Photo: Roger Gascoigne
There was a clean sweep of victories for Belgians as the CIK-FIA European Karting Championship made its first ever visit to Slovakia last weekend.
After heavy rain on Saturday morning at the Slovak Karting Center, which sits next to the Slovakia Ring car racing circuit, it was hot and sunny for the superheats and finals on Sunday, with enough wind to make the weekend conditions “a challenge for everyone” according to OK Junior winner Dries Van Langendonck.
The final for round two of the FIA Karting Academy Trophy final came first, and Gilles Herman fought off an early challenge from Martim Barros Meneses, who later dopped to fifth, to win. Nojus Stasionis finished second, while a penalty for Emilio Bernd promoted Turner Brown to the final podium place.
Next up were the OK-J karters, who are three rounds into their season. Van Langendonck held off an early challenge from Niklas Schaufler to win, and now has a championship lead of 69 points over Iacopo Martinese who put in a storming recovery drive to fourth after dropping to 15th on lap on.
“I knew we had the pace there, but this track is difficult when you don’t get the qualifying right. Today was the longest 22 laps of my life,” said Van Langendonck after the final.
Roman Kamyab and Joel Pohjola enjoyed a fierce battle for second, with Kamyab taking the position by just 0.032 seconds.
Christian Costoya was Van Langendonck’s closest title rival entering the weekend, but fell out of title contention after finishing 15th.
Thibaut Ramaekers of Belgian team VDK Racing was the driver to beat on OK karts, topping his qualifying group, winning three heats and leading his superheat until the final lap when “my pit told to me let Joe [Turney, Kart Republic driver] past for the championship.”
In the final, Ramaekers stormed into an immediate lead and was never threatened at the front, maintaining a comfortable lead over Noah Monteiro to the finish.
“I’m really happy because I did a good race and built a big gap,” he said afterwards. “I hope to get into the top three in the championship and for the world championship I will see because I don’t know the track.”
Monteiro, son of Formula 1 podium-finisher Tiago, executed his pre-race plan “to pass to second as soon as possible” perfectly, diving through on lap one as behind him separate incidents eliminated six drivers, including Turney’s main title rival Gabriel Gomez.
“Getting the pole at the start of the weekend, the heats and the super heats were quite good,” said a delighted Monteiro. “In the final we didn’t have the exact pace compared to [Ramaekers].”
Dimitry Matveev fought his way through to the front of the pack fighting for third, and finished 3.4s behind Monteiro.
Seventh place for Turney meant he grew his championship lead to 68 points ahead of the final round. Gomez and Lewis Wherrell were his closest rivals heading to Slovakia, but scored just nine points between them while Turney scored 56.
Results round-up
OK final (26 laps)
1 Thibaut Ramaekers VDK Racing 22m08.213s
2 Noah Monteiro Kart Republic +3.604s
3 Dmitry Mateev Kart Republic +7.071s
4 Jimmy Helias Victory Lane +7.480s
5 Scott Lindblom Fusion Motorsport +8.954s
6 Leo Nilsson Kart Republic +9.754s
7 Joe Turney Kart Republic +11.168s
8 Fionn McLaughlin VDK Racing +11.452s
Championship standings
1 Turney 234 2 Gabriel Gomez 163 3 Matheus Morgatto 160 4 Louis Iglesias 138 5 Lewis Wherrell 136 6 Ramaekers 130 7 Monteiro 87 8 David Walther 75
OK-J final (22 laps)
1 Dries Van Langendonck Forza Racing 19m22.598s
2 Roman Kamyab Ricky Flynn Motorsport +2.038s
3 Joel Pohjola Tony Kart +2.070s
4 Iacopo Martinese Kart Republic +5.823s
5 Scott Marsh Tony Kart +6.177s
6 William Calleja Parolin +6.466s
7 Arjen Kraeling Kart Republic +6.800s
8 Bosco Arias DPK Racing +8.397s
Championship standings
1 Van Langendonck 259 2 Martinese 190 3 Kamyab 178 4 Christian Costoya 143 5 Niklas Schaufler 141 6 Filippo Sala 117 7 Arias 89 8 Sebastian Minns 84
Karting Academy Trophy final (22 laps)
1 Gilles Herman 19m38.491s
2 Nojus Stasionis +5.183s
3 Turner Brown +6.228s
4 Jakub Gasparovic +7.750s
5 Martim Barros Meneses +8.812s
6 Wian Boshoff +9.578s
7 Reaan Dharmadasa +10.051s
8 Emilio Bernd +10.397s
Championship standings
1 Herman 103 2 Gasparovic 91 3 Boshoff 77 4 Dan Allemann 65 5 Meneses 63 6 Stasionis 59 7 Dharmadasa 53 10 Fausto Arnaudo 50