Rotax Winter Cup: Scott Marsh takes top honours in Micro Max
Just 2 weeks after the Iame crew, the European Rotax field headed to Campillos for the start of their season, The Rotax Winter Cup.
A total of 28 cadets made the trip to Spain, with Scott Marsh taking to the top of the time sheets in qualifying. His time of 1:13.293 was more than 0.25 seconds clear of Rasmus Koskinen in 2nd. The difficultly for Marsh would be the lack of support during the races, as he was the only Dan Holland Racing driver in the field. By contrast, Koskinen’s team mate Vilho Aatola managed to put his JTL Racing machine into 4th behind Japan’s Endo Arata.
The heats saw an impressive run from Belgium’s Mateja Radenkovic, who became the only driver to win both of his heats. Marsh won the first heat of the weekend, but finished 2nd to Radenkovic in the final encounter which was enough for 2nd. Aatola finished 2nd in heat 1 and completed the podium in the final heat, enough for 3rd on the grid. Arata finished the heats 4th thanks to a 2nd and 4th in his races. Koskinen by contrast finished 3rd and 4th in his encounters and would finish the heats 5th. One of the big movers was Rodrigo Seabra, who qualified 21st but finished the heats 11th.
The first final went the way of Radenkovic, who had a titanic battle with Scott Marsh over the full 11 minute encounter. Marsh initially dropped back to 3rd, but quickly managed to get on terms with Aatola who had snuck through to second. It didn’t take long for Marsh to get through to 2nd, the move coming at turn 1. Aatola fell down the order, loosing out to Arata, Karel Staut and Dean Hoogendoorn to drop to 6th. The battle for 3rd was fierce, with Arata and Hoogendoorn, each throwing everything at the other.
That battle, allowed Radenkovic and Marsh to clear off at the front. The pair calmly put in the lap times, building a gap over the battle for 3rd. And with just 2 laps left in the bank, Marsh made his move. Sending his DHR machine to the inside of the first corner to take the lead. Radenkovic stayed on his rear bumper, with the Belgian making it back to the front on the back straight. Radenkovic would take the win ahead of Marsh, with Arata sealing third after a huge battle in the closing stages. Hoogendoorn finished 4th with Staut and Aatola rounding out the top 6.
The result of final 1 set the grid for final 2, seeing the battles reignited for another 11 minute encounter. This time, Marsh held onto 2nd behind Radenkovic with Staut clambering over the kerbs into 3rd. Once again, the lead pair set about building a gap over the 5 kart battle for 3rd. And what a battle it was. Staut, Hoogendoorn, Rudokas, Aatola and Arata were all squabbling, with positions changing every lap. These young drivers were making overtakes at every corner.
That battle allowed Marsh and Radenkovic to clear off at the front once again. With just 2 laps on the board, Marsh made his move at turn 1 to release Radenkovic of the lead. Marsh was heavily defending from the Bouvin Power driver in 2nd. He threw everything at Marsh, but it wasn’t enough. Marsh took the victory and sealed the Rotax Winter Cup in Micro Max on count back. Hoogendoorn rounded out the podium, which was enough to give him 3rd overall for the weekend.
