The Circuito Internazionale di Napoli in Sarno, Italy has been a great host for the 2024 RMC Grand Finals, as competitors worldwide will compete for Rotax glory tomorrow. The trials and tribulations of practice, qualifying, and the heat races lead to tomorrow and the chance to be crowned an RMC Grand Finals Champion.
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Here is what happened in today’s prefinals.
Micro MAX Pre-Final
Great Britain’s Luke Milward started his quest for RMC Grand Finals glory from the pole position in Micro MAX with a host of hungry drivers behind him. Second on the grid was Shou-Ting Chang with Ilia Mazon in third. Team UK put another driver in a top-five starting spot with Austin Omar ahead of Lithuania’s Jokubas Vaskelis. In a very slow start, the slowest of the weekend, Milward controlled the pace and managed to jump to the lead when the green came out and stay ahead of Chang.
Oman had moved to third on the opening lap at the expense of Mazo, with Vaskelis holding into fifth. In a short seven-lap race, Milward continued to lead from Chang as their bumpers remained locked, pushing away from the field. Oman was now two seconds behind the lead duo as he had many drivers looking to get by. Setting fast lap after fast lap, Milward and Chang were now 2.7 ahead of third with two laps remaining as they refused to fight. Vaskelis moved by Oman to third as Joshua Cook was up five positions to fifth. Team Brazil’s Pedro Campos was on a tear as he climbed ten positions in five laps to the sixth position by the end of lap five but lost a position on lap six to fall to seventh. Chang was by Milward for the lead at the start of the final lap and held the lead to take the win. Cooke finished third behind the lead duo, with Oman and Vaskelis rounding out the top five.
Mini MAX Pre-Final A
Courtesy of his Qualifying Heat race results, Albert Friend from the United Kingdom led the field to the green in Pre-Final A with fellow Brit Oliver Spencer to his outside. Row two was occupied by Lithuania’s Majus Mazinas and Great Britain’s Harry Taylor, while row three saw Kyrgyzstan’s Nikolai Kariukin and Team Argentina’s Ramiro Carreira. Friend led the field through the opening complex of corners and at the end of the first lap as Spencer held on to second, with Taylor and Kariukin each gaining one position to third and fourth. Taylor was by Spencer on lap two, moving around the outside late in the lap, with Jenson Chalk from Great Britain advancing to fifth.
The top five remained static on lap three, but Mazinas had dropped six positions in three laps to ninth. At the mid-race distance, Friend continued to lead from Taylor, Kariukin, Spencer, and Chalk. With the laps going by quickly, Taylor brought the group forward to catch Friend, but Chalk in fifth was the fastest kart on track and moved to fourth on lap six. On lap seven, Friend went on the defense to try to maintain his position at the front of the field as Kariukin was by Taylor for second on the penultimate lap. Five drivers were battling for the lead on the final circuit, with Chalk on the offense. Friend went to take the win ahead of Kariukin, Taylor, Spencer, and Chalk.
Mini MAX Pre-Final B
Having seen the outcome of Pre-Final A, Pre-Final B was led into the first corner by Czechia’s Zdenek Babicek and Team Ireland’s Ben Mccloughry with Team Estonia’s Nikita Ljubimov and Great Britain’s Emerson Macandrew-Uren in row two. The South African Aaryan Singh started fifth, and to his left was Timofei Zavalishin from Kyrgyzstan. Babicek led the opening lap, but behind him, Ljubimov’s front bumper was pushing Babicek's rear bumper as he was putting on the pressure. Mccloughry was the biggest loser on lap one, losing five positions.
Jeremy St-Cyr from Team Canada was on a charge as he was into the top five at the end of lap two, gaining another two positions on lap three to third. Contact with drivers inside the top ten jumbled up the order, as Macandrew-Uren and Singh were the benefactors moving back into the top five after falling outside early on. Babicek and Ljubimov were working together upfront and had opened a 2.8-second gap on those behind them as they looked to make it a two-kart race. Jaxon Porter was up five positions to sixth at the mid-race distance as Leonidas Peruzzi, and Alexis Baillar-geon from Team Canada ran ninth and tenth, gaining seven and twelve spots, respectively.
