LAURENS VAN HOEPEN ON PODIUM IN THE WSK FINAL CUP
On the 7 Laghi circuit in Castelletto di Branduzzo, the Dutch driver brought honour to the Tony Kart Racing Team’s colors conquering the silver medal in the OKJ final
The second (of three) appointment of the WSK Final Cup, last Championship of the 2018 karting season organized by WSK Promotion and staged on the 7 Laghi circuit in Castelletto di Branduzzo, ended up with great satisfaction for the Tony Kart Racing Team.
On the track located in Pavia, the name of Laurens Van Hoepen brilliantly stood out: he maximized the potential at his disposal in the OK Junior category finaland conquered an important silver medal.
The weekend of the Dutch driver starts on a rain-wet asphalt, creating him a few too many difficulties in the qualifying heat, but then promptly overcome thanks to a series of great results in the eliminatory heats giving him self-confidence. In prefinal B, when the track is dry now, Laurens manages to center a fantastic fifth place, earning him the ninth position on the grid for the decisive race. Here, his start proves to be exemplary and it allows him to be part of the leading group: from the sixth position at the end of the first lap, Van Hoepen plays a leading role in an amazing recover, culminated during the second-last lap where he manages to conquer a precious silver medal under the checkered flag.
At his side, also Josep Maria Martì did well, always growing during the whole weekend and conquering the fourth position in prefinal B. In Final, however, the intense brawl forces him to end the race in the ninth position.
Less luck for Nikita Bedrin: the Russian driver centered some good results in the eliminatory heats but then he did not manage to make his potential concrete in prefinal B.
After the excellent results obtained in the OK-OKJ European Championship and in the unique round of KZ-KZ2 World Championship in Belgium, David Vidales kept our racing team’s colors high in the OK category, where he distinguished himself especially for the seventh lap time centered in the qualifying heat. His weekend continued with a good driving feeling on his Tony kart 401S Racer powered by Vortex, with which he played a leading role in prefinal B first (with eighth absolute place) and then in final, where he managed to recover nine positions ending the race seventh. Very good also the performances of his teammate Roman Stanek: the fourth position conquered in prefinal A gave him great self-confidence in view of the weekend decisive race, but due to a contact and the penalty received for the front fairing loss, he was forced to the 21st place. Li Mingyang had difficulties during the race too, not being at his ease with the weather conditions on the 7 Laghi circuit in Castelletto di Branduzzo.
Rashid Al Dhaheri’s performance, however, was promising: he asserted himself in the 60 Mini category with a second place conquered during the eliminatory heats and with the tenth final position. His teammates Jimmy Helias, Yuanpu Cui and Jules Caranta,also growing throughout the weekend, will be on track again together with all Tony Kart Racing Team’s drivers for the WSK Final Cup last challenge, taking place in the weekend of November 22nd-25th on the Adria International Raceway.
