OKJ: Amand wins, Ten Brinke leads Championship

The second round of the OKJ European Championship took place in Genk in the middle of May. After a shock win for Tuukha Taponen in France, everyone was ready for another unpredictable weekend.

Qualifying saw some familiar names at the head of the field, despite the mixed conditions. The advantage was definitely to the drivers in group 1 as the rain started to fall, with Conrad Laursen managing to bank a 1:02.683 to top the session, 2nd fastest was Maceo Capietto over 3 tenths behind with Lorens Lecertua 3rd fastest. When the second session went out, the rain was even heavier, which was shown by Alifo Spina topping Q2 with a 1:10.760, almost 8 seconds slower than Laursen. Ten Brinke was 5th in Q2, 6 tenths behind the leader. Taponen was down in 21st with a 1:12.736. Q3 saw Nikita Bedrin top the time sheets, still in the 1:10s.

Thanks to a front row start in most of his heats, Bedrin managed a string of 4 victories, finishing 4th in his final heat. That would still give him pole for the final ahead of Ireland’s Alex Dunne, who scored 3 wins from 5 heats. Ten Brinke won a single heat, finishing all but 1 of them in the top 3 to qualify 3rd alongside Marcus Armand. The VDK driver scored a pair of wins and a pair of 6ths. By contrast Laursen couldn’t benefit from his qualifying pace, with his best result being 4th, he would start the final 11th.

Round 1 winner Taponen was well down the order. Having been 63rd fastest, he managed a pair of 5ths while having a few runs outside the top 15. He would just scrape into the final in 31st. Missing out on the final was Ugo Ugochukwo, who had a solid run at round 1, as did James Wharton until contact saw him out of the race. They qualified 45th and 54th respectively, so would miss the final.

At the start the Tony kart duo of Bedrin and Dunne charged into the lead ahead of Ten Brinke and De Haan after a solid start. Marcus Amand dropped to 6th in the opening lap. Amand then dropped to 7th, in front of countryman Maceo Capietto. While the Frenchmen were fighting, the front 4 had broken away from the pack, with Dunne sidling passed into the lead. That slowed Bedrin onto the back straight, allowing both Ten Brinke and De Haan passed the Russian. All this allowed Amand to close onto the back yet again. Ten Brinke then slipped passed Dunne for the lead on the back straight.

It took just a couple of laps for Dunne to make the move back to the front on Ten Brinke, making the move stick at turn 1. Behind, Bedrin and Amand have been fighting over 3rd for the last couple of laps, which allowed the leading pair to pull away with De Haan sat close behind. Amand eventually gets the better of Bedrin with a text book dive to take 3rd. Just a couple of laps later he and Bedrin are on the tale of Ten Brinke, striking at Turn 1 to take 2nd away  from the Dutchman. Amand and Bedrin continue their truce while they try to get on terms with Alex Dunne. Elsewhere, Conrad Laursen was caught up in a crash, putting himself out of the race.

With just 3 laps to go, Amand finally gets ahead of Dunne to take the lead while behind, De Haan, Bedrin and De Haan start battling over the final podium place. The Tony kart driver initially has the move done on the Energy driver. The battle went all the way down to the line. But it was Marcus Amand who took the win ahead of a frustrated Alex Dunne in 2nd. A further 2 seconds back, Bedrin crossed the line 3rd but was handed a 2 place penalty for his move on De Haan. That promoted Ten Brinke to 3rd and De Haan to 4th. It was a quiet race for Taponen, who came home 18th at the flag, despite picking up 13 places.

That now gives Ten Brinke the lead of the championship on 49 points, just ahead of Amand in 2nd on 43. Dunne moves up to 3rd on 38, just 3 ahead of Taponen who slips to 4th. Despite his penalty, Bedrin holds onto 5th in the championship, all be it 26 points behind the leader. The OKJ drivers are back in action at Kristianstad in just 2 weeks time.