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It was an idea first brought to
Toronto Kart Club by representatives from SuperMoto Canada, back in January of
2006. Many months and hundreds of man-hours later, the 2006 Hershey Centre
Grand Prix was brought to reality on August 12 and 13.
The 2-day racing event was preceded by 2 weeks of non-stop labour, designing
(and re-designing) the track, measuring and marking out the track on the asphalt
surface, transporting several transport- truckloads of hay bales, then setting all the
bales in place, as well as several kilometers of fencing.
There were other logistics to be dealt with, such as burying the electronic
timing loop and magnetic Alfano timing strip into the asphalt, setting up a
P.A. system, setting up a scale house, etc, etc.
Half a dozen drivers brought their karts to the site to test the track, and offer
their feedback so the executives could do some fine tuning before the final
track configuration was marked out. Roger Peart of ASN Canada FIA also
made repeated trips to the site to ensure that everything was safe. All of
the preparation and set-up work was carried out by a small group of dedicated
volunteers, during the record-breaking heat wave.
Karters were
treated to a street-race course, which was described as "wicked fast",
"very twisty", "so sick" and "awesome", just to
list a few quotes from the drivers themselves. They were also blessed with
sunny skies, a light breeze, and ideal temperatures ranging from 24 degrees to 27
degrees over the 2-day event.
Saturday allowed racers to have 4 controlled practice sessions to learn the
course and make adjustments. At the conclusion of practice, timed
qualifying heats were run, with the fast qualifiers in each class as follows:
Novice -- Scott Nagel, # 31
F1-K Cadet -- Artem Korolev, #91
Junior Light -- Austin Milwain, #14
Junior Heavy -- A.J. Emms, #14
Junior Rotax -- Melissa Curran, #7
Senior Honda -- Phil Wang, #73
Senior Rotax -- Michael Iamundi, #35
F1-K Senior -- Phil Wang, #73
Sunday morning featured the pre-final heats, followed by the Final Race Heats in
the afternoon. The large spectator crowd was treated to live play-by-play
commentary by Aaron DeHeus. The media also got involved, with coverage of
the event by City-TV, CP24 News, Rogers Television, Mississauga News, and the
Toronto Star.
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The top 3 finishers in each class
were:
Novice
1 - Matteus Makos
2 - Scott
Nagel
3 - Jordan Kroon
Junior Light
1 - Anthony Furfari
2 - Rui Teixeira
3 - Spencer
Todd
Junior Heavy
1 - A.J. Emms
2 - Neelan Nadesan
3 - Nicholas Pinti
F1-K Cadet
1 - Artem Korolev
2 - Anthony Furfari
3 - Garett
Grist
Junior Rotax
1 - Jesse Facchini
2 - Melissa Curran
3 - Neelan Nadesan
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Senior Honda
1 - Michael Iamundi
2 - Scott Walker
3 - Phil Wang
Senior Rotax
1 - Darren White
2 - Michael Iamundi
3 - Andrew Abbruzzese
F1-K Senior
1 - Scott Walker
2 - Alan Wilkinson
3 - Phil Wang
Masters
1 - Paul Draganac
2 - Robert Wright
3 - Stefano Radaelli
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