Babicek continued to lead Ljubimov at three-quarter race distance as they were nearly four-seconds ahead of third, fourth, and fifth who had a large gap of the sixth-place battle. Babicek defended on the final lap as Ljubimov was on the offence putting pressure on Babicek, but Babicek scored the win ahead of Ljubimov, Macandrew-Uren, Singh, and St-Cyr.
Junior MAX Pre-Final A
With a trio of solid heat races, Cameron Nelson of Great Britain was atop the charts and led the field into the first corner for Pre-Final A. To his left, heat A vs B winner Team Netherlands Ties Van Wijk. Female competitor and Austria’s Ivonn Simeonova started third alongside the Dutch standout Boaz Maximov, while row three saw Denmark’s Mathias Kjellerup and Estonia’s Fernando Paimre. With several karts into the tires at the back of the pack, Nelson led from Simeonova and Van Wijk.
Kjellerup was up one position to fourth at the expense of Maximov. Two laps down in the nine-lap race, Nelson led Simeonova and Maximov as the front three ran lock-step with one another. With some hard racing on lap four, Nelson had opened a gap of just over seven-tenths of a second as Van Wijk was now second ahead of Simeonova. Van Wijk was one of the fastest karts on the track and easily ran down the UK driver of Cameron Nelson to make it a two-driver race up front.
A lap later, Maximov and Jacob Ashcroft had worked together to run down the lead duo as four drivers ran within half a second. Nelson led at the start of the final circuit as he was on full defense to try to keep his lead and managed to do so to take the win over Ashcroft, Van Wijk, Maximov, and Kjellerup. Following the race, Van Wijk was handed a five-second time penalty and dropped to 13th in the classification, promoting Simeonova to fifth.
Junior MAX Pre-Final B
Team Denmark’s Casper Nissen was second in the overall classification. To his left, New Zea-land’s Marco Manson slotted into second ahead of the row two placeholders, Team Great Britain’s Scott Marsh and Team USA’s Davin Roberts. Row three saw the likes of team Netherlands driver Max Sadurski and Spain’s Jeremy Reuvers. There was an aborted start on the initial attempt, but the second time was perfect, and there was a lot of contact mid and deep in the field as several karts were airborne and damaged. Nissen led early from Manson and Marsh as Sadurski and Lewis Goff moved into the top five.
Sadurski was up two more spots on the following circuit to P2 as Goff was into fourth for Great Britain. The two Brits in Marsh and Goff worked together to push by Sadurski as several new names appeared in the top ten as for some drivers, it would be their last on-track opportunity. Marsh took the lead from Nissen on lap four as the top five drivers were separated by .672. With a lot of defending, the lead group grew from five to nearly fifteen with three laps remaining. Team Canada’s Antonie Lemieux moved into fifth behind Sadurski and Team France driver Alois Giradet. Marsh led as the last lap board came out as he was on the defence. Controlling the field, Marsh went on to take the win ahead of Nissen, Goff, Lemieux, and Sadurski.
Senior MAX Pre-Final A
It was a British invasion for the start of Senior MAX Pre-Final A as Lewis Gilbert, Harry Bartle, Callum Bradshaw, and Macauley Bishop occupied first, third, fourth, and fifth positions on the starting grid. Team Italy’s Elia Pappacena started on the front row next to Gilbert, and Paul Kris-tian Hamburg started sixth beside Bishop. It was twelve laps to get it done as Gilbert led through the opening few corners as it was a good clean start for the Senior MAX Pre-Final A competitor.
Great Britain led Italy early as Gilbert was ahead of Pappacena. Lap two saw Team Estonia’s Paul Hamburg spin and take out Timothe Pernod from Team Canada, who had nowhere to go. Pappacena took the lead from Gilbert as three British drivers lined up second through fourth, with Italian Pietro Valdon Pons in fifth. It was an average race upfront as six karts ran nose to tail with very little passing as they all settled in to make sure they would be able to transfer directly to the main event. At the mid-race distance, Pappacena continued to lead as the only move in the top five was Pons and Bishop moving by Gilbert, pushing him down to sixth.
On lap eight, Pappacena continued to lead from Bradshaw, Bishop, Bartle, and Pons. Bradshaw took the lead on the penultimate lap, pushing Pappacena down to second as there was a big gap back to the third-place runner Bishop. Bradshaw scored the win ahead of Pappacena, Bishop, Bartle, and Team France driver Mehdi Lassoued. Post-race, Pappacena, and Lassoued would receive a five-second time penalty post-race, falling to sixth and eighth in the results and elevating Pons to fourth and Max Walton to fifth.
