Saturday, February 15th has been an intense day in Lonato as qualifying heats have elected the best drivers that will go through to the final stages of the 25th Winter Cup that is due to name its winners on Sunday, February 16th at the end of exciting international karting weekend. A total of 301 verified drivers are on track from 47 countries and spanning the 5 continents. These record numbers contribute to confirm once again the importance of the opener of 2020 season at the South Garda Karting circuit.
KZ2. The highest category, KZ2, has 68 drivers on track and the fight for the victory has been an internal affair to Birel Art’s Riccardo Longhi, who was the runner up in the KZ World Championship 2019 and Giuseppe Palomba, who won the KZ2 WSK Open Cup last year. Longhi won three heats, as Palomba who claimed three wins and a second place. Behind them, the Finn Simo Puhakka of Tony Kart Racing Team secured two wins and two second places, while the quick Swede Viktor Gustafsson of team Leclerc by Lennox Racing follows. Qualifying stages will end on Sunday morning with the closing heat that will be followed by the Super Heats of all categories and the much-awaited finals from local 15:00, all in live streaming.
Provisional classification of heats, KZ2: 1. Longhi; 2. Palomba; 3. Puhakka; 4. Gustafsson; 5. Iglesias; 6. Dahlberg; 7. Buran; 8. Irlando; 9. Renaudin; 10. Nomblot; 11. Dalè; 12. Carbonnel; 13. Trefilovs; 14. Petit; 15. Luyet; 16. Chubarov; 17. Sjokvist; 18. Marseglia; 19. Viganò; 20. Piccini.
OK. The fight among the 85 drivers of OK has been tight and the Russians Nikita Bedrin of Ward Racing on Tony Kart-Vortex and Kirill Smal of Energy Corse on Energy-Tm had the upper hand winning respectively three heats and claiming a second place, and two wins and a third place. The first of the Italians was third: two times world champion Lorenzo Travisanutto of Tony Kart Racing Team, who won one heat and scored two good placings. His teammate from Spain Pedro Hiltbrand completed a great comeback race from P30 up to the eighth place after heats. Andrea Kimi Antonelli put in a great progression with Team KR Motorsport. He was 18th in qualifying and climbed up to P5 in the heats. The closing heat will decide the OK classification on Sunday morning.
Provisional classification after heats, OK: 1. Bedrin; 2. Smal; 3. Travisanutto; 4. Wharton; 5. Antonelli; 6. De Haan; 7. Salonen; 8. Hiltbrand; 9. Martì; 10. Dorr; 11. Van Hoepen; 12. Camara; 13. Villa; 14. Coluccio; 15. Soldatov; 16. Vant Off; 17. Turney; 18. Zhivnov; 19. Morgatto; 20. Anderruti.
OKJ. In OK-Junior, out of the 84 entered drivers, the Norwegian Martinius Stenshorne of Team Rosberg Racing Academy, on KR-Iame, claimed three wins and a second place. Behind him, the Pole Tymoteusz Kucharczyk on RK-Tm employed a Robert Kubica chassis by Birel Art, while the pole sitter from Jamaica Alex Powell was third on Energy. The French Evan Giltaire put in a good performance on Sodikart. He recovered from P19 to P5.
Provisional classification after heats, OK-Junior: 1. Stenshorne; 2. Kucharczyk; 3. Powell; 4. Giltaire; 5. Krapin; 6. Lindblad; 7. Ho; 8. De Palo; 9. Badoer; 10. Slater; 11. Bohra; 12. Ugochukwu; 13. Gowda; 14. Severiukhin; 15. Cepil; 16. Rogeon; 17. Pasiewicz; 18. Fittipaldi; 19. Irfan; 20. Kulishenko.
MINI ROK. Mini Rok has 64 drivers at the start and the definitive classification after heats witnesses a Russian domination. German Foteev of Energy claimed two wins and a second place and was followed by the Pole Jan Przyrowski of AV Racing on Parolin, who claimed a good win and two second places. United Arab Emirates’ Rashid Al Dhaeri was also among the front runners on Parolin as the three Baby Race drivers: the Hungarian Adam Hideg, the Indian Aditya Wibowo and the Thai Enzo Tarnvanichkul. One DNF cost several positions to the Russian Dmitry Matveev, who was the quickest in qualifying but slipped down to P20.
Classification after heats, Mini Rok: 1. Foteev; 2. Przyrowski; 3. Al Dhaheri; 4. Hideg; 5. Wibowo; 6. Tarnvanichkul; 7. Trukhin; 8. Gladysz; 9. Castellozzi; 10; Saeter; 11. Skulanov; 12. Peebles; 13. Lammers; 14. Aksoy; 15. Yaremiy; 16. Svahn; 17. Bouzinelos; 18. Zhang; 19. Molnar; 20. Matveev.
The program of the 25th Winter Cup
Sunday, February 16th: 8:30 Warm-up; Live Streaming from 11:00 with the closing heats; 12:10 Super Heats; 14:40 Final OK; 15:15 Mini Rok; 15:50 OKJ; 16:25 KZ2.