Nine drivers flew the Australian flag at the opening round of the WSK Super Master Series at Lonato, Italy, on the weekend.
William Calleja and Lewis Francis ended as the top placed Aussies in the finals, having both been on the cusp of missing the cut after the heats. The duo charged forward in their finals, Calleja progressing 14 positions to take 16th in Mini while Francis moved up 13 placings for 22nd in the OKJ final.
Sebastian Eskandari-Marandi and Koda Singh both made the Mini U10 finals as did Dante Vinci in OK. Eskandari-Marandi proved very competitive with the Tony Kart factory team, qualifying 8th and starting the final from grid 6, however an incident on the fifth lap dropped him to the rear of the field.
Aussie Wrap
Mini (74 entries)
- William Calleja (Parolin Motorsport, Parolin/TM)
Q: 7. Heats: 20, 11, 12, 35. Pre-Final B: 15. Ranking: 30. Final: 16th. - Oscar Singh (Babyrace Driver Academy, Parolin/IAME)
Q: 61. Heats: 34, 30, 21, 24. Pre-final A: 24. Ranking: 58. Final: DNQ
Mini Under 10 (49 entries)
- Sebastian Eskandari Marandi (Tony Kart Racing Team, Tony Kart/Vortex)
Q: 8. Heats: 11, 12, 8. Pre-Final B: 4. Ranking: 6. Final: 32nd. - Koda Singh (Babyrace Driver Academy, Parolin/IAME)
Q: 20. Heats: 19, 20, 22. Pre-Final B: 15. Ranking: 29. Final: 27th.
OK-Junior (88 entries)
- Lewis Francis (KR Motorsport, KR/IAME)
Q: 32. Heats: 26, 17, 16, 18, 18. Pre-Final B: 15. Ranking: 35. Final: 22nd. - Jenson Burns (Shamick Europe, Parolin/TM)
Q: 65. Heats: 22, 33, 20, 20, 20. Pre-Final B: 18. Ranking: 47. Final: DNQ. - Jaxson Burns (Shamick Europe, Parolin/TM)
Q: 79. Heats: 28, 33, 26, 28, 28. Pre-Final: DNQ.
OK (52 entries)
- Dante Vinci (Ricky Flynn Motorsport, LN Kart/Vortex)
Q: 19. Heats: 14, 22, 20. Pre-Final B: 14. Ranking: 28. Final: 33rd (DNF) - Xavier Avramides (Leclerc by Lennox, Birel ART/TM)
Q: 43. Heats: 30, 30, 25. Pre-Final A: 21. Ranking: 49. Final: DNQ
Full results are on the WSK website HERE.
Race Report
by WSK Promotion
Good opening to the WSK Super Master Series in Lonato
Great finals took place at South Garda Karting in Lonato for the first round of the WSK Super Master Series, which ran its opening round of the four appointments scheduled this season and immediately offered excellent international spectacle with 334 drivers from 51 countries competing in the MINI, OKJ, OK, and KZ2 categories.
The intense and long weekend in Lonato, after a total of 43 qualifying heats and 10 Prefinals, finally elected the first winners of each category: Bertuca (KZ2), Egozi (OK), Aksoy (OKJ), Zulfikari (MINI Gr.3), Venant (MINI Gr.3 U10).
The winners of the Prefinals
The winners of the Prefinals held on Sunday morning follow:
OK-Junior
Prefinal-A: Sebastian Lehtimaki (FIN) (Koski Motorsport/Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega)
Prefinal-B: Filippo Sala (ITA) (Sodikart/Sodi-TM)
MINI Gr.3 Under 10
Prefinal-A: Albert Tamm (CHE) (BabyRace/Parolin-Iame-Vega)
Prefinal-B: Oleksandr Legenkyi (UKR) (Team Driver/KR-Iame)
MINI Gr.3
Prefinal-A: Dean Hoogendoorn (NLD) (Kidix/KR-Iame-Vega)
Prefinal-B: Iskender Zulfikari (TUR) (BabyRace/Parolin-Iame)
KZ2
Prefinal-A: Alex Maragliano (ITA) (Maranello SRP/Maranello-TM-Vega)
Prefinal-B: Alessio Piccini (ITA) (Birel Art Racing/BirelArt-TM)
OK
Prefinal-A: Luis James Egozi (USA) (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex-LeCont)
Prefinal-B: Gustav Wisnieswki (POL) (Forza Racing/Exprit-TM)
The Finals
KZ2 – Bertuca takes a solid win
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Cristian Bertuca (BirelArt Racing/BirelART-TM-Vega) secured another win, his second consecutive in KZ2 after that at the WSK Champions Cup last week. With this victory, the young Italian driver is one of the most interesting drivers in the category and is certainly destined for a great career. The French driver Emilien Denner (Sodikart/Sodi-TM) finished second after starting from the lead, while the third position went to the German David Trefilov (Maranello SRP/Maranello-TM) in the final moments. Following in the best positions were other protagonists of the weekend like the French Jeremy Iglesias (CRG Racing Team/CRG-TM) in fourth place, the Romanian Daniel Vasile (BirelArt Racing/BirelArt-TM) in fifth and ahead of his teammate Giuseppe Palomba.
