Griffin Peebles put in another strong performance in the WSK Euro Series last weekend, placing 7th in the Mini final at the last round. The effort placed him 11th in the championship that featured massive fields at each event.
The Europe-based Australian qualified his KR/IAME/Vega package 21st in the 69-strong field. Heat results of 8-10-4-5-8 ranked him 15th overall. He moved forward in pre-final A, taking 4th, then started 7th and finished 7th in the final, part of a 6-kart battle for the final podium position.
“(I) moved up to P7 after the Pre Finals, but didn’t quite have the speed to challenge for the podium and finished P7” he posted on social media. “Big thanks to Team Driver and Team GK for their hard work this week as we improved kart a lot over the weekend.”
Ferrari Academy driver James Wharton also contested the round, competing in OK on Parolin/TM/LeCont. Unfortunately he struggled for pace, qualifying 41st (of 56) and slipping to 53rd in the ranking after heats of 23-26-25. He moved forward six positions in his pre-final, but still missed the cut for the final. James concluded the series in 25th position with 15 points, all acquired at the second round at Adria.
Event review video:
WSK Press
The round in Sarno has been the third and closing race of the WSK Euro Series in an intense, hard fought and red-hot weekend, both due to the torrid temperatures that characterized this round at the International Circuit Napoli but mostly because of the importance of the event that awarded the titles for categories KZ2, OK, OKJ and MINI.
A total of 227 drivers, out of the 250 entered from 50 nations, put on a great show. After the heats on Friday and Saturday, the closing day on Sunday, June 27th was dedicated to the Prefinals and Finals of each category that eventually named the winners of edition 2021.
- full results on WSK site HERE
The WSK Euro Series 2021 champions
In KZ2 the Spanish driver Pedro Hiltbrand (Leclerc by Lennox/BirelART-TM Racing) was in a great shape and won the final in Sarno, but the championship went to the Italian Riccardo Longhi (BirelART Racing/BirelART-TM Racing).
The British driver Arvid Lindblad (KR Motorsport/KR-Iame) won a fantastic final in OK which confirmed him on top of the championship and rewarded him with the title.
In OKJ the final was won by the Jamaican Alex Powell (KR Motorsport/KR-Iame), but the title went to the Brit Harley Keeble (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex) thanks to the advantage he built in the previous two rounds in Lonato and Adria.
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In MINI the victory of the final went to the Russian Vladimir Ivannikov (Drago Corse/EKS-TM Racing), while the title to the Spanish driver Christian Costoya (Parolin Motorsport/Parolin-TM Racing), who was second in the closing race.
Hiltbrand wins the final in Sarno as Longhi claims his second KZ2 title in a row
In KZ2, the classification leader from Holland Marijn Kremers (BirelART Racing/BirelART-TM Racing) had to pull out due to rib pain and his rivals had clear way in the title hunt. The Spanish driver Pedro Hiltbrand (Leclerc by Lennox/BirelART-TM Racing) came to the fore as he was the fastest in the heats and then won the Prefinal and Final, where Giuseppe Palomba (BirelART Racing/BirelART-TM Racing) had the upper hand leading the French Emilien Denner (Intrepid Driver Program/Intrepid-TM Racing).
The Italian Riccardo Longhi (BirelART Racing/BirelART-TM Racing) made the most of the weekend though, as the fourth place in the final allowed him to score more points than Marijn Kremers and to claim the title of the category for the second year in a row. Kremers slipped down to P2, while Giuseppe Palomba ended third.
WSK Euro Series KZ2 Championship:
1. Riccardo Longhi points 261;
2. Marijn Kremers points 242;
3. Giuseppe Palomba points 211.
Arvid Lindblad is the OK champion
In OK, after the initial battle for the lead between the Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov (DPK Racing/KR-Iame) and the Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli (KR Motorsport/KR-Iame), that came to the fore in the qualifying stages, the British driver Arvid Lindblad (KR Motorsport/KR-Iame) that was leading the championship took the lead of the final winning it with a good margin on Tsolov. In the duel for P3, the Brit Joseph William Turney (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex) had the upper hand on Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Arvid Lindblad secured therefore the title with a good margin on his teammate from America Ugo Ugochukwu, who ended second in the championship thanks to the sixth place in the closing final. The Pole Tymoteusz Kucharczyk (BirelART Racing/RK-TM Racing) ended third equal on points with Nikola Tsolov.
WSK Euro Series OK Championship:
1. Arvid Lindblad points 381;
2. Ugo Ugochukwu points 182;
3. Tymoteusz Kucharczyk points 144.
Powell wins the OKJ final, Keeble the title
In OKJ the Jamaican Alex Powell (KR Motorsport/KR-Iame) won a very hard fought final that required two starts due to an incident at the first start. Powell won the final leading Ukraine’s Oleksandr Bondarev (Honta/Tony Kart-TM Racing) and the American Kai Sorensen (Forza Racing/Exprit-TM Racing), who completed a good recovery race. The Brit Coskun Irfan (KR Motorsport/KR-Iame) had to retire from the final after shining until the prefinal.
The championship went to the Brit Harley Keeble (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex), who was already leading the pack at the eve of this round but ended ninth from P4 due to a penalty. Despite this result, Keeble kept a 3 points margin on Powell. The third place in the championship went to Freddie Slater (Ricky Flynn/Kosmic-Vortex).
WSK Euro Series OKJ Championship:
1. Harley Keeble points 224;
2. Alex Powell points 221;
3. Freddie Slater points 137.
In MINI Ivannikov gets the win in the final, as Costoya wins the title
The Italian Emanuele Olivieri (Formula K Serafini/IPK-TM Racing) missed the appointment with the podium in MINI this time around as the classification leader leader had to retire from the Prefinal. In the final, the Russian Vladimir Ivannikov (Drago Corse/EKS/TM Racing) took the lead of the race from the Spaniard Christian Costoya (Parolin Motorsport/Parolin-TM Racing), who already came to the fore in the heats, but settled for P2 in the final as this result allowed him to get the 2021 title.
The third place went to the Italian Jacopo Martinese (CMT/Parolin-TM Racing), who won Prefinal-B. Costoya ended the championship on top at 250 points, while the second place went to Ivannikov, while Olivieri got the satisfaction of the third step of the podium.
WSK Euro Series MINI Championship:
1. Christian Costoya points 250;
2. Vladimir Ivannikov points 218;
3. Emanuele Olivieri points 196.
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