The great spectacle of the world IAME event at the Adria Karting Raceway is now underway, as the initial qualifying heats have kept drivers busy on Thursday, October 21st after the exciting qualifying practice sessions held yesterday. The goal is to narrow down the 300 drivers that gathered in Adria from 29 different countries for this spectacular event and define the list of the “elected” ones that will fight for the IWF21 titles of categories X30 Mini, X30 Junior, X30 Senior, X30 Master and the shifter Z-I on Saturday. The selection process will involve 44 qualifying heats: 26 on Thursday and 18 on Friday.
Filippo Sala – #145 Team Driver/KR
X30 MINI. The initial heats have already produced the first surprises starting from X30 Mini’s heat one that saw the Italian Filippo Sala (#145 Team Driver/KR-Iame-Komet) having the best of the 64 drivers. He took the lead from the third row and won the race proceeding the Irish poleman Daniel Kelleher (#152 Fusion Motorsport/KR-Iame). The victory of the second heat went to the Brit Noah Wolfe (#118 Fusion Motorsport/KR-Iame), who started from the fourth row of the grid and took the win from the pole sitter from Romania David Cosma-Cristofor.
X30 MASTER. Off the 30 drivers in the X30 Master, the French Thomas Ricci (#605 Tony Kart-Iame-Komet) dominates and wins all the three heats after leading qualifying practice. A penalty makes the other Frenchman Maxime Bidard (#608 Red Speed/Iame) lose some places, and he ends up being second in two heats. Thomas Ricci is followed by the Argentine Ignacio Vivian (#601 KR-Iame) in the provisional classification.
Kanato Le – #205 Strawberry Racing/Tony Kart
X30 JUNIOR. Nine heats have kept X30 Junior’s drivers busy and a lot of different drivers shared the victory among the 89 entered drivers, which makes this category quite open. Among all, the Brit Kanato Le (#205 Strawberry Racing/Tony Kart-Iame-Komet) was followed by the fellow countrymen Bart Harrison (#204 Mick Barrett Racing/Red Speed/Iame), Oliver Stewart (#222 Jade Racing Team/BirelART-Iame), Vinnie Phillips (#206 Tony Kart-Iame), the French Theophile Nael (#210 KR-Iame), the other Brit Harry Burgoygne (#229 Strawberry Racing/Tony Kart-Iame), the Dutch Sam Van Voskuilen (#262 Exprit-Iame) and the Brit Marcus Luzio (#234 Strawberry Racing/Tony Kart-Iame).
Mauro Simoni – #717 OK1 Racing Team/OK1
Z-I. In the shifter category that counts 14 drivers the duel for the top seems to be a private matter between the Italians Mauro Simoni (#717 OK1 Racing Team/OK1-Iame-Komet), winner of two heats, and Moritz Ebner (#706 Tec Tav/BirelART/Iame), winner of one heat and pole sitterc incthe qualifying practice. The Belgian Thomas Cypers (#705 Mach1-Iame), the Dane Thomas Hamann Dam (#707 Dam Racing/Sodikart-Iame) and the Italian Matteo Franco Segre (#719 OK1 Racing Team/OK1-Iame) are also among the most competitive drivers.
Callum Bradshaw – #408 Strawberry/Tony Kart
X30 SENIOR. A total of 9 heats have been run also in X30 Senior, which has been particularly lively among the 99 entered drivers. The duel involved mainly the poleman and very fast Callum Bradshaw (#408 Strawberry/Tony Kart-Iame-Komet), the Belgian Elie Goldstein (#464 VDK Racing/KR-Iame-Komet) and the Italian Danny Carenini (#473 Autoeuropeo/Tony Kart-Iame). Czech Republic’s Tereza Babickova (#470 Tepz Racing Team/Tony Kart-Iame) keeps herself in the leading group and is currently eighth in the classification, as she was proceeded by the British driver Aaron Walker (#411 Strawberry/Tony Kart-Iame), the Swede Sebastian Hedin (#445 KH racing/BirelART-Iame) and the Italians Cristian Comanducci (PRK/Tony Kart-Iame) and Riccardo Colombo (#490 Autoeuropeo/Tony Kart-Iame).
THE DRIVERS’ PARADE. At the end of the intense track day, the spectacular drivers parade introduced all the participants to the event in Adria. Great scenery, colors and waving flags contributed to make this important international karting event even more interesting.
THE PROGRAM. The program will continue on Friday, October 22nd, with the closing qualifying heats from local 9:50. Prefinals will then follow, while Finals will get underway on Saturday, October 23rd, at 11:30.