WSK Euro Series, the situation after Round 1
The first round of WSK Euro Series has been hard-fought at the International Circuit Napoli in Sarno and launched the initial protagonists of this international series to the top of the standings. A lot of champions, as well as emerging talents, were at the start among the fields of the most famous makes and teams. It has been quite a tough weekend due also to the hot weather, but this did not prevent drivers to produce an exciting spectacle on track in the four categories KZ2, OK, OKJ and MINI.
Longhi leads the KZ2 classification. The Italian Riccardo Longhi of team BirelArt is currently leading KZ2 thanks to his great performance started from the heats when he secured P2 behind the recent winner of WSK Super Master Series from Finland, Simo Puhakka (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega). Longhi (BirelArt Racing/Birelart-TM Racing-Vega) kept his momentum in the Prefinal and Final. This allows him to lead the pack at 110 points, proceeding Puhakka at 61, as the latter had a problem at the start of the Final and ended fourth. Another BirelArt driver, Giuseppe Palomba, follows at 59 points as he completed a strong weekend taking P3 in the Final. The French driver of Sodikart Adrien Renaudin stands at 58 points. He posted the pole position time in qualifying and ran a solid Final taking P2. The French Jeremy Iglesias (Formula K Racing Team/Formula K-TM Racing-Vega) and the Italian Alex Irlando (BirelArt Racing/Birelart-TM Racing-Vega) were also among the quickest on track. The two drivers of team Leclerc by Lennox, namely the Italian Matteo Viganò and the Swede Viktor Gustafsson, on BirelArt-TM Racing-Vega, put in good performances in qualifying but could not convert these results into good points in the final.
KZ2 classification: 1. Longhi points 110; 2. Puhakka 61; 3. Palomba 59; 4. Renaudin 58; 5. Iglesias 29; 6. Irlando 28; 7. Camplese 18; 8. Gustafsson 16; 9. Mollo 12; 10. Marseglia 12.
A super Gray in OK. Oliver Gray, the British driver of team Leclerc by Lennox on BirelArt-TM Racing-LeCont, took the lead of the OK classification with a great weekend. He claimed the pole position in qualifying, was on top after heats, won his Prefinal and the Final. Gray secured the full haul and now stands at 111 points. Among his main rivals, the Finn Juho Michael Valtanen (Pantano Team/KR-Iame-LeCont) was second in the heats, won his Prefinal and came second in the Final. This earned him 80 points and placed him behind Gray. The Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli (KR Motorsport/KR-Iame-LeCont) also displayed a good shape. He came to the fore in qualifying and then recovered five places in the Final claiming P2, which allowed him get to the second position of the classification at 57 points. The overall performance of the British driver Taylor Barnard (Rosberg Racing Academy/KR-Iame-LeCont) was good, but he was handed a 5s time penalty in the Final. Barnard is fourth in the championship at 51 points. The Brit Joe Turney (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex-LeCont) put in a great qualifying, but an incident in the Prefinal did not make him qualify for the Final.
OK classification: 1. Gray points 111; 2. Valtanen 80; 3. Antonelli 57; 4. Barnard 51; 5. Vant Hoff 32; 6. Camara 30; 7. Ravenscroft 25; 8. Coluccio 24; 9. Trulli 24; 10. Morgatto 23.
Cepil and Spina to the fore in OKJ. The challenge in OK-Junior is quite open as the Czech driver Igor Cepil of team KZ Motorsport leads the pack with 89 points on KR-Iame-Vega, thanks to a good result in the heats, the victory in his Prefinal and the second place in the Final. The top part of the classification is full of great drivers though, starting from his teammate Alfio Andrea Spina, who won the Final leading Cepil, which earned him the second place in the championship just 5 points short of the lead. The Finn Tuukka Taponen (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega) is close at 80 points as he came third in the Final and won his Prefinal. The British driver Freddie Slater (Ricky Flynn Motorsport/Kosmic-Vortex-Vega) also ran a strong weekend scoring 53 points as the Italian Brando Badoer, also of KR Motorsport, who was quick in qualifying and recovered in the Final after losing some positions in the Prefinal. Badoer is currently fifth in the classification at 40 points.
OKJ classification: 1. Cepil points 89; 2. Spina 84; 3. Taponen 80; 4. Slater 53; 5. Badoer 40; 6. Irfan 39; 7. Powell 25; 8. Lindblad 22; 9. Gubenko 18; 10. Gowda and Kucharczyk 17.
Nakamura leading MINI. A lot of young talents from 17 different countries are contesting MINI. They are currently led by the Japanese Kean Nakamura Berta (Team Driver/KR-Iame-Vega), who not only got on the top step of the podium of the Final in Sarno, but claimed the full haul of 111 points. He was on top after the heats, won the Prefinal and the Final taking the win at the end of a great battle with the Russian Dmitry Matveev (Energy Corse/Energy-TM Racing-Vega), who put in a crescendo of results despite not posting a qualifying time. Matveev managed to secure the third place of the classification at 60 points following the Pole Jan Przyrowsky (AV Racing/Parolin-TM Racing-Vega) who totalled 70 points thanks to the third place in the very exciting Final. The fourth and fifth place of the classification are currently held by the Spanish driver Christian Costoya Sanabria (CRG Racing Team/CRG-TM Racing-Vega) and the Dutch René Lammers (Baby Race/Parolin-TM Racing-Vega), as they were great in Prefinal but out of the points in the Final.
MINI classification: 1. Nakamura points 111; 2. Przyrowsky 70; 3. Matveev 60; 4. Costoya Sanabria 48; 5. Lammers 37; 6. Bouzar 32; 7. Helias 24; 8. Keeren 23; 9. Monza and Egozi 21.
The grand finale in Lonato. The closing round of the series is scheduled for September 14-20 at the South Garda Karting circuit where the second and third round will take place over one week, following the new format with Prefinals on Saturday, September 19th and Finals on Sunday, September 20th.