TOUGH COMPETITION IN WACKERSDORF CHALLENGES
THE EURO
02.06.2008
With everything set to be a fantastic
weekend’s racing at the second round of the Rotax
Euro Challenge hosted by the ProKart Raceland circuit
in Wackersdorf, Germany, the ideal conditions and facilities
were overshadowed somewhat by those slightly over-eager
competitors who tried to win the race in the first two
corners. It was a case of the best bringing out the worst
in some of the racing. The officials eventually took some
blatant action to slow everything down for the finals.
However, nothing could take away from the well-deserved
results achieved by the winners, who overcame the fierce
competition to take the spoils and add to their standings
in the championship.
Senior Max
Austria’s Kevin Reichard racing with the Intrepid
Force Rotax team continued his early pace from open practice,
clocking the best lap in qualifying (51.054) by an outstanding
0.248 seconds over round one pace-setter Chris Lock. Reichard
went to the top of the timesheet on his first lap in the
opening group session and just kept getting quicker. “We
came here two weeks ago for testing, working out what
was best with chassis’ and engines, so we only had
to make minor adjustments at the event. The important
thing now is the racing and staying focused to get the
best results.”
When it came to Saturday’s qualifying
heats, it was Lock who dominated the 78-kart field. He
won all four of his races comfortably, to start on pole
for the pre-final. Reichard was the quickest driver on
the track and managed to take the honours in two races,
to line-up on the front row as well. The remaining four
heats each saw different drivers take the flag, with lots
of action-packed racing.
The Pre-final claimed the hopes of several
potential front-runners, after at least one-third of the
field ended up strewn across turn two on the opening lap.
Reichard and team-mate Josh Hart off row two were amongst
the drivers scrambling to rejoin if possible. Round one
winner from France, Mike Joossens, looked as if he might
repeat his faultless performance from last year at Wackersdorf
when he took advantage of the situation to chase Lock
in the lead. It was the defending European champ Ben Cooper
who ended Joossens chances, passing him for 2nd early
on, but unable to bridge the gap of over three seconds
that Lock eventually held as he crossed the line. Luke
Varley made it a British trifecta to overcome Mike Simpson,
in a three-way battle as well with Hannes Van Asseldonk.
The Dutch driver secured 4th in the latter stages and
Joossens split them to take 5th.
For the first time in the five year history
of the Euro Challenge, the Senior Max final was started
after the normal two formation laps with two additional
laps under waving yellow flags, in single-file with the
new “slow” board regulation (pace car) enforced.
In the interest of safety, the officials opted for the
variation to avoid any unnecessary carnage that was evident
in the pre-final earlier in the day. This had an obvious
effect on the closeness of the racing in the initial laps
to follow.
Although pole-sitter Lock grabbed the
lead, the RL Racing Team driver was quickly overpowered
by Cooper off P2 and the pair swapped places in the fight,
until lap 6 of the 18-lap decider. A disappointed Luke
Varley, who triumphed in the heat races, was off the track
after only a lap, parking his Gillard kart and forced
to watch what could have been. Getting a jump at the start
which he was later penalised 10 seconds for, Joossens
in 3rd held Simpson at bay for three laps. But the British
Birel driver had kept his new tyres for the last race
and soon cruised passed. Cooper also fell victim to Simpson
on lap 7, letting Lock stretch his lead in the process.
It was a close battle between two of the strongest drivers
the class has seen, but it ended in frustration at half-race
distance when an optimistic move saw Cooper and Simpson
collide. Cooper continued further down the order but his
rival’s attempt to restart failed.
