WSK Open Series Rnd 3 – Castelletto

It was another day of mixed emotions for the two Australians contesting the WSK Open Series round in Italy on the weekend.

After showing great pace in practice, Williams Calleja (Mini) suffered a penalty in qualifying that saw his times wiped from the record. The meant a rear-of-field start for all the heats.

Strong moves saw the Babyrace driver card 10-6-9 in the heats, then 5th in his pre-final to start the final out of P15. Another strong drive forward resulted in 7th and second-fastest lap of the race.

Start of Mini Under 10s , Sebastian Eskandari off the front in Tony Kart #524

In Mini Under 10, Sebastian Eskandari (Tony Kart) qualified 11th (out of 35) before progressing forward in each heat, carding 6th, 3rd and a win. Starting P2, Seb fell to 7th in the hustle and bustle of the prefinal.

Off P2 again for the final, the Queenslander was fighting for the win when another driver ran over the back, damaging his kart and shuffling him down to fifth place.

“Extremely disappointed and upset for the team, we really deserved a good result this weekend” Eskandari posted on social media. “I have a big bruise and a sore wrist but I’m more upset about the one that got away.”

He expressed he’s happy with his driving but admits there is still much to learn. “The kart is amazing on a single lap, short stint” he explained. “We had the fastest lap of the weekend in the U10’s. But we seem to suffer with progressive understeer in the longer stints when the track is hotter. But we have an amazing team who is working really hard on and off the track and we are continually developing.”

full results HERE
live stream videos (several parts across both days) on WSK YouTube HERE

WSK press release

all pics – Sportinphoto

The WSK Open Series crowns the first champions in Castelletto

The penultimate round of the WSK Open Series took place at the 7 Laghi Kart International Circuit in Castelletto di Branduzzo (Pavia, Italy). This was the third stage of the championship after the first two rounds in Lonato and Cremona, and on the occasion the first two titles were awarded to the winners of the two categories, X30 Junior and X30 Senior.

The titles awarded and the winners in the MINI category in the third round

In the Castelletto round, the Swiss driver Tiziano Kuzhnini (#707 Team Driver/Tony Kart-Iame-MG) won the WSK Open Series title in X30 Junior, while Italian driver Danny Carenini (#801 Energy Corse/Energy-Iame-MG) claimed the title in X30 Senior.

The young drivers in the MINI category also competed in Castelletto, and their championship will conclude on June 25th in Sarno in the fourth and final round of the WSK Open Series. At the 7 Laghi Kart circuit, after the morning Prefinals, the winner in the MINI Gr.3 category was the Spanish driver Bosco Arias Chavarri (#503 Team Driver/KR-Iame-Vega), while in the MINI Gr.3 Under 10, the Polish driver Leonardo Gorski (#511 BabyRace/Parolin-Iame-Vega) took the victory.

The Prefinals

The winners of the Prefinals held on Sunday morning were:

MINI Gr.3 Under 10 – Prefinal: Leonardo Gorski (POL) (#511 BabyRace/Parolin-Iame-Vega).
MINI Gr.3 – Prefinal-A: Dean Hoogendoorn (NLD) (#501 Kidix/KR-Iame-Vega); Prefinal-B: Bogdan Cosma Cristofor (ROU) (#539 Team Driver/KR-Iame-Vega).
X30 Junior – Prefinal: Riccardo Ferrari (ITA) (#712 Zanchi Motorsport/Tony Kart-Iame-MG).
X30 Senior – Prefinal: Nando Weixelbaumer (AUT) (#833 Martinis/Red Speed-Iame-MG).

The Finals

MINI Gr.3 Under 10 – Gorskyi wins the final and takes the lead of the championship

The Polish driver Leonardo Gorski (#511 BabyRace/Parolin-Iame-Vega) managed to prevail in the Final, after winning the Prefinal and being the best in the heats. With this result, he took the lead in the championship, while in the battle for the other positions on the podium, Niccolò Perico (#566 Energy Corse/Energy-TM) prevailed over Michele Orlando (#618 IPK Official/IPK-TM). The Ukrainian driver Oleksandr Legenkyi (#536 Team Driver/KR-Iame) finished fourth, ahead of another protagonist in the category, the Australian driver Sebastian Eskandari-Marandi (Tony Kart R.T./Tony Kart-Vortex). The Belgian driver Antoine Venant (#572 Kidix/KR-Iame) finished ninth and lost the leadership.

Leonardo Gorskyi (POL)
Niccolo’ Perico (ITA)
Michele Orlando (ITA)

MINI GR.3 U10 Championship classification:

Leonardo Gorskyi (POL) points 200
Michele Orlando (ITA) points 140
Antoine Venant (FRA) points 132

MINI Gr.3 – Arias wins as Cosma Cristofor takes the new lead

A nice battle gave life to the final of MINI Gr.3, where the Spanish driver Bosco Arias Chavarri (#503 Team Driver/KR-Iame-Vega) emerged as the winner after the first few laps of the race. The American driver Keelan Harvick (#513 BabyRace/Parolin-Iame) managed to secure second place, overtaking the Romanian driver Bogdan Cosma Cristofor (#539 Team Driver/KR-Iame) who was leading the championship. Vladimir Ivannikov (#522 Gamoto/EKS-TM) finished fourth, while the Turkish driver Iskender Zulfikari (#502 BabyRace/Parolin-Iame) settled for fifth place ahead of Dean Hoogendoorn (#501 Kidix/KR-Iame), who moved up to second place in the championship.

Bosco Arias Chavarri (ESP)
Keelan Harvick (USA)
Bogdan Cosma Cristofor (ROU)

MINI GR.3 Championship classification:

Bogdan Cosma Cristofor (ROU) points 219
Dean Hoogendoorn (NLD) points 204
Bosco Arias Chavarri (ESP) points 160

X30 Junior – The final to Ferrari, the championship to Kuzhnini

The X30 Junior final was quite eventful, with a series of position swaps between the two main contenders in the category, the Dutch classification leader Rocco Coronel (#704 Martinis/Red Speed-Iame-MG) and the Swiss Tiziano Kuzhnini (#707 Team Driver/Tony Kart-Iame), who were competing for the championship win. On the last lap, Kuzhnini made contact with Coronel, resulting in Kuzhnini receiving a 5s time penalty and being demoted one position, while Coronel finished fourth. The victory in the final went to the Italian Riccardo Ferrari (#712 Zanchi Motorsport/Tony Kart-Iame), followed by the Portuguese driver Lorenzo Campos and Filippo Pancotti, both from Team Driver on Tony Kart-Iame. However, the championship title ultimately went to Tiziano Kuzhnini, who finished with a two-point advantage over Coronel.

Riccardo Ferrari (ITA)
Lorenzo Campos (PRT)
Filippo Pancotti (ITA)

X30 Junior Championship classification:

Tiziano Kuzhnini (CHE) points 196
Rocco Coronel (NLD) points 194
Filippo Pancotti (ITA) points 185

X30 Senior – Albanese wins the final and Carenini the championship

The battle for success in the championship primarily involved the Italian driver Danny Carenini (#801 Energy Corse/Energy-Iame-MG), the Austrian driver Nando Weixelbaumer (#833 Martinis/Red Speed-Iame) and the French Andy Ratel (#842 Kidix/KR-Iame), who entered this third round with a slight advantage in the championship. Federico Albanese (#846 Italcorse/Italcorse-Iame) joined the three and won the final race after some position exchanges with Carenini and Weixelbaumer. Danny Carenini finished second and secured the title, while Nando Weixelbaumer closes his effort in third and took second place in the championship. Andy Ratel finished only sixth, but retained the third place on the championship podium.