DOUBLE WIN FOR VORTEX AT THE EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP OF SARNO

On the occasion of the third round of the FIA Karting European Championship, at Naples International Circuit, Harley Keeble and Freddie Slater put on a show and take the first and second place of the hard-fought final of OKJ class. Artem Severiukhin aims at victory in OK category, starting from the second position on the grid.

OKJ - The "Junior" class gives a double victory to Vortex engines. The DJT engine is one of the most competitive and the five first places in the Friday's eight free practices prove it with Jan Przyrowski (Tony Kart Racing Team), Salim Hanna (Ricky Flynn Motorsport), Dion Gowda (Ricky Flynn Motorsport) and James Egozi (Tony Kart Racing Team). Just Egozi is the star of the qualifying session, setting the fastest timing (56.106) overall, with Freddie Slater (Ricky Flynn Motorsport) and Przyrowski among the fastest driver in their respective groups. The whole Saturday and Sunday morning see the European drivers engaged in the qualifying heats: Egozi scores three victories and a second place; Przyrowski scores one success and two podiums; Slater wins once and gets on the podium three times; Harley Keeble (Tony Kart Racing Team) also gains one victory and two podiums; Gowda scores two podiums and a best lap; Finally, David Walther (Koski Motorsport), Dmitry Matveev (Koski Motorsport), Tobias Clausen (Ricky Flynn Motorsport), Maxens Verbrugge (Ricky Flynn Motorsport) and Reno Francot (Exprit Racing Team) achieve a total number of eight fastest laps. In the final, with about 40% of the grid powered by Vortex engines, the fight for the victory is concentrated in the last laps between Slater, leader of the European ranking, and Keeble: the two give life to an incredible final sprint, with Keeble victorious over his British compatriot for just 2 thousandths of a second. Egozi and Przyrowski take the chequered flag in the Top 10, while Walther and Clausen climb respectively 14 and 11 positions finishing behind the top ten. Continuing with the ranking we find, in order: Maxim Rehm (Ricky Flynn Motorsport), Francot, Enea Frey (Ricky Flynn Motorsport), Jimmy Helias (Tony Kart Racing Team), Edgar Anpilogov (Ricky Flynn Motorsport), Gowda and Ean Eyckmans (Kosmic Racing Department). Retired, unfortunately, Alexander Gubenko (Tony Kart Racing Team).

OK - The DST Vortex engine has very good chances to win also in the master class of single-speed karts. Artem Severiukhin (Ward Racing) opens the weekend with the best timing in his own group in the Friday morning's free practice, repeating in the afternoon's qualifying heats with the third place in the overall ranking. Severiukhin continues his path by collecting a total of three wins out of four qualifying heats and earns a second place on the final grid. Rintaro Sato (Ricky Flynn Motorsport) also proves to be fast with three second places and two fastest laps, as well as Joseph Turney (Tony Kart Racing Team) with a win and two third places. Norton Andreasson (Ward Racing) obtains a second place in the qualifying heats, while Tuukka Taponen (Tony Kart Racing Team) and Luigi Coluccio (Kosmic Racing Department) sign a fast lap each. With one third of the drivers at the starting grid of the final relying on Vortex engines, Severiukhin is in the best position to aim at the victory, but a hard start forces him to slip beyond the tenth position until his rising again with an incredible rhythm up to the fourth place. Unfortunately, the Russian driver is penalized by the stewards. As a result, Andreasson inherits the fifth place, while Sato gains a precious Top 10. A bitter taste remains for what happened to Turney: the English driver, after the podium obtained 15 days ago on the occasion of the WSK Euro Series, in the heats shows once more to have the right pace to fight for the top ranking positions, however at the starting he is bumped and put out of action after a few metres, right at the beginning of the final. It is worth mentioning Caspian Hagman (Ward Racing) who shows to be the best climber of the final with 19 positions recovered.