Van Asseldonk assumed 2nd, followed by
Antoine Barthon and suddenly Reichard appeared in 5th,
having carved-up the field from grid 17. With 6 laps to
go, the Austrian was sitting in P2 and taking half a second
off Lock’s lead as the laps wound-down. Race pace-setter
Niek Vos led the next group in 6th and was clearly fast,
with a spectacular drive to come through from starting
back on row 13. Under instruction from his team manager,
Lock circulated at a steady pace to maintain his lead
over Reichard for the undisputed victory. Van Asseldonk
and Barthon led Joossens, who was relegated to P15 by
the stewards, therefore giving Vos a top 5. James Bean
was 6th and Cooper salvaged 7th after he went back to
mid-field following the incident with Simpson. Heat winner
Yoann Aubergeon was 8th ahead of 15-year-old Imre Birizdo
and New Zealand champ Josh Hart.
Chris Lock is now the new leader of the
championship, but he admits it wasn’t the easiest
result.
“I was quick but it was really, really close between
a few of us and the track changed so much with each session.
I don’t think the start format helped me in the
final; it made it easier for everyone to stay close. I
was struggling to get my tyres up to temperature in the
first laps when I was in the battle with Cooper and Simpson,
but when they crashed I was able to get a break. After
two rounds, I think we’re in a position to win the
title now and want to thank everyone for their support:
RL Racing, manager Steve Armstrong, Ogden Engines, Tillett
Seats, Strawberry Racing for the Tony Karts, my dad and
family.”
Junior Max
Following some bad luck at the opening round of the series
in France last March, Japanese driver Ryuuya Fujie made
no mistakes when it came to the official timed practice
at Wackersdorf, to take pole position in Junior Max (52.359).
He was fast for the past two days in the free practice
and did his best time Friday in qualifying. With the track
conditions always changing here and the level of grip
increasing, Fujie claims it suits his driving style. “More
grip to drive on is my favourite! I was hoping to get
a top 5 in qualifying, so I am very happy.” His
mechanic and technician changed very little from their
testing the day before. The gap to Parolin’s Simone
Favaro of Italy was 0.035 sec’s.
With 42 entries, six heat races were
contested and Fujie sealed the win for HRS Motorsport
in all three he started. Polesitter from round one in
Salbris Kevin Korjus won two heats and winner from the
Salbris event Axcil Jefferies, took a first as well. The
World number 2 and number 1, Fujie and Korjus, were set
to make up the front row for the pre-final, while Jefferies
suffered the fate of being pushed out from P2 during one
race, so would have to start back on grid 19.
A pile-up of 11 karts on turn 4 after
the pre-final began, brought the “slow” board
and waving yellow flags out. Unfortunately, one of the
drivers with the potential to win the race on P6 - Toni
Alarcon, had a technical problem that prevented him from
continuing. Rookie driver Peter Hoevenaars led the crawling
train of drivers around the Raceland circuit until the
green flag was shown. It was Fujie into 1st on the restart,
while Korjus slotted in for 2nd ahead of his two TKP team-mates
Ramon Rietveld and Hoevenaars, dicing for 3rd place. Rietveld
then challenged for 2nd but Korjus was able to hang on
to it, as they drove nose-to-tail for some time. Hoevenaars
lost three positions, however fought back to finish 4th
ahead of round one runner-up Josh Webster.
Well, based on the unfavourable start
in the preceding race, the junior final was another case
of starting after the formation laps with two laps in
single-file under the yellow “slow” board,
as instigated by the race officials as a preventative
safety measure. The Japanese driver surrendered to Korjus,
as he snatched the lead being chased by Rietveld. Within
four laps, the 14-year-old CRG pilot was back in front
for keeps and went on to take the win with the fastest
lap of the final. Nikita Tetyukhin overtook Korjus at
half-race distance on lap 7 to give Russia its first appearance
on the podium at the European Rotax championship. Not
too far back, the majority of the field was bunched-up
together, as the intensity of the race for positions showed.
