Worthy Winners at Windy Rotax Winter Cup
| press release | 17 February 2016 |
| Tweet | |
From 8th to 14th February 2016, the traditional ROTAX Winter Cup, promoted by the RGMMC Group, was held for the seventh time following its debut in 2010.
For the first time, the event took place at Valencia (ESP) on the Kartódromo Internacional Lucas Guerrero. The karting circuit is one of the newest in Europe and has only been opened from 2014, which equally was when the 1.428 metres long track hosted the famous ROTAX MAX Grand Finals. Consequently the Spanish complex, which is located around 30 km west from the beautiful city of Valencia, has already proven its capability of hosting international top racing successfully.
Above: Junior final winner Adam Smalley
pic - RGMMC
And that applied to the ROTAX Winter Cup, which welcomed the international ROTAX scene from all around the world. Drivers from about 20 nations entered the event thus making for full grids in the categories of junior, senior and DD2. In addition to winning the prestigious title of the ROTAX Winter Cup champion 2016 there were valuable prizes waiting for the drivers. In each class the winner was given a free season in the Euro Challenge 2016, while the runner-up got two free races and the third placed driver one free round. But the way to victory was a long one, especially since the outer conditions were not easy at all: On almost every day, storm and squalls put the drivers to the test. Slipstream was the key to success, especially on the long start-finish straight where strong headwinds forced down both, the engines' revs and drivers' heads. So it was no surprise that the ranking kept changing from day to day, until one crowned four new Winter Cup champions at last ...
Above: Friday qualifying quickest
pic - RGMMC
Junior: Adam Smalley wins dramatic Final
In the junior class Adam Smalley (Coles Racing) handled the stormy conditions best in the qualifying session. By a time of 59.106 seconds the British youngster set the pace although he was only slightly quicker than Axel Charpentier (Strawberry Racing) who missed the top by only 0.036 seconds. Third and fourth place went to Joe Phillips and Olli Caldwell, both racing under British flag for the team of KR Sport. Estonia's Georg Koss (Aix Racing Team) completed the top five of the 36 drivers comprising grid, whose top 33 were only separated by less than one second.
Throughout the heats, Adam Smalley could not tie in with his perfect speed from Friday, which made him drop back to fifth place on Saturday evening. In front Axel Charpentier and Olli Caldwell were setting the tone. Both of them won two heats and finished second once, which made the merge ending in a tie. Since Axel Charpentier had the better qualifying result, he took the pole position for Sunday's prefinal, while Olli Caldwell followed in second place of the heat ranking. Third position went to Joe Phillips ahead of Spain's Carlos Saval Martin (Binakart).
In the prefinal Axel Charpentier was the man to be beaten. But the Tony Kart driver showed hardly any weakness. He controlled the field – including a group of up to ten serious chasers – over the most part of the race distance. He always was able to counterattack some short changes of the lead, which is why Charpentier finally won by a whisker of only 0.020 seconds ahead of his teammate Mark Kimber (Strawberry Racing), Tom Canning (KR Sport), Carlos Saval Martin and Laszlo Toth (Daems Racing Team) from Italy. Olli Caldwell and Joe Phillips who belonged to the circle of favourites, too, were involved in a collision which cost both of them a promising result.
In the final Axel Charpentier set the pace again. Together with Tom Canning the two youngsters managed to pull away from their chasers. When they ended their ceasefire – since Canning took the lead for some laps – the chasers caught up and suddenly almost the entire field was snatching for the top again. In a breath taking final spurt positions kept changing, accompanied by some smaller crashes in the pack. In the last lap the decision concentrated only on Axel Charpentier and Mark Kimber. They headed towards the last chicane, when Charpentier defended his line. Equally Kimber cut the track and crossed the line first. Consequently he was given a penalty which threw him back to 16th place. Axel Charpentier did not win, either. He was penalized for a bad manoeuvre and ended up in 17th place. Finally it was Adam Smalley inheriting the victory ahead of Tom Canning, Laszlo Toth, Carlos Saval Martin, Frenchman Antoine Perceval (Daems Racing Team) and Dutchman Daan Willemse (Team TKP).
Above: Junior podium
pic - RGMMC
Senior: Nicolas Schoell celebrated double Win
A very thrilling qualifying was reserved for the seniors. Until the very last lap – in fact the very last second – of the session, the lead kept changing. When the time ran off it was Leonard Hoogenboom (Team TKP) setting the pace by a time of 57.390 seconds. By a perfect last minute attack the Dutchman pushed Estonia's Kaspar Korjus (Aix Racing Team) and Turkey's Berkay Besler (Bouvin Power) back onto second and third place. Nicolas Schoell (Strawberry Racing), who had set the best time in the first qualifying group, had to be satisfied with fourth place in the merge, while Frenchman Florian Venturi (Venturi Christelle) complemented the top five positions.
Above: Senior qualifying quickest Leonard Hoogenboom
pic - RGMMC
In heats Berkay Besler took command. By two wins the Turk conquered the lead in the intermediate ranking and established himself on the pole position for the prefinal. Second place went to Josh White (Coles Racing) from the UK ahead of Nicolas Schoell, who was the only one besides Besler, being able to take two heat victories. Friday's qualifying winner Leonard Hoogenboom finished fourth in the merge of the heats ahead of Tom Gamble (Strawberry Racing) from the UK in fifth place.
