European Vice-Champions
In Europe, they call him ‘the young Matador’ and indeed, the team’s Carlos Sainz delivered a brave performance to become the European KF3 vice-champion at Zuera last Sunday (12 July).
The 14-year old from Madrid began his campaign solidly enough in Timed Qualifying with a time just two tenths of a second off pole time - despite being baulked by slower traffic.
Carlos cemented his competitive start to the weekend by taking strong finishes in his heats – 3rd, 1st, 3rd and 2nd to claim third overall in the intermediate points ranking, which determined his grid slot for the pre-final.
Also joining him having made the cut for the first final were his team-mates, the American star Gustavo Menzes (5th), Brazil’s Guilherme Silva (9th) and new-signing Martin Doubek from the Czech Republic (26th).
After slotting into second at the start, Carlos drove an excellent race to maintain the position and guarantee himself a front-row start for the crucial main final. Behind him, Guilherme again demonstrated his ever-improving skills to come through to fourth, whilst Gustavo battled hard for a fine sixth place. Unfortunately, Martin was unable to complete the race, but was classified in 32nd spot.
With the crowd very much behind him, Carlos took the lead of the main final to a huge cheer. It was to be all too short-lived. Despite his best efforts, the immensely talented Spaniard could not maintain his advantage but was able to create a comfortable gap over his nearest pursuer, fellow Tony Kart/Vortex racer, Danil Kvyat.
Similarly, Silva had enjoyed a superb start to briefly take third spot, but slipped to an eventual seventh place in a hard-fought contest. Menezes soon became embroiled in a race-long fight with a train of drivers. Just the slightest error could allow several karts through past. As Gustavo fought to clear the mid-field, it was clear that the squabbling pack was slowing each other down. His fastest lap was half a second shy of the eventual winner’s. Doubek was left to rue a weekend to forget, as his bad luck returned and he was forced to watch the majority of the race after a start-line clash forced him out early on.
Tony Kart Junior Team manager, Paul Spencer remained philosophical, “I’m happy for Carlos because it was the maximum we could do. I said to him before the racing got underway, ‘If you do your job and everything is perfect, then we will have a good chance of winning. He didn’t make any mistakes but we just didn’t quite have the lucky break we needed”.
He added, “In race trim, our equipment was extremely competitive. Carlos and Guilherme were able to set fastest laps in two of their heats and Sainz and Kvyat were pace-setters in the finals. This proves that the combination of the Racer EVR chassis and Vortex engine again gave us the opportunity to fight for one of junior karting’s biggest titles.”
Carlos said, “I feel very happy. Although I would’ve preferred the victory, second is a great result and I would like to thank the Tony Kart Junior Team, for their excellent work. My focus is now on the next races, especially the KF3 World Cup that will take place at Sarno in September. We are all going to work hard in order to arrive in Italy with the best preparation.”
