Preview: Rotax MAX Euro Challenge Finale
| press release | 28 August 2013 |
| Tweet | |
The final countdown has begun: There are only few days left, until the final round of the ROTAX MAX Euro Challenge season. After Genk (Belgium), Castelletto (Italy) and Brandon (UK) the last round will be hosted in France from 4th to 8th September 2013. Almost 140 drivers from all around the world subscribed for the event, which sets 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. We are expecting some thrilling race action for the weekend and even closer fights for the championship titles", says Roland Geidel, RGMMC CEO.
pic - Timo Deck/RGMMC Media
The 1,500 metres long circuit of Sologne Karting in Salbris marks the decisive stop of the year
On French ground the champions of the tenth anniversary season will be crowned. Each of the three categories of junior, senior and DD2 is still an open matter...
In junior category Connor Hall (Strawberry Racing) is leading the championship by 242 points. Although Hall is still waiting for his first season win, his leading gap is quite comfortable. 18 points behind is his teammate and British countryman Guan Yu Zhou, lying in second place in the championship table.
Due to the discarding results, Zhou still has good chances for the title – especially if he manages to improve the final result of Genk, which means to do better than place 31.
A very close competition for the championship is expected for the senior category. More than a fistful of drivers stand a chance for the overall victory. In best position is Philip Morin (Dan Holland Racing) from Sweden. He is leading by 227 points, still being without a win, but being the consistent driver thus far. Right behind the team of Strawberry Racing has two strings to its bow: The reigning world champion Charlie Eastwood (Strawberry Racing) still has all chances for the title, being placed second in the table. With regard to the dropping results he may catch up the missing five points easily. That applies to Harry Webb (Strawberry Racing) as well, as the reigning junior world champion is tied with Eastwood. Although Morin, Eastwood and Webb are expected to be the protagonists for the championship win, they have 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) follow right behind in the ranking and still have triumph within their reach.
Five drivers will go for the title in the DD2 category: By only one point Belgium's Xen De Ruwe (FK Racing Team AB Ltd) is leading the championship ahead of Finland's Miika Laiho (MPT Racing). But the competition is even closer, as third placed Sean Babington (Dan Holland Racing) – recently taking his very first DD2 win at PF – is only three points behind, which puts him in a promising position as well. With a larger gap, but still with theoretical chances, Ben Cooper and Ferenc Kancsar (both KMS Europe) have to be mentioned as well. As for the DD2 Masters classification Belgium's Christophe Adams (Sporting Formula K France) is in favourite position. Yet the championship leader will be given a hard time: His opponent Alessandro Manetti (Josh Hart Racing) has the advantage of gaining the maximum points. The Italian did not start at the opening round in Belgium and can drop the results of Genk completely, as long as nothing goes wrong at Salbris.
Everybody is invited to join the final and decisive round again, as live TV coverage will start on Friday and continue throughout the weekend. Thus far the race action has been broadcast to more than 78.000 viewers all around the world. For the last round of the year RGMMC is confident to break the magic number of 100.000. So stay tuned on the official website www.rotaxmaxeurochallenge.com, where you get all information regarding reports, photos, results and live TV stream.
