Maranello - A team that support its drivers

Maranello drivers played a leading role in the WSK final and stirred hopes of victories and podiums in KF2 and KF3 for the Italian team. But hopes crashed after a series of race mishaps that prevented the team from reaching the desired results, despite great professionalism shown by all team members.

On October 4 and 5, the last round of the WSK (Winning Series Karting) was held at Zuera, under a warm Spanish sun. Near Saragossa, the Maranello brand was once again well represented in the KF2 and KF3 categories by drivers of different nationalities.

In the qualifying phase, Finnish Aaro Vainio honoured his recent title of European KF3 champion by finishing 3rd, 2nd and 6th respectively in his heats. Always close

to the leading group, Portuguese Da Luz and Russian Maxim Zimin showed some good performances, while Eduard Cheever set the best lap in race. Among the fastest during Saturday morning’s warm-up, Finnish Mikko Pakari and British Mitchell Hale had some solid arguments to present, just like Spanish Kevin Tenorio and Russian Edward Frolenkov, who also qualified for the final phase.

Unfortunately, there were several collisions that were often fatal to the men in red and yellow. After a superb recovery following his withdrawal in the pre-final, Vainio managed to increase points accumulated so far and was 7th in the overall WSK ranking, behind promising Kevin Ceccon. Ceccon took advantage of this race in order to show his talent in KF2. As for the Maranello Kart Team, it finished the Eurocup (team ranking) with an excellent third place.

In KF2, James Thorp and Zdenek Groman made an excellent race and found themselves in a position to fight for victory in the final, the former with a Maxter engine and the latter with a Parilla. Winner of two heats, the Brit confirmed the power of his equipment by conquering a second place in the pre-final. In the final, however, he had a collision and was forced to abandon owing to a problem with the shaft.

Third at the last World Cup, Groman could have repeated his extraordinary performance, but he had an ignition problem on the final, before the start, where the Czech driver occupied the fourth place. Pity! But when he finally managed to start, he staged a superb recovery up to 10th place. After a fourth best time during practice, British Luke Wright was haunted by bad luck. Winner at Sarno, Thorp finished the WSK in 5th place, while the Maranello Kart Team was 4th in the Eurocup.

"Just like during the rest of the season, the team did a great job in order to prepare the equipment at best and to put its drivers in a position to aim at top results. Congratulations to all the engineers and mechanics who made great efforts in 2008.

I believe we can be proud of the results achieved by Maranello at European and world level and I think that the WSK series allowed us to prepare the pilots for these major events. Now the team will try and finish the season on a high note at the Monaco Kart Cup".

- Kartcomm, also photos -