British karter Kazeem Manzur was the youngest driver to score points at the opening round of the 2007 Italian Open Masters, held at Sarno, Italy on 25 March 2007. The fifteen year old though will reflect on what might have been, as he looked on course to take victory in the second Final before misfortune struck.
Fresh from an encouraging opening round in the WSK International Series, held the previous weekend at Sarno, where Kazeem took a pole position and two straight heat wins in only his third ever KF1 race (KF1 being the new elite Karting class that has replaced the old Formula A), Kazeem was looking forward to a strong showing in qualifying.
In a three day event which saw wildly changeable conditions, Kazeem's team miscalculated the approaching bad weather during the 15 minute qualifying session and sent him out just as the rain began to fall heavily. On a soaked track, Kazeem could do little but to qualify dead last.
Undeterred, and in dry conditions, Kazeem stormed through from the back of the grid in his opening heat to finish third. In monsoon conditions for the second heat, Kazeem looked set to put in a repeat performance when he surged from the back of the grid to lie in sixth position after two laps! In appalling conditions with zero visibility, misfortune struck Kazeem in the closing laps when the driver immediately ahead of him seized his engine, causing a collision and a DNF for Kazeem.
The aggregate results of the two heats saw Kazeem line up midfield in sixteenth position on the grid for the first Final. He had a superlative race in dry conditions, finishing seventh after the 15 lap, 25km race, and setting the second fastest lap of the race, despite being the only driver in the top seven to be on used tyres.
The second Final was held in very wet conditions and Kazeem once again made an excellent start to be in fourth place at the end of the opening lap. Sadly for Kazeem he was then hit from behind by a driver who had missed his braking point, forcing him off the circuit. Kazeem was able to restart but had lost too much time to have any impact on the final results – finishing outside the top 15.
Looking forward, it's a third straight weekend of racing for Kazeem Manzur as he heads to Mariembourg in Belgium on 1 April for a one-off appearance in the Belgian Karting Championship. Kazeem will view the meeting as a useful test for the World Karting Championship, which is being held at the same venue in September.
