Iame Winter Cup: Home talent rises to the top in Mini X30
The heat stages of the Iame Mini X30 Winter Cup had seen Fusion Motorsport’s Leo Robinson lead the way from Jan Peral and Denis Curavale.
The Pre-final would see 4th place starter Sandro Perez make it to the front, and build a convincing gap over Robinson in 2nd by the time the chequed flag fell. Jan Peral chased his teammate and countryman home, but was handed a front fairing penalty, dropping him to 3rd. Charging through the field was Portugal’s Santiago Alves who climbed 10 places to finish 5th behind Hugo Marti.
The final was proper sceptical. Straight away the Monlau team mates got to the front, with Alvez continuing his charge and taking 2nd over Lewis Wherrell who made a fantastic start on his ORM run Tonykart to slot into 3rd. His 3rd didn’t last long, as Robinson and Perez cruised back passed, trying to recover some time. The great news for Robinson was his team mate Cathal Clarke was making moves through the field, crossing the line 4th behind Robinson.
As the race settled down, Peral and Alves were trying to build a gap at the front, but Robinson and Perez were charging, closing the gap to make it a 4 kart fight for the lead. Behind, Alex Martinez was leading Hugo Marti and Clarke for 5th. Back at the front, Robinson wasted no time in getting passed Alvez to drop the Birel-Art machine off the podium. They now set their sights on Peral. Robinson had a look into the final chicane, forcing Peral to defend down the straight. Alvez slotted in behind the leader to get back into 2nd.
The next lap through, Alvez had the run. He dived to the inside of the first corner to get passed Peral, but left the door open for Robinson to slip through and take the lead. Peral wasn’t going to let the win slip from his grasp, firing it down the inside of Robinson to regain the lead. The next lap was a festival of overtaking, with no driver holding the lead for longer than a couple of corners. When the leaders had stopped tearing chunks out of each other, it was Perez, Peral and Robinson after a smooth move from the Monlau team mates at the final chicane.
With just a couple of laps to go, the Monlau team mates were out in front with a decent gap over Robinson and Alvez behind. As the final lap started, Perez made his move just before the final chicane. Peral managed to get through with just over half a lap to go. That left Perez vulnerable to Robinson who snapped up 2nd position. Perez was now stuck behind Alvez and off the podium. Into the final chicane, Robinson defended hard, but was slow. His attempts to defend left Alvez over the grass and Perez through into 2nd on the line. But Jan Peral was clear at the front to take victory by 1.7 seconds.
Image © Fotocar13 (Instagram)
