Snapshot of 2023 📸
“Who says coaches can’t play?” –
Even with my limited schedule balancing coaching and driving, 2023 was one of the most rewarding and satisfying seasons I had to date. Returning to conquer a favourite track of mine in Circuit ICAR and debuting the newly redone Hamilton Karting Complex was a great change of pace and new challenges to overcome.
By far my favourite race of the season, The Canadian Open was hosted at ICAR in Mirabel Quebec this year. Although I hadn’t visited ICAR since my junior days back in 2016 I’ve always held a soft spot for the track as its unique position on the Mirabel Airport apron lends itself to having some cool characteristics. These include the track surface being concrete slabs rather than tarmac and the amazing views of the airplanes all around the track.
To prepare for this unique race I went out for a private test a month prior, to get acquainted with the track’s quirks and test various setups before the event. This was the difference maker for me as I was on pace right away at first practice. Building off this momentum I managed to qualify 4th and the best out of all the Ontario drivers. Using my strong qualifying position, I kept things clean through the heats and prefinal which set me starting 7th in the final. Unfortunately, this is where things fell apart for me as a mental error in the final took me out of contention. Otherwise spoiling the end of a great week.
ICAR Mirabel 📍
The next race I had lined up was the Canadian Nationals at Hamilton Karting Complex. This week panned out oppositely from the Canadian Open. We struggled in the early stages of the week with the kart setup and getting up to pace. However, it all came together when the races began as I turned an 11th place qualifying into 4 straight 5th place finishes for all the heats and pre-final, needled to say I started 5th in the final. In the final, I continued to stay consistent as my goal was to have a clean race and stay out of on-track drama. As I expected the on-track drama ensued which I managed to evade and come up with a 4th place finish and my best finish at the nationals!
Hamilton Karting Complex 📍