Korjus faced a challenge from Hoevenaars
as the race end closed-in, running a fraction off the
tar and helpless to stop the young Dutch driver claim
his second 3rd place in as many rounds. With a gap of
over two seconds to 5th, Danish Swiss Hutless team-mates
Christian Sorenson and Mads Thomsen had their own little
battle happening, with Alarcon giving it everything to
be up to 7th from P34 at the chequered flag. Olivier Calkoen
and Thomas Jager followed, ahead of Artem Markelov of
Russia rounding-out the top 10. After starting on grid
3, Rietveld dropped back to 11th and out of contention,
while Webster who fell to 13th, was given the ‘driving
standards’ flag.
The quiet, unassuming winner of the class
who generally shows little expression, was overwhelmed
by his success in Germany. After calling home to tell
his father the great news, Ryuuya Fujie was extremely
happy and proud of his result. “The Euro Challenge
has very competitive racing with the Estonian and Dutch
drivers, in teams like TKP, who are good.” Fujie
also thanked everyone who has helped to make this win
possible: the HRS Motorsport Team, his mechanics and his
father.
Rotax Max Masters
One of only two drivers competing in two classes in the
championship, former World and European Max number one
Cristiano Morgado cemented pole for the qualifying heats,
when he clocked the best lap in timed practice Friday
(52.125). On his return to racing Karts, although he is
still driving in the Formula VW class in South Africa,
Morgado is enjoying the competition at the Euro. “The
Masters is a small class but it has some good drivers.
It’s the first time for me at this track; I like
it but it’s quite tight and grippy, where I personally
prefer more fast and flowing. I think the set-up was right
for qualifying but I’m sure there are a few more
bits we can do to the kart to be better.”
Proving to be too difficult to beat,
Morgado overcame the challenges at the start of heats
one and two, winning both by a significant margin. Following
an accident he was involved in at the start of the Rotax
DD2 race Saturday afternoon, the polesitter decided to
miss the last qualifying heat to ensure he was 100% race-fit.
Also running both classes, current World DD2 Masters number
one Christophe Adams had the benefit of Morgado’s
absence from the Max class and won heat three.
The pre-final was a close race amongst
the top three, with Morgado not taking the grid for the
same reason that prevented him from racing the final event
on the program the day before. Winner of the Max Masters
class at the Rotax Grand Finals in the UAE last November,
Colin Davis did not appear to have the pace he needed
this round to be so competitive. The ’07 Euro Champ
was 2nd at the start of the 16-lap race until last year’s
Wackersdorf winner Jerome Bourquard soon got past. Adams
lost his lead not long before half way to the French driver
as well, although they diced for positions in the laps
to follow. Davis was between them but unable to stay up
there, eventually dropping back to settle for 3rd. It
was Bourquard who won from Adams in the end. In 4th and
5th John Van Wyk and Radim Feber were trying to outsmart
each other, until Van Wyk got the edge.
With visions of the round two final from
2008, Bourquard was confident of making it a double. He
increased his lead, making the most of Davis and Adams
dicing behind him, while they also came under attack from
Van Wyk. The South African got into 2nd at one stage within
the first laps but couldn’t keep Adams from reclaiming
2nd place. The racing between Van Wyk and Davis kept the
spectators glued to the track action, as the two fought
it out lap-by-lap, each with their own special parts of
the circuit for passing the other back. Radim Feber then
had the chance to catch up, ideally placed to capitalise
on any opportunity.
In the meantime, Adams reeled Bourquard
in and took the lead on lap 14 of 18. Just at the same
time, the duo some way back had come to grief, leaving
the way for Feber to go through. Davis ran wide onto the
grass and Van Wyk pulled a gap, only to see the ‘driving
standards’ flag shown for his supposedly unsporting
behaviour. The lead swapped yet again and an unsuccessful
attempt to regain it by Adams, gave Bourquard the victory.
The Team BRK driver maintained his smooth style to out-drive
the Belgian. After the race, Adams was in fact excluded
from the results by the officials on a technical infringement,
so 2nd went to Feber of the Czech Republic, with Van Wyk
posting the best lap in 3rd. Davis was 4th, closely followed
by Georges Popoff and Mark Thompson.
