When southern Ontario karters recently learned of the cancellation of the long-running Sunoco Ron Fellows Karting Championship, the community was in a state of disbelief and uncertainty.

Started in 2002, this series has provided the basis for hundreds of young racers to hone their skills and compete in a large variety of age and car classes. And, with Canada's top road racer as a hero to aspire to, the series was very popular with younger racers.

"At this time, I feel that we need to spend more time to better evaluate the competitive needs of the sport of karting in Ontario and how best to provide value to the karting community and our sponsors," Fellows said in a prepared statement. "I thank the participants and their families, the officials and commercial sponsors for their past dedication and support of the championship. For 2008, we will continue our support of karting in other ways and look hard at the future beyond 2008."

But no sooner did karters have a chance to react to the news when last weekend a new replacement series was established.

To be called the Ontario Regional Karting Championship, this new body has set a five-round tour to begin in May, with a stop at Cameron Motorsports Park in Mount Hope.

"It was definitely a surprise," said Bob Cameron late last week about the Sunoco/Fellows pullout. "But, with the new ORKC, it will be status quo, and the kids will have a place to race."

Sponsored by karting website ekartingnews.ca, the ORKC series will start at Goodwood, then head to the Cameron Mount Hope facility, the Barrie Grand Prix, Mosport International and finish at Innisfil. According to Cameron, the switch will be pretty well seamless.

"The series is there," he went on. "All the rules and regulations are identical. We're going to carry on."

There was concern in the karting faction that, with the demise of the Sunoco/Fellows series, the two-year-old Brian Stewart Racing Karting Championship would be the only outlet for kart racing in Ontario, but the Woodbridge-based BSRKC will have to share the racing with the new organization.

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Port Colborne's Rob Becker will be back to defend his title in the Can-Am Stock/Super Stock drag race series, which recently announced its schedule for 2008. The 12-race tour includes seven stops at Toronto Motorsports Park, one at Lancaster Raceway Park and four at Grand Bend. The series began in 1996, and features some of the best-running and appearing Stock and Super Stock classes of drag cars. For more information, go to www.smithperformance.com.

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Canada has finally captured the gold in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport this season.

Rookie driver Robert Wickens of Toronto took the Sprint race in Round 7 of the series at the Durban, South African street circuit, Canada's first victory since Sean McIntosh's Indonesian Feature race triumph in the inaugural 2005-06 season. With three events left, Canada is presently eighth in the standings.

Tim Miller is a longtime motorsports writer and author of several books on the sport.