Qualifying practice and heats of WSK Euro Series on Friday in the torrid heat of Sarno

The third and closing round of WSK Euro Series kicked off at the International Circuit Napoli with a torrid heat and some twists. The closing act of this exciting international series will name the winners of the 2021 titles of KZ2, OK, OKJ and MINI on Sunday, June 27th.

Qualifying practice and initial heats on Friday started naming the first protagonists of the weekend, but also announced the first unfortunate defections, like that of KZ2 classification leader Marijn Kremers. The official BirelART driver was forced in the pits due to a strong pain to the ribs, as the Parolin Motorsport KZ2 driver Francesco Celenta. Kremers has a 83 points lead on the closest rival, that is teammate Riccardo Longhi, who won the Euro Series last year, but the final on Sunday will decide if Kremers will manage to keep the classification lead.

Denner to the fore in qualifying of KZ2.

In KZ2, Kremers being absent after winning the first two races in Lonato and Adria, in Sarno the best of qualifying was the French Emilien Denner (Intrepid Driver Program/Intrepid-TM Racing) who completed his fastest lap after 53.555s leading a surprising Laurens Van Hoepen (Leclerc by Lennox/BirelART-TM Racing) by 0.047s, while Riccardo Longhi was third at 0.075s. The Finn Simo Puhakka (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex) was also among the quickest in fourth place at 0.173s and Giuseppe Palomba (BirelART Racing/BirelART-TM Racing) fifth at 0.181s.

Tsolov is the quickest in OK, as the two classification leaders are lagging behind.

In OK the Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov (DPK Racing/KR-Iame) had the upper hand in qualifying posting a 53.411s, that was even faster than the KZ2 times! The performance of the Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli (KR Motorsport/KR-Iame) was also great as he completed his best lap in 53.684s while the Pole Tymoteusz Kucharczyk (BirelART Racing/RK-TM Racing), who is third in the classification, did the same in 53.891s. The classification leader from Great Britain Arvid Lindblad (KR Motorsport/KR-Iame) is lagging a bit behind: he was third in the first session with a best time of 53.780s, as his teammate Ugo Ugochukwu, who is second in the classification but this time around he went 12th in Session-2.

Walther the fastest of OKJ. The leaders Keeble and Slater accused some delay.

The duel on top of OK-Junior is an internal affair between the two Brits Harley Keeble (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex) and Freddie Slater (Ricky Flynn/Kosmic-Vortex), but the Dane David Walther (Koski Motorsport/Tony Kart-Vortex) slid in posting the quickest time in Session-2 (55.271s), while the American Luis James Egozi (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex) was the quickest of Session-3 (55.303s) and the Brit Coskun Irfan (KR Motorsport/KR-Iame) of Session-1 (55.643s). Harley Keeble was fifth in Session-2 (55.611s) and Freddie Slater 12th in Session-3 (55.720s). A big fight is ahead in OKJ.  

The Dutch Dean Hoogendoorn is the quickest of MINI.

Things are quite uncertain in MINI where the classification is quite compact. The classification leader is the Italian  Emanuele Olivieri (Formula K Serafini/IPK-TM Racing) who scored 186 points so far and managed to post the fastest time of Session-2 in 1:02.482s, but the Dutch Dean Hoogendoorn (Kidix/Alonso Kart-Iame) was slightly faster than him in Session-3 in 1:02.140s, and the other Slater family member, Alfie, (Energy Corse/Energy-TM Racing) went quickest in Session-2 with a lap time of 1:02.437s. The second in the classification at 172 is the Czech Jindrich Pesl (BabyRace/Parolin-Iame), who was third in Session-2 in 1:02.581s, while the third is the Spanish driver Christian Costoya (Parolin Motorsport/Parolin-TM Racing), who stands at 127 points and posted the fifth time of Session-3 in 1:02.435s.

The winners of the initial heats on Friday.

In KZ2, the first qualifying heat on Friday went to the French Emilien Denner (Intrepid Driver Program/Intrepid-TM Racing), who led Riccardo Longhi (BirelART Racing/BirelART-TM Racing) and the Finn Simo Puhakka (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex).

In the two heats of OK the Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov (DPK Racing/KR-Iame) and the Pole Tymoteusz Kucharczyk (BirelART Racing/RK-TM Racing) collected the full haul and are followed by the Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli (KR Motorsport/KR-Iame).

In OKJ, after 6 qualifying heats, the Brit Coskun Irfan (KR Motorsport/KR-Iame) and the Jamaican Alex Powell (KR Motorsport/KR-Iame) are leading the pack and are followed by the Russian Anatoly Khavalkin (Parolin Motorsport/Parolin-TM Racing), the American Luis James Egozi (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex) and the other Russian Alexander Gubenko (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex) in the order.

In MINI, after 6 qualifying heats, the Spaniard Christian Costoya (Parolin Motorsport/Parolin-TM Racing) bounced back and is leading the Italian Jacopo Martinese (CMT/Parolin-TM Racing) and the Russian Vladimir Ivannikov (Drago Corse/EKS/TM Racing).

The racing program will continue on Saturday, June 26th, with the final qualifying heats.

The program of WSK Euro Series Rd.3, Sarno

Saturday, June 26th: 8:45 Warm up, 10:40 Qualifying heats.

Sunday, June 27th: 8:45 Warm up, 10:40 Prefinals; 13:40 Final KZ2; 14:10 Final MINI, 14:40 Final OK, 15:10 Final OKJ.        

Results, Live Timing, Live Streaming: at www.wskarting.it