1 Cristian Bertuca (ITA)
2 Emilien Denner (FRA)
3 David Trefilov (DEU)
OK – Good win to Egozi
In OK, one of the major protagonists immediately emerged: the Dane David Walther (Koski Motorsport/Tony Kart-Vortex-LeCont). The fight for victory was fought by the two winners of the Prefinals, namely the American Luis James Egozi (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex) and the Pole Gustav Wisnieswki (Forza Racing/Exprit-TM). In the closing laps, Egozi was able to take the lead and win over Wisnieswki, who had led the pack for much of the final. The French Jimmy Helias (Ward Racing/Tony Kart-Vortex) ended third after a strong comeback. The Brazilian Gabriel Gomez (CRG Racing Team/CRG-Iame) finished fourth, the Latvian Tomass Stolcermanis (Energy Corse/Energy-TM) was fifth, and the Italian Sebastiano Pavan (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex) ended his comeback in sixth place.
1 Luis James Egozi (USA)
2 Gustav Wisnieswki (POL)
3 Jimmy Helias (FRA)
OKJ – The Final goes Aksoy’s ways
The OK-Junior Final was quite lively and it was resolved only in the final moments in favor of the Turkish Hasan Aksoy Alp (Tony Kart Racing Team/Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega) over the Finnish Sebastian Lehtimaki (Koski Motorsport/Tony Kart-Vortex), who had dominated the Prefinal. The Colombian driver Salim Hanna Hernandez (Ricky Flynn/LN Kart-Vortex) closed his effort in third place, while, due to a penalty, the Bulgarian Oleksandr Bondarev (KR Motorsport/KR-Iame) lost fourth place, which went to the Spanish Christian Costoya (Parolin Motorsport/Parolin-TM). The Czech Jindrich Pesl (IPK Official Racing Team/IPK-TM) ended fifth.
1 Hasan Aksoy Alp (TUR)
2 Sebastian Lehtimaki (FIN)
3 Salim Hanna Hernandez (COL)
MINI Gr.3 – Zulfikari wins the duel for the victory
The battle between the Turkish driver Iskender Zulfikari (BabyRace/Parolin-Iame-Vega) and the Dutch Dean Hoogendoorn (Kidix/Alonso-Iame) was decided in the last stages of the race in favor of Zulfikari, while Hoogendoorn, who had led until two laps from the end, finished fourth. Hoogendoorn was also proceeded by the Romanian driver Bogdan Cosma Cristofor (Team Driver/KR-Iame) and Vladimir Ivannikov (Gamoto/EKS-TM). The other Team Driver’s driver, Ilia Berezkin, closed his race in fifth place.
1 Iskender Zulfikari (TUR)
2 Bogdan Cosma Cristofor (ROU)
3 Vladimir Ivannikov
MINI Gr.3 Under 10 – Venant wins the sprint to the line
Another duel characterized category MINI Gr.3 Under 10, which ended only in the final meters when the Belgian Antoine Venant (Kidix/KR-Iame) won over the Ukrainian Oleksandr Legenkyi (Team Driver/KR-Iame), who had previously won Prefinal-B and was several times in the lead during the Final. A good third place was secured by the Italian David Moscardi (AV Racing/Parolin-TM), while the French Alessandro Truchot (Parolin Motorsport/Parolin-TM) finished fourth after performing well in qualifying and in the heats. Fifth after a comeback was the Slovakian Alex Molota (Firelly/EKS-TM).
1 Antoine Venant (BEL)
2 Oleksandr Legenkyi (UKR)
3 David Moscardi (ITA)
- Complete results are available at: www.wskarting.it/index.asp
The next rounds of the WSK Super Master Series:
2nd Rd – 19/02/2023 FRANCIACORTA / MINI – OKJ – OK – KZ2
3rd Rd – 05/03/2023 SARNO / MINI – OKJ – OK – KZ2
4th Rd – 30/04/2023 CREMONA / MINI – OKJ – OK – KZ2
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