Podcast provided by Barney and AI

By Barney The Flagman

How Mosport Turned the SNSB F4 Championship on Its Head

When the Sunday Night Skip Barber caravan pulled into Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, the paddock gossip was all about Adam Miles’ qualifying dominance, Bryan Kelly’s relentless consistency, and the nagging question of whether Colby Mann would bother to show at all. What nobody predicted was a newcomer named Nick Mazza stealing the show.

The race that refused to follow the script

Miles did exactly what he always does, converting pole into a 19-lap lead stint. But then the unexpected happened: in a heated, multi-lap battle, he was knocked off-course by Colby Mann, causing enough damage to force early pit stops for both cars and a tumble down to the back of the field. Miles eventually recovered to finish 12th and Mann to 13th—yet another reminder that outright pace is only half the battle.

Mazza, in contrast, kept it clean and drove fast, very fast. He started ninth and by Lap 6 he was in the draft of the lead trio; by Lap 12 he owned the race and never looked back, leading ten laps and claiming victory in his very first SNSB start. Kelly slipped by the chaos induced by Miles and Mann to finish second and extend a spotless run of five straight top-fives—still no wins, but still the points leader thanks to that perfect record.

Pete Mobroten completed the podium and kept his own 100 percent podium streak alive (three starts, three top-threes), while Mike Baures salvaged fourth despite lacking the raw speed to challenge Mazza up front.

And then there was Aaron La. True to form, he qualified 12th, then overtook seven cars in 34 laps to bank fifth, keeping his average positional gain north of ten spots per race.

State of the title chase after five rounds

One subplot Mosport amplified—and Imola will now test—is the knife-edge state of the championship itself. After five rounds Bryan Kelly finds himself at the top of the ledger on 204 points, still win-less but with a gleaming five-for-five record of top-five finishes that has paid out like compound interest. Adam Miles, blisteringly quick yet increasingly accident-prone, sits just eight points adrift on 196 after the Turn 5 excursion cost him a certain podium.

Colby Mann is third at 185 despite missing a round; three victories from four starts make the No. 7 F4 the season’s most efficient points-printing machine, and the looming drop-week rule means his absence hurts less than it seems. Aaron La’s crowd-pleasing charges from the back have hauled him to 178 and fourth overall—only 26 behind the lead—proving that overtaking ten cars a night is almost as valuable as taking a trophy

home. Behind La, Karl Dronke and Mike Baures are separated by a single point, 177 to 176, the very image of steady accumulation over fireworks.

The mathematics grow more intriguing once the league discards every driver’s three worst scores, a twist the paddock wags were already debating before Mosport. On that calculus Miles’ bruising incidents at Summit Point and Mosport, and Kelly’s yet-to-occur bad day, may vanish, while Mann’s no-show all but disappears. Add in Pete Mobroten’s three-for-three podium run—he is already eleventh despite only 121 points from three starts, and a perfect drop-week horizon beckons—and the top six could reshuffle quicker than a safety-car restart at Tamburello.

Which is why Imola matters. Kelly can afford to play percentages, but an outright win would blunt the drop-week advantage his rivals hold. Miles knows that raw pace alone no longer suffices; finishing cleanly is suddenly the whole ball game. Mann, Mobroten and La each turn up with nothing to lose and everything to gain—precisely the attitude that Imola’s curbs and crests devour or reward in spectacular fashion. Five rounds down, seven to go, and the championship lead is worth less than a single mis-timed downshift into Rivazza. The title fight is alive, twitchy, and heading for one of motorsport’s great truth-serum circuits.

· Bryan Kelly—five races, five top-fives, zero drama. He still hasn’t stood on the top step, yet he leaves Mosport with the points lead and the momentum peg firmly in the green.

· Adam Miles—blinding one-lap pace (average start 1.4) but now two bruisers in a row keep him playing catch-up. His 17 incident points on Sunday tell the story.

· Colby Mann—didn’t race at Mosport, but three wins from three starts mean the drop-week math still favors him if he returns soon.

· Pete Mobroten—the quiet assassin: three starts, three podiums. If he commits to the full calendar, the title picture widens.

· Aaron La—the folk hero of the midfield. Fix qualifying and he’s a podium regular; keep sand-bagging and he stays the highlight reel.

Next stop: Imola—where patience goes to die

Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari is 4.9 km of old-school peril: Tamburello’s flat-out kink into a braking zone that dares latecomers; the Variante Alta curb-hops that break suspensions and egos in equal measure; Rivazza’s double-left plunge that mocks spent tyres. It rewards meter-by-meter precision and punishes even a whisper of greed on corner exit.

· Watch for Miles—he’s lethal in high-commitment sequences like Acque Minerali, but his incident count must drop or another sure win will haemorrhage points.

· Kelly can afford to play long game. A tidy top-five keeps him atop the ledger while others self-destruct over Imola’s sausage-kerbs.

· Mann—if he returns—fits Imola’s bravado narrative perfectly; three wins from three suggests he won’t need an out-lap to be on the limit.

· Mid-pack maestros like La, Shoemaker, Bell will love the draft pull from Piratella to the Variante Alta; expect another 15-position charge from the No. 901 if he can stay tidy under braking.

Twelve rounds leave room for plot twists, but Mosport felt like the season’s hinge. Imola, with its brutal honesty, will either crystallize Bryan Kelly’s dividend strategy or hand the championship back to the hard-chargers. Tune in on the CAVOK Racing Network broadcast—because in SNSB, the next corner is always the cliff edge.