The very first race of the 2024 season has just finished at Lonato. The WSK Champions Cup saw some intense battles in cold conditions. The first results of the event are in: Birel ART is already among the most competitive with Bertuca's podium in KZ2 and 2nd place for Eyckmans in OK.
The Birel ART Racing team and the brand new CL Racing Team are joining forces within a unified team to improve and optimise sporting and technical management. Riccardo Longhi and Jordon Lennox will now share the management of the team according to their speciality: OK and OK-Junior for Lennox, KZ and KZ2 for Longhi.
Cristian Bertuca put in an excellent performance in KZ2. Increasingly competitive despite retiring in the second Qualifying Heats, he put up a superb fight for overall victory, putting in some very fast laps. Despite all his efforts and his superior timing, he remained stuck behind the runner-up and had to make do with an already rewarding 3rd position. Sebastien Belhocine made steady progress throughout the weekend to reach 8th place in the Final standings, a gain of 11 places. Artem Severiukhin was soon back on track with a string of top five finishes in the Qualifying phases. He was delayed at the start of the Final, but made up over 15 places in the race to finish 14th.
In the OK category, Ean Eyckmans was very convincing. 5th in Qualifying, winner of a heat and placed 2nd on Saturday evening, he carried on his momentum to cross the Final finish line in 2nd place with the fastest time. A penalty then dropped him back to 6th place. Noah Wolfe was very competitive in his first OK race. He finished an incredible 25 places up in 8th place. Unlucky in his heats, Mess Houben had shown his worth in 6th place in Qualifying, and confirmed this by moving up eight places in the final to finish 17th.
Under the guidance of Angelo Moscardi, four Mini drivers took part in the WSK Champions Cup with very interesting performances. Vsevolod Osadchyi Suslovskyi achieved his best result with 15th place in Mini Gr.3. In the Under-10s, David Moscardi secured a fine 7th place in the Final, while Senn Linderman finished 16th after setting the fastest time in his Prefinal.
The Birel ART Racing team remains hard at work in Lonato, with the first round of the WSK Super Master Series to follow next weekend.