Turney takes a popular win in Lonato
The 25th Winter Cup took place at South Garda Karting last weekend, with some of the biggest names in the world of karting taking to the track. Former world and European champions were scattered amongst the entry list.
Qualifying started well for the Energy squad, with Kirill Smal and Robert De Haan topping two of the session’s, with Tony Kart’s Joe Turney topping the third session. That was impressive with a further 82 drivers fighting for the top positions. Off the back of his win at the WSK Super Masters series Pedro Hiltbrand had work to do from 30th, as would Taylor Barnard, who didn’t manage to set a time, so would start his heats from dead last.
Barnard had a solid recovery, being able to finish his heats in the top 15 left him 22nd in the standings. Hiltbrand also managed to climb up the order, st arting his heats out with a win leading him to 7th in the standings. By contrast, Turney ended his 3rd heat with a DNF, meaning his other 3 podiums were only good enough for 16th. At the front, it was 3 wins out of 4 for Nikita Bedrin’s Ward racing machine, with 2 wins going the way of Lorenzo Travisanutto who sat 2nd in the standings. Smal also took a pair of wins, but finished off the podium in the final heat leaving him 3rd. James Wharton held 4th for Parolin ahead of Andrea Antonelli who brought his KR Motorsport machine from 18th to 5th.
The first of the Super heats would see some big shake ups in the standings. Antonelli took the win by 2.5 seconds. That win was over Matheus Morgatto, who climbed 13 places to take 2nd place. Luigi Coluccio also managed to shift up 4 places to finish 3rd. Another hard charger was Lorenzo Patrese, who climbed from 21st to 7th over the course of the 15 lap race. That was helped by DNFs for Bedrin, Smal, Ravenscroft and Hiltbbrand who would all start the final. The second Super Heat saw Joe Turney bag the win ahead of Rafa Camara who moved his Forza Racing machine into 2nd with Travisanutto dropping down to 3rd. Another driver on a charge was Barnard, who ended the encounter 4th.
Those results meant Travisanutto and Anotnelli would hold the front row for the final, De Haan and Wharton on row 2 with Josep Marti and Rafa Camara on row 3. Bedrin would start 9th ahead of Turney in 11th and Barnard in 18th.
Travisanutto and De Haan took the early lead, with Antonelli shuffling down the order. Up into 3rd was Coluccio’s Kosmic with Wharton holding 4th ahead of Laurens Van Hoepen and Marti. Antonelli meanwhile was 7th and under pressure from Turney. Turney was on a charge, disposing of Antonelli, Marti and Van Hoepen in quick succession to leave clear track between himself and the top 3. Just a few laps in, De Haan darted to the inside of Travisanutto to take the lead away from the Italian.
De Haan now wanted to set about building a gap over the chasing pack, but the opposite started to happen. Coluccio was closing, Turney was closing and Antonelli, now in 5th was smashing out fastest laps to close up to the leaders. Turney was wasting no time, quickly making the move on Coluccio, allowing Antonelli to follow him through as the race approached half distance. Turney was flying, catching his world champion team mate, making the move and snatching 2nd away from him. Now it was just De Haan that stood in the way of Turney.
Turney had just half a second to make up, while also being chased by Antonelli who was now up to 3rd. Just 2 laps. Thats all it took for Turney to overhaul the Dutchman at the front, and take the lead. Once again, Antonelli also found a way passed De Haan, as did Travisanutto deposing the Energy driver to 4th. Now at the front, Turney was holding the chasing Italians at arms length, doing just enough to pull away by a few tenths per lap from Antonelli in 2nd. With just 2 laps to go Antonelli had to soak up pressure from Travisanutto, eventually loosing out to the TonyKart man at the final corner.
Despite being able to pass Antonelli, Travisanutto couldn’t catch his team mate, Joe Turney who took victory at the Winter Cup by 1.4 seconds. Antonelli would have to settle for 3rd best, beating De Haan by just 2 tenths to complete the podium. Further down the order, Barnard managed to come home 10th despite a penalty, just behind Pedro Hiltbrand who was also handed a front fairing penalty.
Image: WH Sports
