GRAND FINAL 2008 - Day 28.11.2008
After a handful of days where rain was
expected but didn’t happen, it finally showed up
early Friday morning at the La Conca International Circuit
in Muro Leccese, Italy. This meant the morning warm ups
were run on a slippery track which showed off who could
handle the tricky conditions. Although the lap times fell
off by 6-8 seconds per lap, it’s always interesting
to watch the drivers search through different lines in
every corner trying to find grip.
In the first Junior Max heat race, groups
A vs. B, it was to be a showdown between polesitter Dylan
Lahaye and second place qualifier Axcil Jefferies. As
it turned out, both drivers had problems sending them
back through the field. By the end Argentinean Facundo
Chapur and Estonian Aavo Talvar fought over the lead with
the win going to Chapur by just .087 seconds.
The second race of the day, Junior groups
C and D, had a magnificent fight among four karts. Unfortunately
it was not for the lead as young Australian Joshua Demaio
checked out and streaked away to an 8+ second victory.
Race three pitted the Max groups A and
B for 12 laps. By this time the track, while still slippery,
was dry enough for Mojo racing slicks. The start of the
heat was rather odd as there was no big crash, but several
small ones that sent nearly half the field scrambling
through the grass. Among them was polesitter Martin Pierce.
By the end the victor was Morgan Riche of France by one
and a half seconds over Swede Jesper Rossler.
The UK’s Ben Cooper took command
of race four from the start leaving second place to be
fought over by Sotaro Mimura of Japan, Australia’s
David Sera, Kiwi Josh Hart and Chris Lock from the UK.
Sotaro eventually took command of second at the checkered
flag by .8 of a second over David Sera. By the time the
DD2s were on the grid for race five, the sun was shining
brightly and the rain was just a memory. Defending DD2
champion Pier-Luc Ouellette had never lost a heat race
going back to last year’s finals, nor had he spent
any time behind another driver. This streak ended on lap
three as New Zealand driver Ryan Urban stuck his CRG DD2
past Ouellete in the last corner. From that point the
two ran a close battle exchanging the lead a few times.
In the end Urban prevailed by just over a tenth of a second,
ending Pier-Luc’s run of victories.
Heat Race Six was another hard fought
battle between four drivers. South African Leeroy Poulter
led for most of the race but was passed very near the
end by Frenchman Damien Vuillaume. Behind Poulter were
Denis Thum of Germany and fellow South African and four-time
Grand Final competitor Ralph Odendaal. After the lunch
break it was time for the second round of Junior Max heat
races. The beautiful sunshine we’d been enjoying
was becoming threatened by dark clouds, but it was still
dry for the time being. It was 1:50 PM when Dylan Lahaye
led the field of 36 to the green flag for 8 laps of competition.
After a hard fought battle, Jo Riley brought his Zanardi
kart home in first for a well-deserved victory over Lahaye.
Heat Race Eight started with Axcil Jefferies
on pole with Belgian Vincent Jewell alongside. Axcil fought
valiantly to retain the lead but battled a number of issues,
eventually falling to tenth at the checkered. Up front
for his second win of the day was Facundo Chapur, who’s
starting to make winning look easy. As the second round
of Max class karts were about to leave Parc Ferme, the
rain started to fall again causing a mad scramble for
the mechanics to change tires. Although they were allowed
to change to treaded wet tires, the chassis setups remained
as they would be for a dry track and thus the karts would
be a handful to drive. Mastering these conditions the
best to come home with his second win of the day was Ben
Cooper. However, the highlight of the race was the polesitter
Martin Pierce who spun on the first lap, fell back behind
20th place, yet still managed to charge back up through
the field to finish fourth. In Heat Race 10, Jesper Rossler
followed up his second place in Heat three with a commanding
win over his fellow countryman Michael Andersson. By this
point the rain was really coming down. As such the fastest
runners were still over 20 seconds a lap slower than they
had been in the dry.
The penultimate race of the day pitted
DD2 groups A vs. C. After having his win streak broken
earlier in the day, Pier-Luc Ouellette set about starting
a new one. But, it wasn’t that easy. Henrijs Grube
of Latvia passed Pier-Luc on the second lap and started
pulling away. But the race for the win wasn’t over
as Ouellette stayed behind him and got back in front with
a couple laps remaining to take a great win.
The last heat of the day saw the DD2
groups B and d in action. By this time the rain had slowed
down a bit but the winds were blowing so strong it was
difficult just walking through the pits. Under these difficult
conditions, Damien Vuillaume was able to best Dutchman
Maik Barten by just .090 seconds for the win. As the teams
were packing up for the end of the day, the storm was
coming in hard. Many of the team members were busy securing
their pit areas for a hard storm ahead. Hopefully everything
will be safe and tomorrow’s racing action will be
just as incredible as today’s was.
P I T B I T S
DD2 number 223 is being driven this week
by Hong Kong’s Luca Ferigutti. The 28-year-old has
been racing karts for two and a half years and says his
main goal in racing is to just enjoy himself as much as
possible. He sais he had always been interested in karting
and when a new race track opened up in Hong Kong it was
his chance to get involved. Luca was born in Switzerland
but moved to Hong Kong in 2002 when the family business,
a diamond setting company, moved there. He added that
so far the Grand Finals has been a unique experience and
has enjoyed meeting other drivers from around the world.
Austrian DD2 competitor Dominik Kraihammer
is very thankful just to be at the Grand Finals. The 18-year-old
from Salzburg is currently serving his compulsive military
service and had to receive special dispensation just to
get here to La Conca. It truly was a last-minute deal
that saw a team member waiting at the gate with Dominik’s
credentials in hand so that he could be rushed to the
practice grid as soon as he arrived. Through all this
he was able to make all but the first practice session
and has acclimated himself well and is running good. This
is to be expected since this is his third Grand Final
and he has been gaining a lot of experience in the Euro
Challenge and by running a Lamborghini in the European
GT3 series.
33-year-old Marc Miller of Holland, Michigan
in the United States is making his first Grand Finals
appearance after a racing career that has lasted 22 years.
Over that time he has raced every type of kart imaginable
from dirt to super speedway.More than just a competitor,
Marc has decided to use his appearance at the Grand Finals
to promote the race Now for Autism charity that he and
his wife Jackie started four years ago after their first
son was diagnosed at the age of 18 months. Mark has worked
tirelessly to get out the message that 1 in 150 children
are diagnosed with some form of Autism and that early
detection is the key to a better life for these children.
For those that have a desire to help,
they can learn more and make donations through the organization’s
website at www.racenowforautism.org.
Making his third Grand Finals appearance
is Danish driver Dennis Ladefoged. The 26-year-old hails
from Viborg and has been racing karts since the age of
5. He says he really enjoys the challenge of the competition
at the Grand Finals because it’s similar to the
Euro Challenge. Although Dennis demonstrates the talent
necessary to race in the higher formulas, he says he just
wants to keep racing karts because of the high level of
competition and affordability. Like many drivers beyond
the junior age, Dennis lists the Brazilian age Ayrton
Senna as his racing idol.
Indy Dontje hails from Schoorl, Holland
and is making his third Grand Finals appearance in only
six years of karting competition. Indy says he got interested
in racing because his father also raced and when he took
his young son to a track at the age of 10, Indy knew that
was what he wanted to do.
Indy says Fernando Alonso is his favorite
driver but says he has no aspirations for Formula One.
Rather his goals are to race in either Formula 3 or GP2.
Of all the tracks he’s run on, he rates the Al Ain
circuit that hosted last year’s Grand Finals as
his favorite.
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