamington's Jennifer Rempel and CMP's Sal Ditta, from Markham rounded out 
the round three podium. Round four had Ditta winning, followed by Oakman 
and Rempel.

Canada Junior saw some new faces at the top of the charts as Newmarket's 
Jeff Blackburn took the win in round three. Behind him came PTK's Robert 
Wickens and pole sitter Birel's Michael Mora. Mora fought back to take the 
round four win, with Stouffville's Michael Vincec second and Markham's 
Daniel Morad third.

RotaxMax had 75 drivers register and they were broken up into several 
groups after qualifying, with the top 25 making the "A" group. On the pole 
was Jason Keen, but he was out after a first lap incident. After a red flag 
midway through round three, and subsequent restart, Gilford's Brad Leliever 
claimed the top spot. Unluckily for him, he was a victim of a ambitious 
passing attempt in the first turn of round four that ended his quest to win 
both rounds. Behind Leliever in round three came Shawn Gardner and Ottawa's 
Jason Robar. In round four, Gardner took the win with Biesse Canada's Mark 
Kitchen second and Ottawa's Jamie Holtom third. Holtom also won the coveted 
Pratt & Miller Team Spirit award for the weekend.

In Formula Junior in round three, PTK's Robert Wickens won round three 
followed by Quebec CRG driver Jesse Labbe and Birel's Matt Pritiko. Wickens 
started from deep in the field after missing qualifying, but once he got to 
the front he opened a comfortable gap. Behind him Labbe, Pritiko and Keaton 
Doerksen were all nose to tail. Originally Labbe was a the tail end of the 
group, but some brilliant passes moved him up to second when the checkered 
fell.
In round four. Labbe led for most of the race before tangling with a lapped 
kart and falling to fourth. Labbe fought back to finish on the podium in 
third, behind race winner Robert Wickens and Keaton Doerksen. With the win, 
Wickens is still undefeated in Formula Junior competition this year in the 
series.

The stars of the Sunoco Ron Fellows Karting Championship presented by 
Toronto Star Wheels now have a couple of weeks of before going 'public'. 
The series will headline the Pepsi Grand Prix of Barrie on June 20-22. The 
lake front street race is expected to draw over 20,000 fans.


Future events will be The Grand Prix of Barrie on June 20-22, Sutton on 
July 5-6, Hamilton on July 19-20 and the series finale will go at Goodwood 
on September 27-28.
The objective of the SRFKC is to help foster a professional environment for 
kart drivers; help create a positive attitude towards appearance, conduct 
and discipline; help foster the employment of the best practices for the 
safe and fair running of competitions; and help kart drivers to move up the 
racing ladder to automobile racing. At the end of the season, eight drivers 
will be selected from the series, plus two drivers from the ASN Canadian 
National Championships. They will be invited to a one-day evaluation test 
at the Bridgestone Racing Academy at Mosport, provided they are 16 years of 
age prior to the date of the test. Out of those 10 drivers, two will earn a 
full scholarship to the 2004 the 2003 Bridgestone / FormulaCar Magazine 
F2000 Racing Series.

For more information, please contact:
Russ Bond, 905-852-2900 russ@insidekartingnews.com
Brad Brown, k.andb.brown@sympatico.ca (416)-233-8727
ASN Canada FIA, Paul Cooke, www.asncanada.com, (905)-403-9000.

Release prepared by Russ Bond Agency



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