Picture by KenJohnson / Rotax

Ferodo's Leeroy Poulter wins Rotax DD2 World Kart title

Sunday at the La Conca, Italy dawned bright with a cool, crisp feeling in the air at the 2008 Rotax Max Grand Finals.

Although Ferodo supported Leeroy Poulter wasn't the fastest driver in the morning warm-up, he was working on finding a handling set-up that would see his kart consistent throughout the final.

The battle for the lead of the Pre-Final was one of the best seen at the Grand Finals. From pole it was defending champion, Canada ’s Pier- Luc Ouellette, followed closely by New Zealand ’s Ryan Urban and Damien Vuillaume. Positions changed often and at the end of the race Pier-Luc won by a scant 0.057s.

While all this was going on Poulter kept out of trouble and finished fifth, but was confident about the final.

Poulter had been lurking at the front all week long with most people expecting either defending champion Pier-Luc Ouellette, Ryan Urban or Vuillaume to stand on top of the podium when all was said and done. However, Vuillaume never got the chance, having spun on the first lap.

This left Poulter in the lead with Ouellette on his heels. On lap seven Ouellette did manage to get by for the lead once but Poulter was not to be denied and re-took the lead on the next lap. At the finish the Canadian made an attempt for the lead but Leeroy was ready for it and at the finish Poulter was DD2 World Champion by .271 seconds. Holland ’s Maik Barten came third on the road but was penalized 10 seconds for a jumped start. This put American Stuart Marsell into third, the best Grand Finals finish ever for his country’s team.

Poulter’s win, while not shocking, did catch some people off-guard, but those who'd watched him throughout the year weren't at all surprised to see Nissan's former Production Car champion on the top step of the podium.