Rotax MAX Euro Challenge Champions Crowned

from RGMMC Media

12 September 2013


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Four Champions and ten nominated Grand Finals candidates
Tie Junior Championship with Advantage for Zhou
Senior: Win for Kyle Fowlie – Title for Charlie Eastwood
Ben Cooper takes the triumph in DD2
Photo Gallery HERE

After Genk (Belgium), Castelletto (Italy) and Brandon (UK) the final round of the ROTAX MAX Euro Challenge was hosted in France from 4th to 8th September 2013. Almost 140 drivers from all around the world subscribed for the event at Salbris, which set a new record for the organizing RGMMC Establishment. "We never had that many entries for a final round ever. This is a great feedback and confirms our efforts", said Roland Geidel, RGMMC CEO. The 1.500 metres long circuit of Sologne Karting in Salbris marked the decisive stop of the year. On French soil the champions of the categories of junior, senior, DD2 and DD2 Masters were crowned in the very last race by some really close outcomes – all told a worthy end for the tenth anniversary season. Yet the drivers had to cope with some unpredictable weather conditions. After a hot and sunny week, conditions changed for a more showery weather on Friday and Saturday, which made for a few rainy sessions. But just in time for the final day sun came out again and provided best racing conditions...

Above: Pierce Lehane in action. His meeting was significantly ruined after a DNF in the pre-final due to contact with Harry Webb (for which Webb was DQd). The Aussie charged back in the final to an impressive 11th from the rear of the grid
pic - Timo Deck/RGMMC Media

Tie Junior Championship with Advantage for Zhou

In the junior category Connor Hall (Strawberry Racing) was leading the championship by 242 points. Although Hall was still waiting for his first season win, his leading gap seemed quite comfortable. 18 points behind was his teammate and British countryman Guan Yu Zhou, lying in second place in the championship table. Due to the discarding results, Zhou still had good chances for the title.

But in the qualifying Philip Hamprecht (Paul Carr Racing) from Germany surprised with the best time in his group. Yet his joy faded quickly, after being disqualified for a technical irregularity. Anyway the second group proved to be even faster, setting the first nine positions in the overall ranking. Here it was championship leader Connor Hall, taking the best time ahead of Austria's Thomas Preining (Protrain Racing) and Josh Price (Price Racing). Guan Yu Zhou had to be satisfied with seventh place, but he did not give up at all.

The fight for the championship title continued in the heats. The two favourites both came up with two wins each. Yet Zhou had the advantage on his side. By finishing second in one of his heats, he finally did slightly better than Hall. As a result Zhou put his Tony Kart on pole position for the prefinal. But Hall could be happy as well. He took the second place in the overall ranking, thus starting from first row on Sunday, which was a comfortable position to defend his lead. Behind the championship aspirants Josh Price and Jai Niijar (Strawberry Racing) took places three and four in the ranking, while Lando Norris (RL Racing Dept UK) – newly crowned CIK European champion of KFJ – completed the top five positions.

Above: The Voice of Rotax and the man you hear on the live web stream - Ken Walker
pic - Timo Deck/RGMMC Media

In the prefinal Zhou and Hall maintained the first places. Most of the race the duo set the pace in the leading positions. But when the race approached the end they began to fight – not only for the race win but even for the title. In doing so they lost a lot of time, which made Price and Niijar catch up. At last they even overtook the struggling title aspirants and so Price won the race ahead of Niijar. Hall drove a very defensive last lap and kept Zhou off his patch, thus still being in championship lead.

The final had to bring the decision. But again it was someone else, who stole the thunder on the very top: Lando Norris did a brilliant start, which boosted him from fifth to first place. From here on the opening round winner dominated the race and took a clear victory. Behind Norris positions were settled soon, too. Guan Yu Zhou established himself in second position, bringing it safely to the finish in front of his rival Connor Hall. With great tension one expected the championship calculation. To the surprise of all, the rivals were equal in points, but as Zhou had the best final result, he was the one being crowned new champion. "I really thought that Connor had made it for the title. When I heard the official announcement, me being the champion, I could not believe. It is totally great and I am so thankful", stated Zhou during the prize giving. Behind Zhou and Hall it was Niijar taking third place in the final ranking, thus completing the triple triumph for Strawberry Racing.

