Kelowna teen racer finishes fourth
Kacic, 15, misses podium in race won by 17-year-old from North Vancouver
“This is probably the happiest fourth we’ll ever have.”
So said Danny Kacic minutes after his 15-year old son Marco took the checkered flag in the second of two Toyo Tire F1600 Super Series races during last weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
The Sunday morning result for the young Kelowna racer salvaged what had been an otherwise frustrating couple of days, with mechanical issues in practice and qualifying putting him far back on the grid. Those issues — specifically clutch and brakes — persisted in the first race though Kacic did manage to move up two places from his 11th place at the start to finish in the top 10. That race was won by Kacic’s Exclusive Autosport teammate Kellen Ritter, a 17-year-old hotshot from North Vancouver. In fact, the weekend belonged to Ritter, who also won the second F1600 race of the weekend. He currently sits second place in the driver’s standings heading into this weekend’s races at Mosport. The second race was cut short of racing laps as a full course yellow ate into the timed event following two cars touching and spinning off into the walls along the front straight.
Like his dad, Marco was pleased with his result in the final, in which he started from 11th and made it all the way into second place before falling back to fourth.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t a podium, but it is as close as you can get,” Marco said of missing out on a third-place finish by just two one-hundredths of a second. “It was about half a car length.”
Like Marco, Danny was focusing on the positives of what both of them said was a frustrating weekend.
“Part of me is super thrilled with the fourth,” said Danny in the pits following the final race, “but part of me knows what Marco can do.”
The 15-year old will have three more chances to climb that podium this weekend during the VARAC Vintage Grand Prix weekend at Mosport.