Monday, December 3, 2007

Rotax Max Challenge: Pier-Luc Oullette and Canada are champs

(Al Ain, United Arab Emirates), December 1st 2007 - Pier-Luc Ouellette was unbeatable this week in the United Arab Emirates. He dominated every session of the Rotax DD2 class, including the warm-ups. From memory, it is the first time a driver has ever done this. He won the final race with a 2,5 second gap which he built in the first laps and then, concentrated on his driving to avoid making any mistakes to win the final race and be the first Canadian driver to win a world title at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals.
 
To add to our joy within the Canadian delagation, our three drivers representing Canada for the Nations' Cup, Pier-Luc Ouellette in DD2, Christophe Boisclair in Rotax Senior and Mikaël Grenier in Rotax Junior, won the title over South Africa and Australia.
 
In the junior final race, the battle was furious. No less than 5 different drivers lead the race, with many contacts, especially in the last 3 laps, which changed the standings several time. Finally, Kevin Korjus, from Estonia, won the title over Ryuya Fujie from Japan and South African Caleb Williams. Tyler Wheeler was, for the second year in a row, the best Canadian driver in the final race when he finished 8th. Mikaël Grenier finished 10th and Mathieu Bourgoin finished 16th.
 
In the senior class, Ricardo Romkema from Netherlands, lead from lap 2 until the last corner but was passed by British driver Benjy Russell. His team mate Mike Simpson took third place. As for Canadian drivers, top honours when to Michael Vincec who had the best finish. After the start, he was dead last and moved up until 15th place. Christophe Boisclair crashed in the third lap and lost around 12 spots. With a damaged kart, he could not finish better than 19th.
 
In DD2, Pier-Luc Ouellette was just amazing. Behind him, however, the battle was fierce and it was finally Riche Morgan, from France, who finished 2nd, followed by Makoto Jubo, of Japan, who took third place. Scott Campbell took 7th place while Kyle Herder, again, was implicated in an accident at the start which put him at the back of the pack. He drove a fantastic race to finish 13th.
 
We must underline that Luc Sauriol took the third step of podium amongst the Master drivers in the Rotax senior class. This is his third podium at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals in the Masters category, having won the title last year in Portugal.
 
This 8th edition was fantastic for Canada and could have been even better if we consider that our drivers were amongst the fastest throughout the whole event. Unfortunately, they were not all able to translate their speed into victory.

From: Sportimage communication

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