Above: Junior MAX Euro podium
pic - Timo Deck/RGMMC Media

Senior: Win for Kyle Fowlie – Title for Charlie Eastwood

A very close competition for the championship was expected for the senior category. More than a fistful of drivers stood a chance for the overall victory. In best position was Philip Morin (Dan Holland Racing) from Sweden. He was leading by 227 points, still being without a win, but being the most consistent driver thus far. Right behind the team of Strawberry Racing had two strings to its bow: The reigning world champion Charlie Eastwood (Strawberry Racing) still had all chances for the title, being placed second in the table. With regard to the dropping results he should catch up the missing five points easily. That applied to Harry Webb (Strawberry Racing) as well, as the reigning junior world champion was tied with Eastwood. Although Morin, Eastwood and Webb were expected to be the protagonists for the championship win, they had to watch out for their opponents: Edward Brand (Intrepid Driver Program), Martin Henckel Mortensen (RS Competition), Kyle Fowlie (Strawberry Racing), Niklas Tiihonen (FK Racing Team AB Ltd) and Oliver Myers (Coles Racing) followed right behind in the ranking and still had triumph within their reach.

In the qualifying Charlie Eastwood was the man, setting the benchmark in the grid of the 51 seniors, thus underlining his ambitions for the title. Second place went to Pierce Lehane (Dan Holland Racing) ahead of Edward Brand. The championship favourite Harry Webb and championship leader Philip Morin did a solid job and kept in touch by taking fourth and sixth position.

pic - Timo Deck/RGMMC Media

The heats proved to be a head-to-head fight between the title rivals Charlie Eastwood and Harry Webb, as they shared six wins out of ten. Finally the weather decided the duel in favour of Eastwood, since Webb started the last rainy heat on slick tyres. Being chanceless on the slippery track, he only finished twelfth, which threw him back on fourth place in the overall ranking. Alongside pole setter Eastwood, Edward Brand established himself in the first row for the prefinal. The vice champion of 2012 took two wins and maintained his chances for a possible triumph on Sunday. That applied to Philip Morin. After a sixth position in the qualifying he showed a very consistent performance, which finally put him on third position in the ranking.

In the prefinal Eastwood managed the best start, taking the lead in front of Morin, Lehane and Webb. This quartet seemed to settle the win until Webb became protagonist of a fatal action. The reigning junior world champion pushed Lehane off the track and was finally disqualified by being shown the black flag. For him the dream of the title was over – quite the contrary for Eastwood and Morin. But they had to deal with a fulminant driving Kyle Fowlie. The man from the UK had started the race from sixth place and managed to catch up to the leaders. For the final spurt he had the best package, which he used to overtake the leading duo. After 13 laps Fowlie crossed the finish line first right ahead of Morin and Eastwood.

Far less spectacular was the final race: Fowlie controlled the race from start to finish and took his greatest success in the Euro Challenge. By his double win he even managed a big jump in the championship table. By a gap of only four points Fowlie conquered the vice championship. But who succeeded in winning the overall classification? It was Charlie Eastwood. The reigning world champion drove a quite tactical race in Fowlie's slipstream. After he took over the second position he had everything in control – especially since Philip Morin dropped back to fourth position. So Eastwood did not take any risks and was rewarded with the European crown. As for the outgoing of the race the French spectators had reason to cheer and celebrated their fellow countryman Nicolas Picot (Kart Pro Racing). With a worth seeing performance the local hero put his Sodi Kart on a deserved third place and stepped onto the podium at his home match.

Senior MAX Champions 2013
Above: Senior MAX Euro Champions 2013
pic - Timo Deck/RGMMC Media

Ben Cooper takes the triumph in DD2

Five drivers went for the title in the DD2 category: By only one point Belgium's Xen De Ruwe (FK Racing Team AB Ltd) was leading the championship ahead of Finland's Miika Laiho (MPT Racing). But the competition was even closer, as third placed Sean Babington (Dan Holland Racing) – recently taking his very first DD2 win at PF – was only three points behind, which put him in a promising position as well. With a larger gap, but still with theoretical chances, Ben Cooper and Ferenc Kancsar (both KMS Europe) had to be mentioned as well.

Yet the mentioned drivers were not the protagonists of the qualifying session, which was mixed up by a rain shower. Here Alexandre Finkelstein (MD Competition) proved a sixth sense. After rain set in, he was the only one of his group going for rain tyres, which was the right decision, since rain got even stronger. So it was no surprise, that the Frenchman took the best time – but surprisingly only in his group. He was not the fastest man in the overall ranking. Although the second group had to cope with a wet track, it was Kevin Ludi (Spirit Racing) setting the pace, being almost two seconds faster than Finkelstein. Due to the massive time differences the overall classification was calculated according to the 101% regulation, in order to regulate the unfair weather conditions. That meant Ludi in first place ahead of Finkelstein, while many of the championship favourites experienced a disastrous qualifying. Best man of the title candidates was Ben Cooper, who ended up on eighth place in the overall ranking. Sean Babington did kind of a damage limitation by following in ninth position. For Championship leader Xen De Ruwe 14th place was the most he could take. Yet he was placed in front of his championship rivals Ferenc Kancsar, and Miika Laiho, who had some work to do in the heats, if they wanted to keep up their chances for the championship win.