The latter managed the best start for the senior prefinal. But Gamble's lead was not supposed to last long since he dropped back consistently and ended up on the seventh place. Equally Nicolas Schoell, Berkay Besler and Jonathan Hoggard (KR Sport) were the ones setting the pace. The three drivers headed away from the rest of the grid and arranged the victory between themselves. After a tight and nerve-racking fight, Schoell defended the win closely ahead of Besler and Hoggard. Fourth place went to Glenn Van Parijs (Bouvin Power) from Belgium, while Josh White completed the top five.
In the final, Nicolas Schoell was a class of his own. After a perfect start he pulled away from the grid and gained quite a big leading gap. Throughout the race distance the Austrian was able to maintain that advantage and kept his chasers out of his slipstream. In the end, he won the final ahead of Josh White and Tom Gamble, who both had tried hard to catch up to the leader, finally being rewarded with the podium places. Jonathan Hoggard finished fourth ahead of the reigning Euro Challenge junior champion Jack McCarthy from the UK.
Above: Senior double winner Nicolas Schoell
pic - RGMMC
DD2: Triumph for Edward Brand
In the gearbox category of the DD2 Edward Brand (CRG SPA) did a brilliant job in the qualifying session. The former senior driver proved his DD2 skills immediately and set the pace by a clear best time of 56.356 seconds, being remarkably faster than his chasers. Those were the local heroes Caballero Dalmau (CRG SPA) and Cristobal Garcia (CRG SPA) in second and fourth place. Switzerland's Kevin Ludi (Spirit Racing) followed in fourth place ahead of Sam Smelt (Strawberry Racing) from the UK.
For the heats Kevin Ludi was in brilliant shape. The Swiss finished the qualifying races by a clean record and took the top of the classification. Yet he had no walkover since Edward Brand was always close on his heels. In the end Brand had to be satisfied with second place ahead of Caballero Dalmau, Dzianis Slavinski (Uniqe Racing Team) from Belarus and Austria's Constantin Schoell (Daems Racing).
Above: DD2 final winner Edward Brand
pic - RGMMC
In the prefinal the favourites fell like dominoes. At first it was Edward Brand who had a bad start and was involved in a collision, pushing him back to the end of the grid. Finally he caught up some positions but ended the race in 14th place only. On top pole setter Kevin Ludi was in charge for a long time but then the triple heat winner visibly lost performance which made him drop back to sixth place in the end. A flawless drive was shown by Caballero Dalmau. The local hero took the lead by halftime and defended it up to the finish line ahead of the flying Finn Ville Viiliainen (Heikki Vaisanen) who had picked up the race from eleventh place only. In third position Spain's Gerard Cebrian Ariza (Jose Peraza Sampedro) finished the prefinal by a strong final spurt, pushing Dzianis Slavinski and Constantin Schoell to the chasers roles.
A rain shower made for new conditions for the DD2 final. And indeed the ranking shuffled dramatically. Prefinal winner Caballero Dalmau took the lead at first, but could not defend it at all being pushed back to 13th place in the end. On the other hand, Ville Viiliainen took to the slippery conditions like a duck to water. He headed away from the grid metre by metre and already looked like the save race winner. Yet he did not reckon with Edward Brand. The CRG driver was the quickest man on track and made his way back to the top. Close to the end he passed Viiliainen and celebrated the victory ahead of the Finn. Third place went to Slawomir Muranski (Wyrzykowski Motorsport) who equally was the best Masters driver in the end. Kevin Ludi and Gerard Cebrian Ariza complemented the top five of the final classification.
Above: DD2 Masters podium
pic - RGMMC
As for the Masters category Cristobal Garcia (CRG SPA) was the clear pacemaker in the qualifying phase. But the favourite struggled in the prefinal and so the Spaniard had to leave the victory to Martin Pierce (Uniq Racing Team) from Ireland. In the final the above mentioned Slawomir Muranski took the triumph after an impressive race. On the podium Martin Pierce took the second place ahead of Frenchman Christophe Adams.
Having crowned the 2016 ROTAX Winter Cup champions, one already got a foretaste of what is to come next: from 28th of March to 3rd of April the ROTAX MAX Euro Challenge will hold its 2016 opening event in Belgium. At Genk the RGMMC Group will head into the 13th year of organizing the ROTAX Euro Challenge and everyone is invited to join.
Above: DD2 prefinal winner Caballero Dalmau
pic - RGMMC
Above: Junior qualifying quickest Adam Smalley
pic - RGMMC
pic - RGMMC
Above: DD2 Masters qualifying quickest Cristobal Garcia
pic - RGMMC
Above: Junior heat start
pic - RGMMC
Above: Saturday heat winners
pic - RGMMC
Above: Senior heat start
pic - RGMMC
Above: Senior start
pic - RGMMC
Above: Senior podium
pic - RGMMC
Above: DD2 Masters final winner Slawomir Muranski
pic - RGMMC
Above: DD2 Masters prefinal winner Martin Pierce
pic - RGMMC
Above: DD2 podium
pic - RGMMC