Senior MAX Pre-Final B
Similar to Pre-Final A, several British drivers started in the front three rows, with Matthew Higgins in the pole position alongside fellow Brit Kai Hunter. The Belgium entry of Vic Stevens started third, and Sean Butcher from Great Britain in fourth. Swiss driver Tino Sidler rolled off the grid in the fifth position, with the Team Netherlands Mika Van De Pavert in sixth.
A trio of British drivers led the opening lap, Higgins led from Hunter and Butcher, and Stevens fell to fourth. Team USA’s Oliver Hodgson was up two positions to the fifth position by Tino Sidler. Hunter, pushed by Butcher, took the lead from Higgins as Hodgson advanced another position to fourth. Butcher took the lead a lap later as Hunter fell to second, and Hodgson was up to third. A lap later, Hodgson made a double pass to take the lead from Butcher as Hunter followed him through to second. Hunter and Butcher took the lead from Hodgson as Dalton Haines was having himself a race as he moved into P8 on lap eight. After qualifying 72nd and last on Wednesday, Haines was set to do the unthinkable and make the main event when it looked like his week would be a disaster.
With three laps to go, Hunter now led from Hodgson and Butcher, with Haines moving to seventh. The top five remained unchanged on lap ten, but on the penultimate lap, the battle was on for the win. With drivers defending lap after lap, Hunter went on to take the win over Hodgson, Butcher, Higgins and Tino Sidler. On the final circuit, Haines went for a pass and spun, ultimately finishing way down the order in 29th.
MAX DD2 Pre-Final A
Winning two heat races, #463 Enzo Bol and #414 Xen De Ruwe earned 144 points and would start their respective prefinals from the pole position. In Pre-Final A, Bol led the field to the green alongside Team Netherlands driver Sem Knopjes, ahead of Kyrgyzstan’s Konstantin Krapin and Team Latvia’s Edgars Vilcans. Antoine Barbaroux occupied row three from Team France and Italy’s Daniel Giliberti. Enzo Bol had a great start and opened a small gap early, but Knopjes kept him honest as the two Dutch drivers were upfront. Working together and leading by one second at the end of lap three, Bol and Knopjes were looking to make it a two-driver race. By the end of lap four, the top five positions had remained unchanged from where they started. As the field spread out behind the two leaders, Barbaroux was able to sneak by Vilcans for fourth. Knopjes was by Bol for the lead as Bol appeared to have an issue and fell down the order. Krapin was in second ahead of Vilcans and Barbaroux, with Bol falling to fifth.
Krapin was second on track, but he was faster than the leader of Knopjes. Knopjes was passed by Krapin but regained the lead a corner later and opened a gap as Barbaroux was by Krapin for the second position. Knopjes scored the win with Barbaroux in second, Krapin in third, Vilcans fourth, and Leon Mandl in fifth as Enzo Bol fell to tenth with an apparent paddle shift issue. A post-race time penalty to Barba-roux dropped him to 14th in the running and elevated Krapin to second, Vilcans to third, Mandi to fourth, and Veerus Ragner to the fifth position.
MAX DD2 Pre-Final B
Xen De Ruwe started Pre-Final B from the preferred pole position as Polish driver Dawid Masalakiewicz joined him on the front row in second. Row two saw Team Finland’s Axel Saarniala and Team Brazil’s Leonardo Reis as Paul Fourquemin from Team France and Team Denmark’s Rasmus Vendelbo secured the fifth and sixth-place starting positions. De Ruwe led early from Reis, who gained two positions from the opening lap, and Masalakiewicz dropped one spot to third.
Nikita Gense was up four positions to fourth as he was charging forward on the running order but was three seconds behind De Ruwe. At the mid-race distance, De Ruwe continued to lead Masalakiewicz by 1.4 seconds, but Masalakiewicz was eating up the gap at about two-tenths of a second per lap. Lap seven saw Masalakiewicz run almost half a second faster than De Ruwe and closed that gap on lap eight by another three-tenths. Reis continued to run third ahead of Gense and Vendelbo. Masalakiewicz was now on De Ruwe's rear bumper with three laps to go. De Ruwe defended into turn two and kept the lead as the battle upfront brought Reis back into the fight. De Ruwe went on to win as Masalakiewicz was forced to defend from Reis as Gense and Vendelbo rounded out the top five.