Above: DD2 Euro Champions 2013
pic - Timo Deck/RGMMC Media

After that turbulent qualifying one expected a very close competition for the heats: And indeed the classification again changed dramatically: Finally one saw not less than six different winners in the six qualifying heats. Ben Cooper, Barrie Pullinger (Dan Holland Racing), Lucas Orrock (Team Orrock), Sean Babington, Kevin Ludi and Ferenc Kancsar were the lucky ones sharing the victories. Adding all points, it was Pullinger leading the ranking and taking pole position. Behind him the line up was formed by Orrock, Ludi and Cooper, while Kancsar still managed place seven. Championship leader Xen De Ruwe was quick too, but was not able to turn it into a real good result. More than place nine was not possible for Belgium's title hope.

But things should turn even worse for De Ruwe. The final day began with a dramatic news: Due to a dispute with his team FK Racing Team AB Ltd Xen de Ruwe withdrew from the event and was unable to participate in the final race, thus losing any hope for a possible title win. On the other hand Ben Cooper (KMS Europe) seized his chance. The reigning world champion really raised the bar and was undoubtedly driving in his own league. To make a long story short Cooper celebrated a double win in the finals and took the title in DD2 class. Neither the following drivers Babington and Kancsar could stop the Canadian in prefinal nor Orrock and Laiho in the final. Yet the outgoing of the championship could not have been any closer. Cooper won by a gap of only one point ahead of Babington, who for his part had just one point more than Laiho in third position.

As for the DD2 Masters classification Belgium's Christophe Adams (Sporting Formula K France) was in favourite position. Yet the championship leader should be given a hard time: His opponent Alessandro Manetti (Josh Hart Racing) had the advantage of gaining the maximum points. The Italian did not start at the opening round in Belgium and could drop the results of Genk completely, as long as nothing went wrong at Salbris.

In the qualifying it was Dennis Kroes (Team Kroes), being the quickest man on the track. But in the heats he had to leave the way for his opponents. On the top it was Cristiano Morgado (Josh Hart Racing), who conquered the best position. Behind him his teammate and title favourite Alessandro Manetti was second best of the Masters drivers. In doing so the Italian had the edge over championship leader Christophe Adams, who followed behind.

Cristiano Morgado did not show any weakness in the final races either. He won both races ahead of Alessandro Manetti, which finally crowned the Italian new champion. The multiple CIK champion showed happy in the end: "I have to thank my team Josh Hart Racing. I really enjoyed racing in the Euro Challenge. The level of racing is incredibly high. Most of the DD2 drivers could easily make it in KZ classes as well." Behind the new champion Christophe Adams and Florent Lambert (Tatum Racing) completed the top three of the overall classification 2013.

Above: DD2 Masters Euro Champion, Alessandro Manetti, who drove for Kiwi team Josh Hart Racing
pic - Timo Deck/RGMMC Media

In the end the Euro Challenge came up with four well-deserved champions and ten nominated Grand Finals candidates. The RGMMC looks back on a record breaking anniversary season, setting new benchmarks in subscriptions, organisation, race action and promotion. Especially the permanent live coverage made an impressive impact and counted more than 88.000 viewers in 2013! Although the season of the ROTAX Euro Challenge is over now, there is one last highlight to come: From 21st to 27th of October Zuera (ES) is venue of the ROTAX International Open, marking the last chance to qualify for the ROTAX Grand Finals in New Orleans (US) in November and free and assisted places to the 2014 ROTAX Winter Cup. All told there are seven last chance tickets waiting for the best drivers. Moreover all Open drivers will be entered into a free lottery draw, where one person in each class will win one complete free season in the 2014 ROTAX MAX Euro Challenge. And there is even more news: The provisional calendar for the ROTAX MAX Euro Challenge 2014 is almost set. Dates have been scheduled, only waiting for the venues to be approved. So stay tuned on the official website www.rotaxmaxeurochallenge.com, where you get all information regarding reports, photos, results and live TV stream.

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