Vortex: Pole and victory in the WSK Euro Series
On the occasion of the second round at the Adria Karting Raceway, Freddie Slater gets the first place in the final of the OKJ class while David Walther signs the pole position. Good results also in KZ2 and OK classes for the Vortex engines.
OKJ - The Vortex DJT engine wins the final of round 2 of the WSK Euro Series and is already among the best in the "Junior" class in the free practice with the third best timing of James Egozi (Tony Kart Racing Team), but it is David Walther (Koski Motorsport) who signs the pole position in Friday's qualifying with the fastest lap in 48.821. Walther continues his path in the qualifying heats with 4 wins and 2 fastest laps, in addition to the 3 wins and 2 fastest laps of Freddie Slater (Ricky Flynn Motorsport) and the 2 wins and 3 fastest laps of Enea Frey (Ricky Flynn Motorsport), as well as the several podiums gained by Alexander Gubenko (Tony Kart Racing Team), Dmitry Matveev (Koski Motorsport), Dion Gowda (Ricky Flynn Motorsport), Harley Keeble (Tony Kart Racing Team) and Reno Francot (Exprit Racing Team). The two pre-finals still "speak" Vortex: Keeble and Frey perform a 1-2 in the A pre-final and Slater wins the B pre-final, which results grant the first three positions in the final. With 12 Vortex engines at the starting grid out of 34 entrants, Keeble immediately takes the lead chased by Frey, while Slater finds himself in trouble on the outer line, but quickly catchs up with the two drivers. On lap two, Slater overtakes Keeble and flies to the victory, with Frey third and Keeble fifth at the finishing line. Egozi is sixth, while Walther recovers four positions and enters the top 15. Scrolling down the ranking, in order, we find Gowda, Maxim Rehm (Ricky Flynn Motorsport), Jan Przyrowski (Tony Kart Racing Team), Matveev, Hernandez Salim Hanna (Ricky Flynn Motorsport) and Konstantin Krapin (Ward Racing). Gubenko unfortunately ends his race prematurely.
OK - The master class of single speed karts sees Vortex entering three top 5 lists in the qualifying heats with the DST engine: twice with Norton Andreasson (Ward Racing), able to climb to third place in the general ranking at the end of the three heats, and once with Rintaro Sato (Ricky Flynn Motorsport). Andreasson is among the fastest Vortex drivers also in the pre-final and has a good chance to play for achieving the podium in the final race of the weekend, but gives way to Sato, sixth in the standings at the end of the final. Oscar Pedersen (Ward Racing) and Andreasson hit the top 10, while Yujia Gao (Ward Racing) finishes the race. Victoria Blokhina (Ward Racing), on the other hand, is forced to retire.
KZ2 - Once again, Simo Puhakka (Tony Kart Racing Team) is the best interpreter of the class with the gearbox that sees the Vortex RTZ and RSZ engines involved. The Finnish driver makes no mistakes in the Sunday's final and finishes the event in the top ten. Lorenzo Camplese (Tony Kart Racing Team), also because of a penalty for the incorrectly positioned front fairing, cannot enter the top 15, while Noah Milell (Tony Kart Racing Team) signs the fifth fastest lap (47.692) of the final. At the starting grid of the final race of the weekend we also find Gilles Stadsbader (Tony Kart Racing Team) and Josef Knopp (Tony Kart Racing Team).
MINI - Difficult weekend for the drivers of the "smallest" class with the MCX engine. Mateo Moni (Exprit Racing Team) comes close to the top 20 in the qualifying, but a stop in the pre-final prevents him to enter the final. Ethan Lennon (Tony Kart Racing Team) makes his debut in the official colours of Tony Kart Racing Team, in view of the next rounds.