Iame Winter Cup: Bearman takes back to back wins in Valencia
The Senior X30 field is one of the most competitive with so many huge names present in the field. But one name has been at the top of the time sheets most of the weekend. That being Oliver Bearman, aiming to take his 2nd Iame Winter Cup victory in 2 years.
First he had to get through the pre-final, and get through he did, taking victory by just over a second from Fusion’s Callum Bradshaw. Behind though, it was all change as Filip Vava climbed up to 3rd with the Strawberry pairing of defending winter cup champion Dean MacDonald and defending Euro Series champion Mark Kimber climbing to 4th and 5th. Another guy on the move, quite literally was Guy Cunnington, climbing 19 places to finish 9th. A similar performance in the final could see him at the sharp end.
Bradshaw got straight to the lead, pulling MacDonald with him, dropping Bearman down to 3rd, straight away while behind Alicia Barrett and Connor Jupp were thrown into the grass. MacDonald quickly hit the front for the first time on the back straight, before Bradshaw chucked his Fusion machine over the kerbs at the final chicane to reclaim the lead, allowing Bearman through to 2nd. Then it was Bearman’s turn to challenge for the lead, but he ran wide allowing Alejandro Lahoz through onto the podium.
MacDonald didn’t waste much time chasing Bradshaw, making a smooth move at the final corner, which allowed Lahoz to send his KartRepublic machine into 2nd momentarily before Bradshaw and Bearman made their way back onto the podium. Bearman then slotted his Kosmic chassis in front of Bradshaw. But those passes allowed Tyler Read on the Argenti machine to close up in 5th, diving passed Lahoz for 4th. At the front, Bearman made his move passed MacDonald to take the lead off the defending champ. Bradshaw made his move, which allowed Bearman to clear off at the front. With Bearman out at the front, MacDonald and Bradshaw were now under threat from Read. The Argenti man got through on Bradshaw just before half distance, which gave MacDonald some breathing room.
Read was doing his best to hang on to 3rd from Daniel Nogales, Bradshaw and Kimber. All it took was a small mistake in the chicane for the trio to cruise passed the Argenti man on the main straight. But Bradshaw ran wide, tagged the back of Nogales and was deposited onto the grass. Bradshaw’s front fairing was knocked in, and in the heat of the moment, he attempted to push it back into position. That would land him in the pits with a disqualification to his name. The order was now Bearman, MacDonald and Nogales at the front.
With a handful of laps left, Bearman was away and clear, nobody could get on terms with Bearman who took the victory to become the first man to win back to back titles over 2 different classes. MacDonald came home 2nd ahead of Nogales with Read giving Argenti a sold result on debut. Lahoz rounded out the top 5 while Vava finished top in a huge battle for 6th seeing himself, Moya and Kimber split by a couple of tenths.
