The second Round of the IAME X30 Euro Series unfolded last weekend at the 7 Laghi Circuit of Castelletto di Branduzzo, in the region of Pavia in Italy, with an impressive entry list of 172 drivers from no less than 20 countries! Despite rain showers mixing up the cards during the last Senior Saturday heats and Sunday’s Mini Prefinal, the Competition organized by RGMMC was mostly run in dry conditions and delivered again a great level of racing through the weekend in Northern-Italy!
Two months after an already thrilling opener in Mariembourg, the IAME X30 Euro Series kept surfing on the same vibe for its second weekend with high-level racing unfolding between some of the best international karting drivers on the challenging circuit!
All action from the entire race weekend was streamed live, in full high definition for watching on Smart TV, through RGMMC’s youtube channel, where all highlight videos and specials can be found as well after the race.
Mini
In Friday's Qualifying session, William Macintyre (Team Driver Racing Kart) set the best performance of the Mini class by completing the 1256 meters of the 7 Laghi track in 55.035 seconds. Belgium's Ean Eyckmans (Baby Race Academy) came 0.047 seconds behind preceding his fellow countryman Douwe Dedecker (Team Driver Racing Kart).
The two Belgian drivers kept showing a good form in the Qualifying Heats on Saturday, both taking one win and two second places. But it was Macintyre who again topped the classification thanks to three consecutive qualifying race victories.
A strong momentum that the young Brit would keep for the last and most important day of the weekend when he first added a wet Prefinal to his tally in front of Fusion Motorsport teammates Freddie Slater and Guillermo Delgado Martinez Aci before dominating the final race. Behind him, the battle for the remaining podium spots raged during the closing laps! Manuel Scognamiglio (Gamoto SNC) managed to get ahead his rivals, crossing the finish line less than half a second from Sebastiano Pavan (Team Driver Racing Kart), who had recovered from 11th on the grid, and Freddie Slater.
5th at the flag was Douwe Dedecker who produced one of the strongest recovery races on Sunday, climbing up from a distant 29th on the grid to enter the top 5. He was closely followed by his teammate Sebastian NG (Team Driver Racing Kart), Leo Robinson (Fusion Motorsport), Lucas Fluxa (Praga Espana Motorsport), Juan Cota Alonso (Kart Republic Spain), and Simone Bianco (VRK Motorsport). In the points standings after two rounds, Slater keeps the leader’s seat with 171 units, 12 more than Robinson (159) followed by Fluxa (155).
Junior
Joseph Taylor (Strawberry Racing) started his weekend at 7 Laghi on the right foot as he took Pole position amongst the Juniors with a lap of 50.808 seconds in Friday's Qualifying. The Spaniard Mateo Luengo (PSR) was second-fastest in front of Tom Lebbon (MLR).
Once in the Qualifying Heats, Oliver Bearman (KR Sport) made the most of his Kart Republic chassis to sit in the leader’s chair. The Brit finished third in his opening heat before taking victory in the next two. His countryman Joseph Taylor took an early win from pole followed by two top 3-results that placed him second in the provisional rankings ahead of Lebbon who sealed the overall top three with one heat victory.
On Sunday, the Prefinal was won in impressive fashion by the Pole Oli Pylka (DHR) before British drivers took over in the Final with Tom Lebbon claiming the overall victory in front of Oliver Bearman. The KR Sport driver recovered from P5 on the grid to climb on his second consecutive podium in two IAME X30 Euro Series events. Third at the flag was Joshua Rowledge (Strawberry Racing) ahead of Oliver Gray (DHR) who heroicly overtook 30 drivers from the back of the grid! Crossing the line in fifth and sixth positions respectively, Joseph Taylor and the Polesitter Oli Pylka both faced time penalties for an incorrect position of their front fairing. Alfie Rigby (KR Sport) was therefore promoted to fifth place with Alex Ley (Coles Racing) coming in sixth, followed by Ruben Volt (DHR), Alessandro Cenedese (Team Driver Racing Kart), Marcus Luzio (DHR) and Jason Leung (KR Sport), the latter two having recovered a good pile of positions. After two completed rounds, Bearman is holding the lead in the standings with 166 points, 21 more than Taylor (145) and 26 over Leung (140).
Senior
The Senior class was led on an early stage by the Italian Edoardo Villa (TBKart) who put himself at the forefront in Qualifying, six-tenths of a second faster than two British drivers, Harry Thompson (Fusion Motorsport) and Clayton Ravenscroft (KR Sport).
The latter emerged as the man to beat in the heats where he took two victories completed with two-second places. Edoardo Villa also went through a strong day performance-wise with two wins and two top-three finishes. Third in the rankings was Mari Boya (Monlau Competicion) on equal points (12) with Nicolas Picot (NPS), both having taken one win.
Despite two top results in the Heats, Lorenzo Travisanutto (CV Performance Group) had lost ground in the last race of the day disrupted by rain. Sixth in the provisional classification, he nevertheless won the Prefinal on Sunday morning ahead of Callum Bradshaw (Fusion Motorsport), making up nine positions to join him at the forefront of the final grid, and Harry Thompson.
The opening laps of the Final turned into a thrilling battle between the Polesitter Travisanutto and Bradshaw. The Brit surprised his rival at Turn one to take an early lead with Mari Boya on his tail. Travisanutto quickly made his move on the Spaniard and chased Bradshaw before the two collided. While Travisanutto lost two positions, Bradshaw dropped down to eigth place. A confusion that allowed for Elie Goldstein (VDK Racing) to briefly climb up to first position before Travisanutto caught him up on lap six. From then on, there was no stopping the Italian who kept increasing his gap during the second part of the Final.
Joey Van Splunteren (Team Evolution), who started sixth on the grid, joined him on the podium with Harry Thompson crossing the line in third place, followed by Bradshaw who was later penalized with five seconds (8th overall). Jordan Brown-Nutley (Strawberry Racing) consequently climbed up a rank to fourth ahead of Mari Boya. Despite a good early part of the race, Elie Goldstein lost some ground to conclude his weekend in sixth place, followed by the reigning Euro Series winner Mark Kimber (Strawberry Racing), Callum Bradshaw, Lewis Gilbert (Persistence), and Morgan Porter (Msport) who went from seventh to tenth position due to a five-second penalty for front fairing. In the points standings halfway through the series, Bradshaw is leading with 165 points, six more than Van Splunteren (159) with Kimber following in third (150).
The next stop of the 2019 IAME X30 Euro Series will take place from July 25th to 28th on the Pro Kart Raceland of Wackersdorf, in Germany.