Strawberry Racing goes 1, 2 in Junior and Senior Euro Max Challenge Title Fights

The Euro Max Challenge reached its halfway stage at Castelletto di Branduzzo (25/26 May) and saw Strawberry Racing maintain its lead in the Junior and Senior categories.

The superb Pista Sette Laghi (Seven Lakes Circuit) saw the Tony Kart team aiming its encouraging position in the early points tables, but aware that it faced additional challenges from Italian-based drivers and efforts from rival manufacturers - some of whom had bolstered their teams with factory drivers from the KF and KZ classes.

In Junior, Connor Hall, Guan Yu Zhou and Juri Vips led Strawberrys charge, posting the 3rd, 5th and 7th-fastest laps in timed qualifying. In contrast, their team-mates Thomas Issa, Omar Ismail and Darren Keane experienced varying fortunes to classify 15th, 24th and 32nd respectively.Once the heats had been dispensed with, however, it was Zhou who had claimed pole position for the pre-final, with Hall 7th and Vips, in 8th, automatically joining him. Keane, Ismail and Issa faced the task of qualifying via the Second Chance heat. A win for Darren and 3rd for Omar saw them through to the pre-final but a crash in the early laps had put Thomas too far down the order to get into the all-important top six.

In the Pre-Final, Guan Yu led home Connor to ensure an all white, green and red front row for the second final, with Darren crossing the finishing line in a remarkable 17th place, after storming his way from the back of the grid. Juri completed the top twenty with Omar in 30th.

A huge crash at the start produced full course yellows and at the re-start Zhou and Hall outsmarted Mathias Kristensen - who had driven around the carnage to snatch the lead at the first attempt to get the race underway. Having stayed in formation for almost the entire race, Hall and Zhou began to dispute who would win on the last lap. A terrific scrap developed, with no quarter given. As they touched, other drivers were able to capitalise. Connor took the chequered flag in 2nd but Guan Yu was just pipped to 3rd on the run to the line, finishing 4th. Darren had enjoyed another good drive, taking 10th. Sadly Juri and Omar were victims of the earlier crash and saw out the race from the sidelines.

Strawberry Racing team manager, Warwick Ringham, says that lessons will be learned from Castelletto: The team was very disappointed not to have the one-two finish we had worked so hard for, and I hope that everyone has learned from their mistakes and that it wont happen again. On the positive side, we are first and second in the championship and our other drivers are getting better all the time, so we have come away really happy.Harry Webbs star quality was never in doubt after the Norfolk ace won last seasons Junior Euro Max and Grand Finals titles before going on to step up to the Senior ranks and win the 2013 Rotax Winter Cup. At Castelletto he underlined his talent with terrific performances throughout the meeting.

Fastest in timed qualifying, Webb laid down a marker for the racing, whilst reigning Rotax world number one Charlie Eastwood was tenth-quickest overall. Swedens Jessica Backman recorded the 25th best lap with Kyle Fowlie experiencing a nightmare, due to struggling with the high grip levels and thus found himself down in 53rd spot. Like Keane before him, Fowlie would prove to be one of the most exciting drivers to watch in the heats and final.

After all the scores from the heats had been added up, Webb lay 3rd, Eastwood had improved to 4th and Fowlie was an incredible 7th overall in the intermediate classification. Problems in her heats had put Jessica into the Second Chance heat and, despite a spirited drive to 7th, it was not enough to guarantee her passage into the Pre-Final.

As he had been in qualifying trim, Harry was the fastest man on the track in the first final. Using his naughty waftas the Strawberry Racing team likes to refer to the pace of its Cream-prepared enginesWebb burst into the lead and from there, controlled the pack behind him all the way to the flag. Charlie bagged valuable points for 3rd with Kyle also doing a sterling job to take 8th.

The nature of the Castelletto track, with its long radius right-hand first corner feeding into a tight left-hander, often catches a large field out as the drivers jockey for position. Eastwood fell victim to the aggressive driving of others and was pushed onto the grass, dropping him well down the order. Webb held the lead from Max Verstappen, who seemed content to bide his time behind the Tony Kart driver. Of course, it was only a matter of time before the son of the Former F1 star Jos, would try to win. As the clock ran down, the Dutchman attacked - but his lead lasted just one lap. Webb responded and again unleashed his pace that proved to be the deciding factor and he won by several kart-lengths.

Eastwood recovered to 8th, keeping his title hopes alive and now sits 2nd in the Championship table, just four points shy of new leader, Webb. Kyle was edged out of the top ten but 11th was still a positive result considering his qualifying woes, as Ringham was quick to highlight: Harrys drive for victory was amazing! His overtaking move to regain the lead was one of the best I have seen for many years. Had Charlie not been put on the grass, I am sure he would have been up with Harry and Max. After being half a second off for most of the week, during testing in the hot, dry conditions, it was good to see Kyle get on the pace at last and he really should have had two top seven finishes.

DD2 continues to attract star names and a quality-packed field. In his first season in the class, Andreas Backman continues to demonstrate that he is getting to grips with the twin-speed machinery and possesses the sort of pace that will put him amongst the front-runners.

He showed this with his 5th-fastest lap in qualifying. However, matters went a awry in the heats and he completed them ranked in 22nd place ahead of the finals. Fresh from his recent success in the BNL championship, which he now leads, Andreas made up ground to take 18th in the pre-final and went on to be one of just four drivers able to post 48.6 second lap-times in the final. However, demonstrating just how close the racing in DD2 is, he was unable to finish higher than 16th.

Andreas has everything sorted apart from his opening laps, where he needs to be more aggressive, observes Warwick. Almost always he drops back a few places and in DD2 you just cant afford to do this because is very difficult to overtake. Once he nails that, hell be right up there. The third and penultimate round of the Challenge returns to Britains premier track, PFi after an absence of eight years, on 20/21 July.


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