BNL Kickoff: Guinchard has strong showing in Junior Max
The first race of the BNL season took place this weekend in Genk, with a capacity 36 drivers taking part in the Junior Max class.
Group 1 would see Oli Pylka setting the pace with a 55.602, just ahead Thom Reinaerdts and Tom Adams in 3rd. Lucas Schoenmackers was 4th with Morris Schuring rounding out the top 5. Group 2 would go even quicker with Jef Machiels setting a 55.548 to top the session with Dani Van Ruiten 2nd just 0.022 behind with Daniel Guinchard 3rd on a 55.677. Wilgot Edqvist was 4th just over .15s behind the pace setter while Mike Van Vugt rounded out the top 5 in group 2. After qualifying it would be 2 points scoring finals to decide the winners. By putting both qualifying sessions together, Machiels and Van Ruiten would hold row 1, Pylka and Guinchard row 2 while Edqvist and Van Vugt would hold row 3. Tom Adams would start down in 11th with fellow Brit Callum Voisin down in 24th.
Final 1 started fairly clean, with Machiels holding the lead ahead of Pylka and Edqvist. It was all clean until turn 6 when Giuseppe Fico ended up in the barriers. Machiels didn’t hold the lead for long before Pylka and Edqvist made their moves on the second lap. Guinchard and Van Vugt then tried to make a move on a slowing Machiels, but the latter made contact, putting his kart ontop of Machiels, leaving them both out of the race. That promoted Van Ruiten inro 3rd and Guinchard into 4th. It was then Pylka’s turn to drop back, loosing out to Eqvist, then Van Ruiten and Guinchard in quick succession.
Guinchard was on a charge, disposing of Van Ruiten before trying to make the move on Eqvist at turn 1. He ran slightly wide which allowed Van Ruiten back through to 2nd and Pylka to close onto the top 3 again. Pylka was able to get his DHR kart back into P3 at the exit of turn 6 at the expense of Edvvist. Charging on, Pylka managed to get back up to 2nd at the expense of Van Ruiten and quickly got onto the back of the leader Guinchard. At this point, the leaders were separated by just half a second. Guinchard was absorbing pressure from behind, but Pylka was able to get through, dropping the RS driver down to 4th with less than 3 minutes on the clock. Behind, Tom Adams had managed to haul himself up into 6th thanks to the leaders fighting hard.
Guinchard wasn’t going to take this lying down, moving passed Edqvist on the back straight, setting after Van Ruiten and Pylka. Guinchard repeated his move coming onto the back straight to take 2nd place off Van Ruiten. Tom Adams had now got passed Thom Reinaerdts for 5th having started in 10th. As the final lap started, Guinchard tried everything to get on terms with Pylka, but couldn’t get close enough to make a move. Van Reuiten finished 3rd while Edqvuist came home 4th with Adams rounding out the top 5.
The grid for Final 2 was the result from final 1, which promised fireworks if the first race was anything to go by.
Pylka held the lead into turn 1, but came from nowhere to storm through at turn 2 to take the early lead ahead of Pylka and Edqvist. Guinchard defended hard from Pylka who was trying hard to get passed in the early stages. An incident at the start claimed Tom Adams and Kai Rillaerts early into the race, ensuring they would go no further. At the front Pylka was now the one defending hard from the trio of chasing karts. But further back there was disaster, Morris Schuring and Max Stemerdink had a coming together, with Schuring’s kart landing on the neck of Stemerdink and going over the top of the crash barrier. That brought out a full course yellow to allow marshals and medics to get to the drivers. Thankfully both drivers were ok.
On the restart, Pylka managed to force his way from 3rd to the front, allowing Van Dijk through to 2nd, leaving Guinchard in 3rd. Guinchard was falling, as Edvist managed to get passed him at turn 3. Further contact was made through the field at Turn 6, involving Mike Van Vugt, who had been charging through the field after Oskar Kristensen left the track at turn 4. This was quickly becoming a race of attrition. Van Dijk now dropped down to 4th at the expense of Edqvist and Guinchard.
In the closing stages it the leading trio had checked out at the front. Pylka was now defending hard with 3 laps to go as just a tenth separated the top 3 at the line. But as the trio started fighting, it allowed the chasing pack to close in. With 2 laps to go it was now 7 kart train fighting for the win. Pylka soaked up the pressure from behind as the last lap started, and even managed to pull a gap from Edqvist in 2nd. When the flag finally fell it was Pylka who took the win for the 2nd time, this time with Edqvist 2nd and Guinchard 3rd.
That now means that Oli Pylka will be going to the Rotax Max Challenge International Trophy at Le Mans in August.
Image: Daniel Guinchard
