Chilliwack WCC

Two Podium's for Campbell

This past weekend were the first two rounds of the Western Canadian Karting Championships in Chilliwack, BC.  The event was under sunny skies most of the week until the rain fell on Sunday before the finals.

Campbell was comfortable in his CRG West/ Karting Canada CRG from the beginning of Thursday practice.  After two days of testing with many changes to his kart Scott was ready for the official weekend to begin.

Saturday brought a tight qualifying with Campbell in the third spot only a couple tenths behind the leaders.  In the Prefinal Scott would get spun around in turn one and by the time he got going was half a lap behind and pulled off to save the tires.  In the Final Campbell would fight for the lead but after lap 5 would lose touch with the leaders as the low pressure he had in his tires never came in. He hoped for a better day on Sunday.

The final day at the Chilliwack WCC brought cloudy skies and possibility of rain.  In qualifying Scott would again end up third close to the leaders.  The Prefinal had Campbell in a battle for second for the first part of the race till he lost touch with the 2nd place driver.  Again Scott decided to pull of to save tires and in the meantime found out that his axle was shifting causing the rear brake to drag and slow him down.  With all of this fixed he was ready for the final.  Just before the finals began the rain started to fall and by the time DD2 was up the rain was falling hard.  With a mad scramble to change over to a rain setup they made the grid.  At the start Scott would make a move to the outside and move up a spot and then a couple corners later would move past the leader and not look back.  The margin of victory would end up being 52 seconds.

Scott would like to thank his sponsors Karting Canada, CRG West, PSL Karting, K1 Racegear and Conveyor & Machine.

The next action will be Saskatoon WCC July 6-8, 2012

Campbell Dominates in Fontana!!

At the final Challenge of the America's race in Fontana, CA Scott made the trip to try out the new CRG after changing teams over the winter to CRG West. Arriving on Wednesday they put the kart together and got it ready for Thursday and Friday practice. Everything went pretty good after they went through some minor problems.

Saturday was race day and Scott qualified on pole in Masters but was DQ'd because of a fuel problem. Between then and the prefinal Campbell got the fuel problem resolved and then was ready for the race. Right off the start Campbell made the move to the front in Masters and 3rd overall. After some tough battling he would win the Masters class and finish 3rd overall. In the final Scott again would battle hard and after a long race and being not in top form yet Campbell fell into the grips of Daniel Burkett at the end of the race and would finish 1st in Masters but 4th overall.

Wanting an improvement for Sunday they made a couple changes to the kart as the track was changing and was much warmer than Saturday. In qualifying Scott would post the 3rd fastest time overall and was 6 tenths faster than the next Masters driver John Crow. In the prefinal Scott would get the jump and move up to the second spot but would get passed but Burkett on the straight. Campbell battled right back and there was some contact. This left Burkett out of the race and Scott would retire 6 laps later still holding the second fasted lap of the race. Starting the final from the back of the pack Scott would quickly make up time and move through the pack and would eventually get to the second spot but by that time Fritz Leesmann was already well spread away from the pack. Campbell would also pull away from the pack and also was posting fast laps back and forth with Leesmann. At the end Scott would finish 2nd overall and 1st in Masters.

It was a great weekend to learn the new kart and get back in the driver seat before the Western Canadian Championships starts in May in Chilliwack.

Scott would like to thank his sponsors Karting Canada, CRG West, PSL Karting and K1 Racegear for the continued support.

2011 Rotax Grand Finals

The week of November 19-26 the Rotax Max Grand Finals were held in Al Ain, UAE. This would make Scott Campbell's 8th trip to the Grand Finals trying now to repeat his performance in Italy last year for the World Championship. This trip for Team Canada would see 21 drivers on the team. With this number count it would be the biggest delegation ever at the Rotax Grand Finals.

The week started of well with Scott being near the top of every practice session. Confident in his abilities he went into qualifying with one goal in his mind. After the session was over he was fastest in his group but not fastest overall. Having made one mistake on his fast lap we would end up in 3rd overall. The stage was set for some great racing with Scott not being the only Former World Champion in the grid. There were actually 5 other World Champions in the DD2 Masters class. This was the making of some great racing.

The heat races would be a hard battle every race. With Campbell battling with his own group members most of the heats meant that every race it would be the same drivers. After the checkered flag dropped three times Scott would come out with a 2nd, 4th and a win. After the points were counted up Campbell would be starting for the outside pole position in the Pre-final.

In the Pre-final Scott got the jump with Cristiano Morgado and tried to break free. The other drivers did not start to battle behind and held the pace with the two. After the half way mark Campbell made the move for the lead and held it for only one lap as Morgado passed him back. After Scott gave up the lead his kart fell off and this meant he fell back into the clutches of the other drivers. On the final lap Campbell got moved out of the way and sent off track but was able to hold on to the 4th spot at the line.

Knowing that he must make it back up to Morgado as fast he could, Scott made a break for the front off the start of the Final but in the middle of two drivers that were closing the door very quick Campbell had to try to back out as fast as he could. Just as he thought he was going to be clear of contact the 3rd place driver Dennis Kroes made contact with his left front tire and shear the hub in half. This meant that the kart now only had 3 tires on the ground with the other tire flying back at Campbell he would catch it. The kart would come to a stop in turn one and then had to drag it off the track and continue to watch the race unfold for the marshal station in turn one. After the race was completed and the kart was back at the pits they would see that there may have been a flaw in the hub which cause the hub to break.

The event ended up not the way Campbell wanted it to but it was not a total loss for Team Canada as they would end up walking away with another World Championship with Pier Luc Ouellette and second in the Nations Cup.

Next years Grand Finals will be held in Portugal and Scott hopes to back to give it another shot at the World Championship.

Photos by Cody Schindel of Autosport Media