Strong sixth place for Kas Haverkort at FIA European Championship in Le Mans
During the final round of the FIA European Karting Championship, Kas Haverkort won a hard-fought sixth place in the OK class. On the circuit of Le Mans, the 15-year old Team NL talent drove five very strong heats, with which he was able to set himself up with P5 on the start grid for the final. Haverkort even had the prospect of a podium finish until the middle of the race, but had to surrender some positions in the closing stages. He eventually seized sixth place in the extremely competitive field, thereby once again showing his talent and fighting spirit.
After the first two rounds of the FIA Karting European Championship, he had collected few points due to engine problems and also missed the third round, so the 2019 title was out of the picture for Kas Haverkort. This meant that the young driver who resides in Rheezerveen, Overijssel went into the fourth and final edition of the competition entirely for the day’s success. That Kas, who drives for the Dutch CRG Keijzer Racing team, is currently one the fastest drivers became clear again at the beautiful kart track of Le Mans in France. In the qualification, Haverkort set the eleventh best time in the field of no less than 67 talented karters. This secured a second row place as fourth on the start grid for all five of his heats he would contest.
The Team NL talent also proved his class in the qualifiers. In heat 1, Haverkort made up one position from the start, to advance to P2 a little later in the race. The second heat resulted in a fourth place, with the CRG Keijzer racing driver then claiming victory in heat 3 under difficult conditions. On the slowly drying track, Haverkort managed to get to the front and hold on to his lead to the end. In the fourth race he showed his ability to overtake once again, after falling back to P9 during the hustle in the first lap, where he fought his way back through to fifth. In the final qualifying heat, Haverkort assured himself of second place across the line in the wake of the winner. With these impressive results, the young Dutch karting talent qualified fifth for the final Sunday, in which only the best 34 drivers are permitted to participate.
In this 22-lap showdown, Haverkort had an excellent start where he had sight of the podium for quite some time. In the initial lap, he immediately moved up from P5 to P3, taking the lead just one lap later. In lap 11, the CRG pilot was still in second, but then was pushed back to fifth. In the laps that followed, he had to give up two more places and finally finished an excellent sixth position in the closing lap, where all the track action was still happening to the chequered flag.
Kas Haverkort –“I am satisfied with the qualifying heats, but less with the final. I was just a little short of power so I could not pull away from the others when I was in the lead. Otherwise, I would have been able to make the podium. But, I’m happy with the progress we have made compared to the previous European Championship rounds this year and already looking forward to the World Championship in Finland at the beginning of September. ”