Saying he preferred to have Morgado there
to race against in the Masters, Jerome Bourquard also
admitted he believed he was in with a better chance to
win without him on the grid. “In the end it was
very close in the final. I was waiting for Adams to overtake
me but once I got him back, I knew I could keep the lead
for the last two laps before the end. I’m very happy
now, though yesterday I was a bit lost because I was slow.
Today I had the right combination, so it was good.”
Rotax DD2
Just short of a full grid, the 2-speed DD2 class is noticeably
getting more competitive with some former World, European
and current national champions in the field. The best
qualifying lap set by Leeroy Poulter (50.499) in the first
group session was over a second faster than that of Wesleigh
Orr’s pole position time from last year. As with
all the senior classes this season, the new MOJO D2 tyre
has contributed to the quickest laps being at least one
second faster than the previous year’s.
Maik Barten topped the next session and fractionally missed
taking grid one by 0.004 of a second.
From Wednesday onwards, Poulter revealed they were well
aware they were the one’s to beat. “We could
see during the practice that we were ahead of everyone
else, so I was confident that we could do well today.
The kart’s been great from the first day and just
got better the longer I was out there. I think we could
have done better but got held up a little, which was a
shame.”
Due to the class entries originally being
oversubscribed, the program allowed for six heat races.
Poulter was the winner in two, losing the lead in the
third when he and fellow countryman Orr tangled early
on. Orr was excluded from the remainder of the race. Local
driver Denis Thum began an impressive weekend with two
wins as well. In the late afternoon, Cristiano Morgado
and Robert Gilmour were not able to continue in their
final race, following an incident after the start that
caused some major damage to the equipment, not to mention
giving Cristiano a slight headache.
Thum was on pole for the pre-final and
slowed the pace for the start. He kept the lead ahead
of Poulter on the outside and Barten, who was looking
to pass on the next laps. Coming from row 6, Orr had made
up 8 places by lap 3 and attempted to take 3rd from Barten,
who claims he didn’t see him there going into turn
2. It was deemed as being too aggressive on Orr’s
behalf and he was given the black flag, also ending his
finals racing for Sunday. So with no direct pressure then,
Poulter focused on catching Thum out in front, overtaking
him for the lead with 11 laps to go. Barten kept his momentum
and moved up on Thum in 3rd, trying as well but was unable
to make the pass. In only his third DD2 race, Dominik
Kraihamer had regained some ground lost at the start,
to take 4th place in front of Poland’s Seweryn Szczepanik.
The final was a nail-biter, as the lead
continually changed after Poulter led the race from Barten,
only to have Thum in up to 1st within the opening lap.
As the leaders alternated, the battle for places raged
on not far behind them. Gilmour was pushing hard from
P10 in a close race with current Euro vice champ Dennis
Kroes and Bela Szilagyi, who was later squeezed out by
Christophe Adams, then forced to retire. Wearing down
the leader, Poulter made his move on Thum on lap 6 as
Barten also narrowed the gap. As they bunched-up, Kraihamer
4th was consistently posting the quickest lap, while the
lead changed yet again and once more. Before Thum could
counteract Poulter’s move, Barten split them to
take 2nd. For Poulter, this was perfect.
It was non-stop action as every chance
saw the top order positions changing, allowing Poulter
to get away. Kraihamer finally clinched 2nd for good and
left the other two to fight it out with around 7 laps
left. Within minutes of the race finish, Barten tried
to pass Thum on the tight right-hander leading onto the
back straight and tapped his rear bumper. As Barten accelerated
to have another shot at taking 3rd, they made contact
side-by-side, spinning to opposite sides of the track.
Thum rejoined but Barten had hit the tyre barrier and
his race was over. The final podium place was then handed
to Szczepanik right behind them and Gilmour savoured 4th,
with Kroes 5th as the first of the Masters drivers home
in the DD2 class. Patrick Pearce overcame an unlucky start
to the racing to take 6th from a disappointed Denis Thum;
Arthur D Huy was 8th then Adams and Tamsin Germain.
