Ramos, Barrichello, Bedard, McLean, Baillargeon, Vera and Arnaudo Win at the RMC Winter Trophy

With qualifying and prefinals in the books, it was time to go racing at the RMC Winter Trophy on Sunday afternoon. First on track was Junior MAX as Davin Roberts and Fausto Arnaudo occupied the front row and led the field to the green with the Speed Concepts Racing duo of Jackson Wolny and Turner Brown in row two. The top four remained unchanged during the opening lap with Ty Fisher slotting himself into P5. Lap two saw some of the drivers begin to mix it up with Arnaudo taking the lead with Salvador Della Vecchia moving into fourth. In all the commotion, Brown had fallen to seventh behind Nathan Dupuis. A lap later, Wolny, Della Vecchia, and Dupuis were by Roberts moving him back to fifth. By lap five Arnaudo had opened a 0.534 gap over Della Vecchio and Dupuis who were both lapping faster than the leader. At mid-race distance, Della Vecchia in second was the fastest driver on track as he and Dupuis ran nose to tail to try and catch Arnaudo. Dupuis pounced to get by Della Vecchia on lap seven allowing Arnaudo to scamper away to a lead of more than a second, but it was Dupuis with his head down as he looked to close the gap. A tenth faster than the leader on lap nine and four-tenths faster than Della Vecchia, Dupuis’ sole focus now was on the kart in front. Lap ten saw identical lap times for the top two as the gap remained unchanged, but lap eleven saw Dupuis slightly faster. With time running out in the 14-lap final, Dupuis continued to push, but it was not meant to be. Arnaudo scored the win ahead of Dupuis, Della Vecchia, Turner Brown, who had the fastest lap of the race, and Wolny.

Micro MAX was the next class to complete their main event and they were led to the lights by Dominic Vera and Marina Brandao based on their prefinal results as Nolan Goulart and Zayne Burgess were in row two ahead of Bernardo Gubert and Jayden Francisco in fifth and sixth. Vera and Goulart maintained the top two positions at the close of lap one of the 12-lap final as Gubert and Burgess were both able to move forward at the expense of Brandao. Brandao responded a lap later to move back into P4 as the front four drivers began to break away from the ones behind. As second through fourth began to battle, Vera was able to open the gap to over one second at the one-third race distance. Settling down behind him and getting organized to make a challenge over the remaining eight laps, Goulart led Gubert but they were not as quick as Vera upfront. Vera stretched his lead to 2.422 at mid-race distance despite not being the quickest driver on track. Continuing his steady pace up front, Vera had opened the gap to over four seconds with three laps to go as he looked to have the race in the bag. Behind Vera, Brandao ran in the second position with Kimo Ahmad in third. Joshua Bergman was making moves and found himself in the top-five with two laps remaining as Goulart ran fifth. Over the final two laps, the top four remained unchanged with Vera taking the win ahead of Brandao, who earned the fastest race lap. Ahmad was third ahead of Bergman and Goulart.

Julian Rivera led the field to the green flag in Mini MAX as Jeremy St-Cyr lined up on his outside ahead of Alexis Baillargeon and Royce Vega in third and fourth. Baillargeon jumped to the point at the end of lap one as St-Cyr fell to fifth behind Rivera in second and Lourenco Varela in third. Valera moved to second at the expense of Rivera as St-Cyr was looking to battle back getting by Vega for fourth. With positions changing every lap, Baillargeon continued to lead on lap three, but it was Rivera now in second ahead of Varela a lap later as Valera had fallen to fourth with St-Cyr back into third. For a few laps things had settled down but at mid-race distance, it all kicked off up front. Rivera had taken over the point only to lose it right away. Valera was back by St-Cyr as Vega ran fifth. Albert Friend, who started last in the 28-kart field, had moved his way up to seventh and looked like he could be a threat for the podium. Lap eight saw Rivera take the lead ahead of St-Cyr, dropping Baillargeon to third but it was Baillargeon who was back to the lead a lap later with Rivera and Vega in tow. A couple of karts in the opening pack got together slowing their momentum but Rivera still led as Friend moved into sixth. With the top-five all together as the last lap board was displayed, Friend had moved to third behind Rivera and Baillargeon. With the front two battling and defending, Friend was ready to pounce and did so moving to second as Baillargeon scored the win. Rivera completed his race on the podium in third with St-Cyr and Leo Da Silva rounding out the top-five. Royce Vegas fell way down the running order after contact to finish 21^st.

