The intense weekend at the South Garda Karting circuit in Lonato has started on a high as 362 of the entered 372 drivers – representing 47 countries and all 5 continents – got on track in the four categories KZ2, OK, OK-Junior and Mini for the second round of WSK Super Master Series.
A top-class spectacle is granted by the presence of the main interpreters of karting on the international scene and by a lot of young champions fielded by the strongest teams for a world-class challenge. A glimpse of what is ahead at the South Garda Karting has been given today with qualifying (3 sessions for each category) and the first heats that do not leave doubts about the spectacle of this rich WSK racing weekend that will reach its conclusion on Sunday, February 23rd.
Qualifying to the pupils Trulli (OK) and Badoer (OKJ).
Qualifying made a lot of interesting protagonists come to the fore, starting from teammates Enzo Trulli on KR-Iame-Bridgestone in OK and Brando Badoer on KR-Iame-Vega in OK-Junior. Both drivers fielded by KR Motorsport claimed the best time in the respective categories, Trulli with a 46.616s in OK and Badoer in Junior with a best lap of 47.857s. Andrea Kimi Antonelli – Trulli’s teammate in OK – came also to the fore posting the quickest time of the third session in 46.723s, while the Brazilian Rafa Camara went quickest in the second session on Exprit-TM Racing run by Forza Racing in 46.814s. Great performances in OK-Junior were also put in by other two KR Motorsport’s drivers: the Czech Igor Cepil who went quickest in the first session in 47.922s and the Brit Arvid Lindblad who topped the charts of Session 2 in 47.976s.
Irlando on top in KZ2, Kastelic in Mini.
Alex Irlando (BirelArt-Vega-TM Racing/BirelArt Racing) has been the fastest of the lot in KZ2 with a best time of 45.589s. He led his teammate Riccardo Longhi, who was the quickest of the third session in 45.642s and the Swede Douglas Lundberg (Lenzokart-TM Racing-Vega/Novalux Racing Team) who posted the fastest time in Session 2 in 45.874s. Among the very young drivers of Mini, some new names came forward compared to Adria: Slovenia’s Mark Kastelic (KR-TM Racing-Vega/Team Driver Racing Kart) posted the quickest time in 52.928s and led the Romanian Luka Savu (KR-TM Racing/Gulstar Racing), who went quickest in Session 1 with a laptime of 53.337s, while the Italian Antonio Apicella (Energy-Iame/Apicella) topped Session 2 in 53.339s.
The first winners of the heats.
Qualifying heats started shaping up the qualifying stages after practice though. The road ahead is still long as a total of 50 heats will have to be run until Sunday morning to define the finalists that will battle out this intense round in the afternoon of Sunday, February 23rd. The live streaming will be starting at local 14:00. The winners of the heats run on Friday, February 21st follow:
KZ2: C-E Douglas Lundberg (SWE/Lenzokart); B-D Giacomo Pollini (ITA/Formula K).
OK: C-E Pedro Hiltbrand (ESP/Tony Kart); B-D Andrea Kimi Antonelli (ITA/KR); A-E Enzo Trulli (ITA/KR); C-D Theo Wernesson (SWE/Kosmic).
OKJ: A-B and A-C Brando Badoer (ITA/KR); C-D Arvid Lindblad (GBR/KR); E-F Martinius Stenshorne (NOR/KR); D-F Tymoteusz Kucharczyk (POL/RK); B-E Igor Cepil (CZE/KR).
MINI: A-B and A-C Dmitry Matveev (RUS/Energy); C-D Rashid Al Dhaheri (ARE/Parolin); E-F and B-E Gerasim Skulanov (RUS/IPK); D-F Jan Przyrowsky (POL/Parolin).
Classifications after the opener held in Adria on February 2nd are the following:
WSK Super Master Series, MINI classification: Skulanov (RUS) 78 points; 2. Khavalkin (RUS) 69; 3.Nakamura (JPN) 36; 4. Helias (FRA) and Fotveev (RUS) 30; 6. Matveev (RUS) 24 and Pesl (CZE); 8. Al Dhaheri (ARE) and Sorensen (USA) 21; 10. Gladysz (POL) 20.
WSK Super Master Series, OK-Junior classification: 1. Spina (ITA) 88 points; 2. Pasiewicz (POL) 54; 3. Ugochukwu (USA) 44; 4. Lindblad (GBR) 39; 5. Ho (SGP) 35; 6. Severiukhin (RUS) 29; 7. Kucharczyk (POL) 25; 8. Stenshorne (NOR) and Pingasov (RUS) 16; 10. Bohra (SGP) 12.
WSK Super Master Series, OK classification: 1. Hiltbrand (ESP) 61 points; 2. Turney (GBR) 49; 3. Barnard (GBR) 43; 4. Smal (RUS) 39; 5. Wharton (AUS) 37; 6. Vant Hoff (NLD) 32; 7. Trulli (ITA) 25; 8. Thompson (GBR) 24; 9. De Haan (NLD) 23; 10. Ten Brinke (NLD) 20.
WSK Super Master Series 2020 Rd.2
The program in Lonato (local time)
Saturday, February 22nd:
8:00 Warm-up
9:40 Qualifying heats
Sunday, February 23rd:
8:20 Warm-up
Live streaming coverage
10:00 Heats
11:50 Prefinals
14:30 Finals KZ2, OK, OKJ, Mini.
WSK Super Master Series 2020 calendar.
Rd. 1: February, 2nd, Adria Karting Raceway
Rd. 2: February, 23rd, South Garda Karting, Lonato
Rd. 3: March, 8th, International Circuit La Conca
Rd. 4: March 22nd, International Circuit Napoli, Sarno