MAX DD2 Master Pre-Final
Going two-for-two in the Qualifying Heats, Team France driver Nicolas Picot led Team Brazil's Joao Cunha to the green in the MAX DD2 Master prefinal. Six different countries occupied the first six positions, with Matthew Hamilton third, Matias Rodriguez fourth, John Bonanno in the fifth position, and Juan Pablo Rico sixth. Picot cut in front of Cunha to hold on to the lead early, as the front two rows had a great start, and drivers were together further down the running order. The top four starts remained in their starting positions as the first lap concluded, but behind them, Juan Pablo Rico was by Bonanno for fifth.
Picot now led Hamilton at a quarter-race distance as Cunha fell to third. Lithuanian Martynas Tankevicius, the big mover in the top ten, had moved from 11th to sixth in three laps. Picot was checking out from the field as he turned his fastest lap of the race on lap five and opened his gap to over 1.2 seconds. Matias Rodriguez was up to third behind Hamilton after six of twelve laps. Cunha was struggling to hang onto the rear bumper of Rodriguez's as he was able to sneak by Hamilton on lap seven. Tankevicius was by Rico for fifth on lap eight as Picot now led by over 1.5 seconds upfront, but Rodriguez had turned up the wick behind him as he looked to make a late race charge. Picot and Rodriguez ran similar times on lap nine, ten, and eleven as the gap remained static at around 1.4 seconds. Picot went on to take the win ahead of Rodriguez as Cunha recovered to finish third, Hamilton in fourth, and Tankevicius in the fifth position.
E20 Senior Pre-Final
With two Qualifying Heat race wins, Team Germany’s Robert Schopian started the E20 Senior Pre-Final from the pole position alongside Hungary’s Armand Hamilton. Thailand’s Siri Kongrisi was third on the grid for the start as Team France driver Amandine Travadon secured the fourth position. Maximo Castro from Uruguay was inside row three, with Switzerland’s Phillip Loacker in sixth. It was a ten-lap prefinal, and Schopian led Hamilton and Kongrisi early on, but behind them, Phillip Loacker and Junior Jonsson were up two places each to fourth and fifth.
Hamilton took the lead on lap two from Schopian, and the battling upfront allowed Kongsiri, Loacker, and Maximo Castro to close the gap to the opening duo. At the end of lap four, Schopian led from Loacker, Kongrisi, Castro, and Jonsson as Hamilton dropped the order and ran seventh. Jonsson was out of the race on lap five with an issue that will force him to start the main event from deep in the field as Hamilton seemed to have regained speed and was back on the charge. Hamilton was back up to third on the penultimate lap, but in the end, Schopian took the win ahead of Castro and Hamilton, Loacker, and Raul Vargas from Spain in fifth.
E20 Master Pre-Final
Team Sweden’s Jonatan Morin secured the E20 Master pole position courtesy of one heat race win but would be under pressure from second-place starter and Team Netherlands driver Maurits Knopjes. Argentina’s Emiliano Parisi and Peru’s Jhonny Gushiken were in row two ahead of Mundy Loyer from Peru and Team Brazil’s Gabriel Rosa in row three. Maurits Knopjes led early from Morin as he was able to sneak by on lap two to control the pace.
On lap five, Knopjes had opened the gap over Morin by nearly two seconds as he was the class of the Masters field in the Pre-Final. Behind them, Parisi was ahead of Gushiken, with Christoph Adams rounding out the top five. Knopjes went on to win the prefinal with Morin crossing the line in the second as the remaining top five were stationary over the race's second half. Following the race, Parisi was given a five-second time penalty, moving Gushiken to third, Adams to fourth, and Roso to the fifth position.
On To Tomorrow
The grids are now set for the main events. One more on-track session tomorrow will allow all qualified drivers to fight for their opportunity to be crowned RMC Grand Finals Champion. Be sure to tune into the Rotax Karting YouTube page to follow along live.
Below is another gallery of photos from the Drivers Parade.