Iame Euro Series Round 2: Castelletto

The second round of the Iame Euro Series decended on Castelletto in Italy with over 170 drivers taking to the track over the weekend. There was a large and strong British contingent present, so a great opportunity for some good results.

MacIntyre dominates Mini X30

Despite there being 42 drivers in the field, one name reached the top of the time sheets and stayed there. Team Driver Racing’s Will MacIntyre was the man on form, first Edging out Belgium’s Ean Eyckmans and Douwe Dedeker. MacIntyre then piloted his KartRepublic chassis to three heat wins, while the remaining three were shared between Eyckmans, Dedeker and Freddie Slater.

Macintyre then stormed to victory in the pre-final, building a gap of 7.623 seconds over Slater, who was a further 6 seconds ahead of Fusion Team mates Guillermo Martinez and Leo Robinson. Dedeker struggled down in 19th with Eyckmans dropping out 5 laps from home. The final was much of the same, with MacIntyre over 3 seconds clear of Manuel Scognamiglio in 2nd and team mate Sebastiano Pavan who climbed 8 places to finish 3rd. Slater came home a very close 4th, while Dedeker had the drive of his life to finish 5th. Having started 3rd, Robinson finished down in 7th.

Thanks to his 4th, Slater holds the championship lead on 171 points, just ahead of Fusion team mate Robinson on 159. Lucas Fluxa had a quiet weekend, but climbed to 3rd on 155 after his 8th place in the final. He doesn’t have a big margin over Sebastian Ng whos 4th on 151.

Brits claim 1st – 6th in Junior X30

with 40% of the 50 driver field hailing from the UK, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Union Jack at the top of the time sheets. It would be difficult to pick a favourite, with 8 drivers within just a tenth in qualifying. Fastest of those 8 was Joseph Taylor, who piloted his Strawberry Racing kart around the Italian circuit it 50.808 seconds to claim pole. 2nd was Spain’s Mateo Rubino Luengo for PSR with Tom Lebbon rounding out the top 3. Round 1 winner Oli Pylka could only manage 17th fastest. The close nature of the field was shown in the heats with 5 drivers taking victories over the 6 heats.

The only driver to win 3 heats was KR Sport’s Oliver Bearman, who backed those results up with a 3rd to take pole for the pre-final. Joe Taylor would line up 2nd after his heat win and pair of top 3 finishes. Lebbon would hold 3rd with a win, a 3rd an 4th. Miguel Peiro failed to win a heat, but string of finishes inside the top 4 meant he would line up 4th. Pylka stayed in the top 6 for all 3 heats, meaning he would start the pre-final 8th. Pylka then stormed through the field to win the pre-final, over 3 seconds ahead of Taylor and Lebbon. Bearman dropped to 5th while a penalty dropped Peiro to 16th. Moving up the field was Alex Ley, who gained 10 places to finish 6th.

There would be an early full course yellow after and then a red flag after an incident between Peiro and Francois Dell’atti at the start. Lebbon set about moving up the field early, getting behind Pylka and Bearman for 3rd. Behind there was a huge battle over 5th, resulting in contact and taking Bart Harrison and Kon Oskar Algre off the track. Harrison drove the wrong way down and cut across the track to rejoin and was duly disqualified for it. Meanwhile, Bearman made his move for the lead, which dropped Pylka to 3rd and allowed Lebbon to get the lead.

Lebbon then set about building a gap to the chasing karts, eventually crossing the line 1.2 seconds ahead of Bearmn, a further 2 seconds ahead of Josh Rowledge who survied the carnage to finish 3rd. It was a standout performance for Oliver Gray who climbed from last to 4th at the flag! Alfie Rigby finished 5th with Alex Ley rounding out a British top 6 lock out. Bearman now leads the championship on 166 points, with Joe Taylor a second on 145 and Canada’s Jason Leung now equal 3rd with Alex Ley on 140. Thanks to his win, Tom Lebbon now moves into 5th a further point behind.

World Champion on top in Seniors

80 drivers were present in Seniors, including some of the biggest names in the sport, including some factory teams. The fastest time in qualifying went to the factory TBKart team and their driver Edoardo Villa. Second was Fusion Motorsport’s Harry Thompson while Clayton Ravenscroft rounded out the top 3. further down the order, Lorenzo Travisanutto was 7th as well as Jordan Brown-Nutley in 9th. Fresh from his impressive performance in OK, Morgan porter was down in 17th, but still ahead of former World Champion Danny Keirle in 21st.

Ravenscroft scored a pair of heat wins and pair of 2nds, which was enough to score pole for the pre-final. Villa also had a pair of wins, but finished 2nd and 3rd in his other heats, missing pole by 1 point, so would have to settle for 2nd. Mari Boya also won a heat, but 7th in his final heat meant he was stuck in 3rd. An impressive performance from Nicolas Picot saw him move up to 4th after winning the final heat of the weekend, while Travisanutto could only manage 11th in the same race, pushing him down to 6th, just ahead of Brown-Nutley in 7th. Travisanutto hit the front in the Pre-Final, winning by 1.2 seconds over a charging Callum Bradshaw in 2nd while Thompson moved up to 3rd. Ravenscroft fell to 5th behind Boya. Keirle began his recovery, moving up 10 places to finish 10th.

Travisanutto dropped to 2nd at the start, with Bradshaw sweeping across the track steal the lead. Further back, contact saw Danny Keirle left on the side lines on the opening lap. Travisanutto quickly got back to the lead, but when trying to defend, Bradshaw made contact with the Italian causing their karts to lock together. The Fusion driver eventually dropped off the CV Performance man, but he head lost the lead to Elie Goldstein ahead of Harry Thompson and Brown-Nutley.

Travisanutto soon made his way back to the front of the field, and soon set about building a gap from the chasing pack. Behind Joey Van Splunteren was completing his recovery up the field, having started the final 6th, he was now running up in 2nd. A position he held, despite a challenge from Harry Thompson. Nobody could get on terms with the World Champion, who sealed the win by 1.7 seconds ahead of the Dutch driver. Bradshaw crossed the line 4th, but a penalty saw him drop to 8th. That promoted Brown-Nutley into 4th with Boya rounding out the top 5.

Bradshaw now leads the championship on 165 points, just 6 points ahead of Joey Van Splunteren. Mark Kimber now holds 3rd after a middling weekend, finishing the final in 7th. Lewis Gilbert is now 17 points off the lead in 4th while Goldstein rounds out the top 5 on 141. Having only raced 1 round, Travisanutto sits 16th in the championship on 89 points after a near perfect weekend.

The third round of the championship will take place on July 28th at Wackersdorf in Germany.

Image: KartRepublic