Midsummer Heatwaves Reveal New Winners at Wackersdorf!
The Third Round of the 2019 IAME X30 Euro Series delivered a great level of Competition on the Pro Kart Raceland of Wackersdorf, in Germany, where Freddie Slater, in the Mini class, Oliver Gray, in the Junior category, and Mark Kimber, in the Seniors, claimed victories at the end of the Final races! Two months after the race of Castelletto di Branduzzo, in Italy, the IAME X30 Euro Series was back on the Karting Track of Wackersdorf, in the heart of Bavaria in Germany, where 134 drivers representing more than 20 countries, entered the third round of the 2019 competition organized by RGMMC. The event took place under very hot weather conditions but with a constant threat of rain and a mostly dry track all weekend. Battles kicked off as early as Qualifying Practice on Friday and went on until Sunday where the class winners made themselves known at the end of exciting Finals!
Mini
In a Mini class filled with 31 drivers, Sebastian NG (Team Driver Racing Kart) set the fastest lap in Friday’s Qualifying Practice. The driver from Panama was just 0.039 ahead of the Brit Freddie Slater (Fusion Motorsport) followed by the Belgian Douwe Dedecker (Team Driver Racing Kart). On Saturday, NG maintained his lead after the Qualifying Heats taking two second and a fifth place. After a cold start in seventh, Edu Robinson (Fusion Motorsport) finished twice within the Top 3 and was classified second ahead of Dedecker whose best personal result was third in the opening heat. Patrice Kowalewski (RSD Karting) was declared winner of the first qualifying race after Freddie Slater (Fusion Motorsport) was penalized. The British driver later took his revenge winning the second and third heats and was seventh in the provisional classification.
Slater carried his good momentum in Sunday morning’s Prefinal where he climbed the field up to first place and secured the Pole position for the last and most important race with Lucas Fluxa (Praga Espana Motorsport) by his side, Robinson and NG on the second row of the grid. At lights out, Slater escaped in the lead with NG and Robinson chasing him. As the race went on, the latter progressively lost ground and the second part of the Final came down to a thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle between Slater and NG who kept trying to overtake his competitor but eventually settled for second place for 0.234 seconds at the end of the 13 laps! Robinson was classified third ahead of Fluxa with René Lammers (PDB) in fourth, followed by Sacha Van’t Pad Bosch (Team Driver Racing Kart), Pol Chaos Rivero (FA Racing Spain), Noah Lisle (Fusion Motorsport), Adrian Ferrer Benito (Praga Espana Motorsport) and Alfie Slater (Fusion Motorsport). In the overall standings, Freddie Slater leads with 260 points in front of Lucas Fluxa, 237, with Sebastian NG climbing up to third at 234, ahead of Edu Robinson with 215.
Junior
With an entry list of 41 drivers, the Junior class was divided into two groups entering the Friday Qualifying Practice. The Spaniard Maximus Mayer (Fusion Motorsport) made good use of the track conditions in the first Series to set the lap reference in front of the three British drivers Oliver Bearman (entered as privateer), Freddie Spindlow (KR Sport) and Oliver Gray (DHR). Gray topped the provisional standings after Saturday’s Qualifying Heats thanks to two wins and a second position. Bearman, similarly, took two victories but a fourth-place finish in his opening heat prevented him from clinching the Prefinal’s Pole position. Mayer was third overall, with one win and two Top Three-results, ahead of Cian Shields (Strawberry Racing) who had recovered from 12th in Qualifying to finish twice in the top Four as best personal results.