As he did in 2007, Leeroy Poulter made
it two rounds from two, to top the Euro Challenge points
tally yet again. This year, he’s committed to doing
all four events with the hope of taking the title. He
was almost unbeaten in every session and in the end, was
the quickest in the final race as well. “I think
Denis [Thum] was pretty competitive at the beginning,
but I also knew I was fast. It’s been a really good
weekend for us – good for Birel and for the championship.
Once we got ahead, we were good to stay there, being around
2-tenths in front of everyone else. I’d like to
thank the Kalman Motorsport team for a great job and my
mechanic Neil Curtis who’s back with me for the
first time this year, plus Ronni Sala from Birel for supporting
me now as an official team driver.”
ADAC Formula Masters test drive
As part of the prizes for the Wackersdorf round, RGMMC,
together with Team Norbert Brückner and the Team
KUG Gewinnus, gave two young drivers an invitation to
test drive the new Formula Masters ADAC cars “powered
by Volkswagen” at the Hockenheimring in Germany
in October.
This is a new Formula series that has been introduced
on the German Motorsport scene in 2008 to give aspiring
young drivers a new platform to pursue their first Formula
racing experience.
The lucky winners were Kevin Reichard in Senior Max and
Seweryn Szczepanik in the ROTAX DD2.
The prizegiving included special guests
and management of ‘BRP-Rotax’ who awarded
the trophies, assisted by Gunther Prokoph of Heidenau
and RGMMC’s Roland Geidel as the event organiser
and promoter. The drivers had the chance to pick-up some
Rotax goodies from the awards ceremony Sunday, by simply
visiting the ROTAX info and merchandise stand on the weekend
at Wackersdorf.
The championship points table as well
as information regarding all future rounds, is available
at the RGMMC homepage at www.rgmmc.com,
as well as links to complete race results at Kart Data
Live Timing www.kart-data.com
and Sunday’s finals action online at RaceWorld TV
www.raceworld.tv.
The third round of the 2008 Rotax Euro
Challenge will go to a new location for the championship
–‘Racing Arena’ Autodrom Ceská
Lípa at Sosnova, in the Czech Republic from 23
– 27 July, 2008.
Results – Round 2: Wackersdorf,
Germany 28 May – 1 June
Rotax Senior Max
1 – Christopher Lock Great Britain Tonykart RL Race
Team Ltd
2 – Kevin Reichard Austria Intrepid Intrepid Force
Rotax
3 – Hannes Van Asseldonk The Netherlands CRG CRG
Holland
Rotax Junior Max
1 – Ryuuya Fujie Japan CRG HRS Motorsport
2 – Nikita Tetyukhin Russia Zanardi AGS Racing
3 – Peter Hoevenaars The Netherlands Intrepid Team
TKP
Rotax Max Masters
1 – Jerome Bourquard France Sodikart BRK
2 – Radim Feber Czech Republic Intrepid RF Kart
Racing
3 – John Van Wyk South Africa Birel Kalman Motorsport
Rotax DD2
1 – Leeroy Poulter South Africa Birel Kalman
Motorsport
2 – Dominik Kraihamer Austria Intrepid Intrepid
Force Rotax
3 – Seweryn Szczepanik Poland M Tec M Tec
Rotax DD2 Masters
1 – Dennis Kroes The Netherlands Haase Euro Indoor
Kart RT
2 – Christophe Adams Belgium Birel Gem Sport
3 – Tamsin Germain Great Britain CRG DG Racing
MOJO Cup – Senior Max
1 – Tiffany Chittenden Great Britain Wildkart Dadson
Motorsport
2 – Urban Stare Slovenia Tonykart AMD Moste
3 – Ben Eden Great Britain Gillard Protrain Racing
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