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| April 15, 2009 News |
| Menezes Wins at Belgium Karting Championships Event |
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 | American Gustavo Menezes earned his first European victory in KF3 at the second round of the Belgium Karting Championships in Genk
(Photo: tonykart.com) |
Young rising star Gustavo Menezes traveled to Genk, Belgium to compete at the Belgium Karting Championships in preparation for the upcoming CIK-FIA European KF3 Championship qualifier. At the April 11-12 event, the American would trump his top-ten finish at the Castelletto, Italy round of WSK International Series the previous weekend by earning his first victory on foreign soil after two days of tough competition.
Menezes spent the Thursday and Friday prior to the second round of the Belgium Karting Championships getting accustom to the Genk circuit and prepping his Tony Kart/Vortex machine for the event. Though he began well off the pace of the quick laps posted, Gustavo continued to drop his fast time each session out. The event - filled with a number of international drivers - would be made up of two days of competition. Qualifying and two races on day one with the same repeated on day two. The final results would take points scored from the four races to make up the event’s podium finishers.
The event began Saturday morning under changing conditions. Starting the warm-session on slicks, Menezes was among the quickest before it began raining. After changing the kart over to a rain setup, he would go on to qualify 12th overall out of 51. The opening race however would see the weather clear up and Menezes would return to his dry set-up. With that, he charged forward to finish second. The final race of Saturday put him outside row one for the start. A few errors in the opening lap put him in the marbles however and dropped Menezes back to 11th. Having advanced in the previous race, Gustavo repeated that feat but would end the race in the fifth position.
Sunday began strong for Menezes after a solid warm-up session and placing fifth quickest in the qualifying session. Staring from inside row three for the first stint, Gustavo quickly found himself in the lead chase position trying to close the gap on the leader. Running matching times with the leader, Menezes was unable to close in and settled for the second spot. The final race of the event did not pan out in the beginning as Menezes hoped. Both he and the pole sitter were hit from behind in the opening lap and fell back outside the top-five. Similar to what Gustavo did the previous day, the Californian would over-take anyone in his path on his way to the point. Menezes would establish a two-second margin to take the checkered flag in victory. His results put him second overall to enjoy the podium ceremonies, a possible precursor for what could be in two weeks.
“The Tony Kart/Vortex package was near perfect this weekend,” stated Menezes after returning to the United States. “It felt great to get my first win in Europe but a little disappointed we didn’t get the first place for the overall points on the weekend. I think we have great data to contend in Genk for the qualifier event and the WSK race in June.”
Menezes will return to Genk on April 30-May 3 for the CIK-FIA KF3 Northern Region Qualification event. He will look to earn a transfer spot to compete at the KF3 European Championships in July.
Gustavo is able to compete at this level thanks to his many sponsors, including Tony Kart USA, Red Bull, UP Racing, Safety Park Inc., Tony Kart Junior Racing, On Track Promotions and Oakley. Additional information on Gustavo Menezes can be obtained from his personal website, gustavomenezes.com |
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