Pierce Off P2; Euro MAX Heat Summary


  26 July 2015

Pierce Lehane will start the Senior MAX pre-final from grid 2 on the final day of compeition at the third round of the Rotax MAX Euro Challenge in Germany this weekend.

After qualifying 7th, Lehane (Strawberry Racing/Tony Kart) carded two wins and a fifth in the heats.

  • Follow Pierce via the live timing and stream HERE (Pierce's pre-final start's at 8pm tonight, AEST)

 

event press release

New Faces on the Top after the Heats

Heat racing was on the agenda on Saturday during the third round of the ROTAX MAX Euro Challenge in Germany. In the night a thunderstorm raged on the complex of the Prokart Raceland in Wackersdorf, making for colder temperatures and new track conditions in the morning. But right in time for the races the sun came out again, which was only interrupted by a big rain shower in the lunch break. Other than that it was a great and sunny racing day, which showed some thrilling action and exciting fights for the pole positions.


Above: A Junior MAX heat gets underway
pic - rgmmc

Kiern Jewiss (Strawberry Racing) was the youngster of the day in the junior category. By a clean record the UK driver won all of his heats, which boosted him onto the pole position for Sunday's prefinal. Second place went to his fellow countryman and teammate Tom Gamble (Strawberry Racing), who was able to win two heats. Fin Kenneally (Aim Motorsport) completed the circle of race winners, which granted him the the third position after the heats in front of Zak Fulk (Coles Racing) and Friday's quickest Dean MacDonald (Aim Motorsport), while the championship leader Axel Charpentier (Strawberry Racing) had to be satisfied with position nine in the ranking.


Above: The pole sitters
pic - rgmmc

In the senior class Friday's quickest Brett Ward (Aim Motorsport) was without fortune. After winning the first heat, he got involved in two incidents in the further races, which finally threw him back to 30th place of the ranking, equally meaning that he ended up in the second chance heat. On the top Rinus van Kalmthout (Daems Racing) seized his chance. He did a consistent job, finishing in second place twice and finally adding one victory to his prey. So the Dutchman established himself in the lead of the ranking. Behind him championship leader Pierce Lehane (Strawberry Racing) was able to improve after his moderate qualifying result. Two heat wins and a fifth place put him on the second place ahead of Russia's Dennis Mavlanov (KR Sport), who was in brilliant shape by winning two heats. Sam Marsh (Dan Holland Racing) from the UK and Luke Varley (Sodikart) from the Emirates completed the top five positions.


Above: Senior heat winner Rinus van Kalmthout
pic - rgmmc

After the 101 per cent rule had been applied in the qualifying session on Friday, there was a lot of controversy about the results, especially since the "slower" drivers benefited from that decision. But in the heats it was Luka Kamali (CRG S.P.A.) disabusing his critics. The German who had set the best time in the slower qualifying group crossed the line first in two heats and took another second place, not only taking his first pole position in the Euro Challenge but keeping the international top drivers behind.

The chasers list was lead by Frenchman Anthony Abbasse (Sodikart) and Italy's Paolo DeConto (CRG S.P.A.) in second and third spot, while Finlands Roope Markkanen (VRT) and Germany's Niklas Gränz (CRG S.P.A.) completed the top five positions. Championship leader Ferenc Kancsar (BirelART/KMS) – only 31st in the qualifying – recovered from that setback and made his way up to ninth place. As for the DD2 Masters Igor Mukhin (CRG S.P.A.) was in good shape. He finished all races within the top ten and was rewarded with place 14 in the overall grid.


Above: DD2 heat start
pic - rgmmc

On Sunday morning the second chance heats will complete the grids for the final phase, which will kick off at 11.40 a.m. by the junior’s prefinal. So stay tuned on the official website www.rotaxmaxeurochallenge.com or rgmmcmedia.com, where you get all information regarding reports, photos, results and live TV stream.


Above: Senior MAX form up for a qualifying heat race
pic - rgmmc

 

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