On Sunday, Gray dominated the Prefinal from start to finish but was denied the lead in the first meters of the Final when Bearman took a better start. The battle for the highest places launched in the opening lap where Joseph Taylor (Strawberry Racing) made his move on Gray for the second position behind a solid Bearman. Approaching the halfway mark of the race, the order in the leading trio suddenly changed when Taylor went past Bearman with Gray diving into the open door for the second place! Disaster struck a couple of laps later for Bearman when contact with a charging Jason Leung (KR Sport) made him lose precious ground down to 6th, Leung himself falling to 10th. Then, the battle for the win took another decisive turn two laps from the chequered flag when Gray overtook Taylor around the outside of the first corner, allowing a recovering Bearman to reduce the gap on his countryman until the final round when the two hit each other and both lost the podium!
Left with no rivals, Gray could cross the finish line as victor, followed by Samuel Shaw (Premium Karting) ahead of Kris Haanen (Coles Racing), Bart Harrison (Fusion Motorsport), who climbed from 20th, Maximus Mayer (Fusion Motorsport), Ken Oskar Algre (Aix Racing Team) and Josh Rowledge (Strawberry Racing) who had climbed from 32th to fourth before receiving a five second-penalty (front fairing). Bearman, Alfie Rigby (KR Sport) and Liam McNeilly (Evolution) concluded their Final in eighth, ninth and tenth positions respectively. Despite his setback, Oliver Bearman still holds the lead in the class standings with 244 points, 23 more than Oliver Gray who has 221 with Marcus Luzio in third position at 205.
Senior
The Senior class represented again the biggest field on track in Wackersdorf. For his second entering in the 2019 Competition, the Frenchman Romain Leroux (Strawberry Racing) pulled the fastest Qualifying lap in 50.177 seconds in front of the Brits Lewis Gilbert (Persistence Motor Sport) and Callum Bradshaw (Fusion Motorsport). The Series’ provisional leader rose his game in the Qualifying Heats where he claimed two wins with a fourth-place finish that made him top the points ranking by Saturday night. He was followed by Leroux, who converted his Pole position in one occasion and also finished third and fifth, Jordan Brown-Nutley (Strawberry Racing), who won one race accompanied by two fourth-place finishes, and Mark Kimber (Strawberry Racing), twice within the Top Three after a difficult Qualifying. Joey Van Splunteren (Evolution), Bradshaw’s closest rival for this year’s title, finished second in two of his heats but was classified a distant 15th overall due to early retirement.
On Sunday morning, the heat was both in the air and on track in a very hard-fought Prefinal. Kimber made his way up to first ahead of Urbeltz Moar Maestro (Evolution) and Hannes Morin (Dan Holland Racing) recovering from 29th on the grid! Come the final race in the afternoon Kimber kept his lead at lights out with Brown-Nutley and Morin on his tail. Further back, Van Splunteren faced trouble in the opening laps and was forced to retire. In the lead, Kimber set the pace during the majority of the race with Morin going past Brown-Nutley for second place a handful of laps from the finish. But it wasn’t over yet as Gilbert, fighting his way through the field from 15th, made the connection with the leading trio two laps from the chequered flag. In one corner, the Brit went past both Brown-Nutley and Morin and started charging Kimber who eventually kept the leader’s seat for a mere 0.056 second-gap on the finish line!
The reigning Series Winner could celebrate his first success of the year alongside his teammate Mathilda Olsson (Strawberry Racing), who had successfully gone past Morin for third place in the penultimate lap before she was promoted one step further up after Gilbert was penalized with five seconds (front fairing). Brown-Nutley completed a hat-trick for Strawberry Racing after passing Morin a few laps from the finish, with Georgi Dimitrov (Fusion Motorsport) taking fifth place ahead of Filip Vava (KR Sport), Harry Platten (BMR), Moar Maestro, Angus Moulsdale and Rivaldo Van de Westelaken (Daems Racing Team). In the class standings, Mark Kimber has taken the overall lead with 239 points in front of Jordan Brown-Nutley, at 214, and Callum Bradshaw falling down to third, with 211 units, one round from the end of the Competition.
The next stop of the 2019 IAME X30 Euro Series will take place from August 28th to September 1st on the Circuit International de Salbris, in France.