The combined DD2 MAX and DD2 Master MAX field was next on track as Leonardo Reis and Harley Keeble occupied the front row ahead of 2023 Winter Trophy Champion Gianluca Savaglio and fellow Canadian Oliver Bedard. The 16-lap final would start with a waved-off start on the first attempt, and then red flagged to remove three drivers from the track that were late to the grid and late to enter the race including 2023 Champion Savaglio, Pablo Benites, and Michael Wiggins. Up front, it was Reis who led Keeble, Bedard, Taskinen, and Nicolas Guillaume at the end of lap one. The next five laps remained pretty tame as the front five remained unchanged with Reis opening a gap of nearly half a second over Keeble, but the Sodi kart driver responded the next two laps to close the gap to nothing. Making a bid for the lead on lap eight and losing momentum, Reis was back safely out front for the time being. Keeble began to mount a second attack for the lead and went purple on lap nine scoring the fastest race lap. Lapped traffic would get in the way on lap 11 as Bedard was able to get by Reis and Keeble to take the lead and Keeble was by Reis on lap 12 as he looked to run down Bedard. A lap later, Bedard continued to lead Reis, and now Taskinen and Guillaume as Keeble fell to fifth. Bedard drove to the win ahead of Reis, Taskinen, Keeble, who was able to make it by Guillaume on the final lap to finish just shy of the podium in fourth. In the DD2 MAX Master category, it was Michael McLean who was the driver to beat earning the victory on Sunday.

Former Formula One driver Rubens Barrichello led the Master MAX field to the green flag ahead of Mindy Loyer and Laurentiu Mardan. The driver to beat all week long, Barrichello opened an eight-tenths of a second gap by the end of lap two as Loyer and Mardan continued ahead David Laplante and Danillo Ramalho who rounded out the top-five. By lap six, Barrichello and Loyer were making it a two-kart race up front as they had now opened more than a second gap on the third-place runner which was Laplante who was by Mardan on lap seven. Loyer went purple on lap ten top close the gap to 0.294 on Barrichello with six laps remaining. Laplante was the quickest driver on track on lap 11 as he closed the gap to within a second of Barrichello as Ramalho moved to fifth. Barrichello poured it on at the end to drive to the win ahead of Loyer and Laplante with Nicolas Picot and Ramalho fourth and fifth.

It was Diego Ramos and Eduardo Barrichello who led the field to the lights in the Senior MAX main event with Canadians DeMelo and Ingratta following behind. Ramos and Barrichello held their positions at the front as Ingratta was able to sneak by DeMelo on the opening lap with Nolan Bower in fifth. DeMelo leap-frogged Ingratta on lap two to regain the third position as Bower was able to get by a lap later. Ramos continued to lead at the end of lap four as he and Barrichello were one second ahead of DeMelo, who had just turned the fastest lap of the race. Perennial front-runner Ryan Norberg was also on a tear as he moved into the top-five on lap four and on lap five, he grabbed the quickest lap of the race. With six laps down and ten to go, the front five were separated by only two seconds as they all played the high-speed game of chess to position themselves in the best position possible. Mid-race distances saw Ramos open a small gap on Barrichello, and by lap ten, that had opened to three-quarters of a second. With five laps to go, it was Ramos’ race to lose. Expanding the margin on Barrichello to one second, Barrichello was one second ahead of DeMelo in third as he tried to keep Bower and Norberg behind him. Lap 14 saw Mossman slide by Norberg for fifth but it was all Ramos up front. Ramos scored an easy win over Barrichello as some last-lap movement saw DeMelo finish just ahead of Norberg, Garrison, and Ingratta.

With the first weekend of the RMC Winter Trophy now complete, teams and competitors will shift their focus to next weekend where the series will conclude at the Orlando Kart Center.

For information on the RMC Winter Trophy, please email Julieta Fernandez at Info@RTXKarting.com.