Qualifying Heats have given their verdict on the Kartodromo Internacional Lucas Guerrero of Valencia. With all the grids now settled, the 2019 IAME Winter Cup by RGMMC can look forward to an exciting final day of racing with Prefinals, Last Chance Heats and Finals to eventually name this year’s winners on Sunday afternoon.
X30 Mini
Friday’s Pole-sitter Freddie Slater (Fusion Motorsport) had it almost perfect today with two wins out of three attempts, his first Heat ending up with a fourth position that still won’t prevent him from starting on Pole position for the Mini Prefinal on Sunday Morning. Alberto Gonzalez (BRT) will be by his side at lights out thanks to two second places. Winner of the first Heat, Leo Robinson (Fusion) could have claimed a potential front row if it wasn’t for an 8th-place finish in his Heat 2. Giovanni Trentin (Team Driver Racing Kart) will start from 4th on the grid ahead of Oleksandr Bondarev (TDK Marlon Kart) and a group of four Spanish drivers ready to rumble on home soil: Juan Cota (Kart Republic Spain), Edu Lliteras (Fusion Motorsport), Lucas Fluxa (Praga Espana Motorsport) and Adrian Benito (Praga Espana Motorsport), with Singaporean driver Tiziano Monza (Team Driver Racing Kart) closing up the top ten. Despite a strong sixth-best lap time in Qualifying, Sebastiano Pavan (Team Driver Racing Kart) couldn’t translate his pace into results and will start from a distant 18th place on the grid.
X30 Junior
Oliver Bearman (KR Sport) went through a strong Saturday performance-wise by winning all of his three Qualifying Heats to clinch Pole position for the Prefinal. A race, to define the grid hierarchy for the Final, that will see a powerful contingent of British drivers starting from the upper part of the grid. Apart from Bearman, the others include Daniel Guinchard (SFR Motorsport) in 2nd, Josh Rowledge (Strawberry Racing) in 3rd with two Heats won but a slightly-penalizing 7th-place finish, Zacharias Ripley (Evolution) in 4th and Liam McNeilly (Evolution) in 5th. Despite setting up the best lap performance on Friday night, Eron Rexhepi (KR-Sport) will start from 6th, followed by Alex Ley (Coles Racing) in 7th in front of Ruben Volt (DHR), Oli Pylka (Dan Holland Racing) and Patrick Hakala (DHR). Ken Oskar Algre (Aix Racing Team) wasn’t able to convert his third-best lap time in Qualifying into positive results as he will kick off his day tomorrow morning from 16th. Oliver Gray (Dan Holland Racing) managed to win one race and will be 19th on the grid.
With the 28 best drivers having already secured their place in the category’s Prefinal, six more names will be allowed to join them on the grid at the end of the Second Chance Heat. 29th in the provisional rankings, Matthew Marrocco (EKR Factory Team) will start from Pole position with Josep Marti Sobrepera (FA Racing Spain), who certainly didn’t have his best day “at the office”, by his side.
X30 Senior
Pole Position on Friday, four heat victories on Saturday and again Pole for Sunday’s Prefinal: Dean MacDonald (Strawberry Racing) has certainly not done things by half in the Senior class. The British driver will start tomorrow’s penultimate race alongside Leevi Lintukanto (Team Evolution) who managed to finish in the top-3 in four consecutive occasions. Only 12th-fastest on Friday, Mathilda Olsson (Strawberry Racing) found her way to the top-6 before winning her very last Heat to access the second row of the grid. She will try to keep her teammate Romain Leroux (Strawberry Racing) behind in 4th with Siim Leedmaa (AIX Racing) in 5th while Filip Vava (KR Sport) concluded his day with 6th place overall. After both facing a difficult Qualifying where they only emerged with the 19th and 26th best-lap times respectively, last year’s class winner Clayton Ravenscroft (KR Sport) and his fellow countryman Louie Westover (Dan Holland Racing) pulled it together to climb the field up to positions 7 and 8 on the grid. The top ten is completed by Daniel Macia (Praga Espana Motorsport) and Matias Salonen (Evolution).
Among those whose day could have been better, Morgan Porter (M Sport), second-fastest on one lap yesterday, and last year’s Junior Euro Series winner Lewis Gilbert (KR Sport) will start from 13th and 15th on the grid respectively after having both faced time penalties during one of their Heats. Isidro Gomez (Kart Republic Spain), despite a win in his first Heat, will be 16th while last year’s Junior Champions Cup winner Mari Boya (Monlau Competicion) will start from a distant 24th in the hierarchy. Other unexpected results concern Joey Van Splunteren (Super B), whose 32nd place in today’s classification makes him start 3rd in the Last Chance Heat where he will find reigning IAME International Final winner Joe Turney (KR Sport) whose solo win wasn’t enough to recover from two earlier finishes out of the top-30.
X30 Super Shifter
Thanks to two Heat wins in the bag, Carles Martinez (Praga Espana Motorsport) has shone before his peers to climb on top of the positional rankings in the gearbox-powered class. The Spaniard will start tomorrow’s Prefinal on Pole but can’t expect to have an easy race with Friday’s Pole-sitter Kaspar Korjus (AIX Racing Team), winner of Heat 1, by his side on the front row. Brad Benavides (Campos Racing) will be 3rd with Kevin Ludi (Spirit-Racing) completing the second row ahead of Carlos Leon (FA Racing Spain) and Thierry Delré (Delré Racing / Mach1 Motorsport). The top ten is completed by Philipp Seewer (Spirit-Racing), Michel Biffiger (Spirit-Racing), David Rehme (KH-Racing) and Ana Teixeira (Cabo Junior Team).
