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| January 21, 2005 News |
| EKN Trackside - Rotax Max World Finals – Day 3 |
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Thursday was the first official day of racing here at the Gran Karting Club in Lanzarote. Today's action consisted of a morning warm-up, followed by qualifying and then the first heat races of the weekend.
Qualifying
 | | Canadian Scott Campbell qualified third overall, putting him at the top of the North American contingent |
In the Senior class (RM1), Canadian Scott Campbell got it right and put in a fantastic performance to post the fourth fastest time of the session. Campbell ran a 50.03, just 0.28-seconds off provisional pole sitter Cristiano Morgado of South Africa. In this case, the term ‘provisional’ is the one to use because while we were waiting for official results, all matter of clag was hitting the fan in Parc Ferme. Apparently, towards the end of his qualifying session, Morgado pitted for a quick jet change. Before he came in, his tuner asked an official if the jet they wanted to run was legal. They were told ‘yes’. So they made the change, Morgado went back out onto the track and set a smoking fast time of 47.75 to just squeak by Swiss driver Ken Allemann for the pole by 0.03 seconds. Unfortunately for the Morgado crew, the jet they changed to was, in fact, not a legal jet. Apparently, the official either did not understand what they were asking or didn't know the rule. Either way, the penalty was to add a half second to the best time he set with the legal jet. This changed his time to 50.41 and moved him back to 16th. In the end, he was fortunate not to have been eliminated from the event altogether. This would have been a shame as he is truly a class act and one of the best drivers at the event.
The Morgado penalty moved Campbell up to third, putting him on the pole for his first heat race. Jordon Musser ran very strong in qualifying to turn the ninth fastest time with a 50.28-second lap. Justin Melton clocked a 50.43 to take 17th fastest time. Canadians Sylvain Clair and Marco Di Leo turned laps of 50.57 and 50.64 to register 29th and 33rd, respectively.
Pole position in Junior qualifying was taken by Benjamin Salvatore (France) at a 50.21-second lap time. Second through fifth were Luuk Glansdorp (Netherlands), Adam Christodoulou (UK) Michiel Beutels (Belgium) and Christopher Boisclair (Canada). For Boisclair, this was a great result as he was only 11th in the morning warm-up. Whatever changes they made to their CRG had worked well. I will be visiting with the Canadian team later on to see how things are going on their side of the pits. As only the top 10 times are posted on the board, I’m not sure where the other American and Canadian drivers qualified. We’re all sitting here in the pressroom waiting on the official time sheets.
RM1 - Qualifying Results
| Pos. | Driver (Country) | Lap Time| 1. | Ken Allerman (Switzerland) | 49.78 | | 2. | Satrio Harmanto (Indonesia) | 49.81 | | 3. | Scott Campbell (Canada) | 50.03 | | 4. | Wesleigh Orr (South Africa) | 50.03 | | 5. | Tristam Oman (UK) | 50.07 | | 6. | Arya Setyaki (Indonesia) | 50.21 | | 7. | David Bellchambers (UK) | 50.26 | | 8. | Antonio Fernandez (Spain) | 50.26 | | 9. | Jordon Musser (USA) | 50.28 | | 10. | Tiago Ribeiro (Portugal) | 50.31 | | Other | | 17. | Justin Melton (USA) | 50.43 | | 29. | Sylvain Clair (Canada) | 50.57 | | 33. | Marco Di Leo (Canada) | 50.64 | | 42. | Michael Johnson (USA) | 50.80 | | 51. | Nick Weil (USA) | 51.15 | |
Rotax Junior - Qualifying Results
| Pos. | Driver (Country) | Lap Time| 1. | Benjamin Salvatore (France) | 50.21 | | 2. | Luuk Glansdorp (Netherlands) | 50.26 | | 3. | Adam Christodoulou (UK) | 50.47 | | 4. | Michiel Beutels (Belgium) | 50.55 | | 5. | Christopher Boisclair (Canada) | 50.55 | | 6. | Alexandre Mata (Portugal) | 50.58 | | 7. | Dominik Kraihamer (Austria) | 50.59 | | 8. | Ralph Odendaal (South Africa) | 50.59 | | 9. | Earl Bamber (New Zealand) | 50.63 | | 10. | Nicolas Dezutter (Belgium) | 50.65 | |
Round 1 - Heat Races
 | | After a great qualifying run, Jordon Musser grabbed fourth in his first heat race |
In the first heat for RM1 with groups A and B, Musser started fifth and used the inside line to slot into third after the first turn. Halfway around the lap, he made a dive pass on Tristam Oman (UK) into one of the inner hairpins to take second. A lap and half later, Tristam put the polypropylene horn to Jordon's rear bumper ever so slightly exiting the parabolic that leads onto the main straight. The contact only moved Jordon over about a foot, but that was enough to put him in the marbles and by the time he gathered his momentum, two drivers had slipped by and he was back to fourth where he ran until the end. Melton put in a solid performance to take seventh, just three seconds behind Jordon. Canadian drivers Clair and Di Leo took tenth and eleventh, respectively.
In the second heat race, which featured the C and D groups, Morgado proved that no penalty would keep him down as he moved through the tough part of the pack to move from eighth to first with two laps to go. Morgado took first with a 0.15 second lead over Wesleigh Orr, also from South Africa. Campbell started the heat on pole due to his third place qualifying position. He held the lead for a couple laps, however, just like Musser, got moved into the marbles a couple times and ended up fifth in the end.
At the start of the Junior race, anxious drivers created a real mess, which almost physically knocked Hugo Ouellette out then and there. After collecting himself, he was able to continue on when the race was red flagged. Coming round to stop for the red, the one of the drivers that caused the mess failed to notice the pack coming to a stop and ran up into and up on the back of Tim Megenbier’s kart. The contact bent the radiator some but he was able to make it through the race. The junior race was won by UK driver Adam Christodoulou. Christopher Boisclair ran very strong to take sixth while Megenbier came home in tenth. Mike Herda and Hugo Ouellette took 21st and 28th respectively.
- Ken Johnson – EKN Correspondent
EKN Rotax Max World Finals Photo Gallery at EKN Home Page in Photo Section
RM1 - Heat A vs. B Results
| Pos. | Driver (Country) | Diff. | Best Lap Time| 1. | Ken Allemann (Switzerland) | | 49.78 | | 2. | Tristam Oman (UK) | 1.23 | 49.89 | | 3. | Satrio Harmanto (Indonesia) | 4.22 | 50.07 | | 4. | Jordan Musser (USA) | 5.74 | 50.19 | | 5. | Arya Setyaki (Indonesia) | 6.03 | 50.22 | | 6. | Claudio Galeone (Italy) | 7.38 | 50.27 | | 7. | Justin Melton (USA) | 7.84 | 50.08 | | 8. | David Vanrykelen (Belgium) | 8.88 | 50.30 | | 9. | Fabienne Lanz (South Africa) | 9.29 | 50.39 | | 10. | Carsten Mueller (Germany) | 11.73 | 50.48 | | Other | | 11. | Sylvain Clair (Canada) | 14.39 | 50.54 | | 12. | Marco Di Leo (Canada) | 18.67 | 50.51 | | 16. | Michael Johnson (USA) | 20.95 | 50.68 | |
RM1 - Heat C vs. D Results
| Pos. | Driver (Country) | Diff. | Best Lap Time| 1. | Cristiano Morgado (South Africa) | | 49.90 | | 2. | Wesleigh Orr (South Africa) | 0.15 | 49.99 | | 3. | David Bellchambers (UK) | 2.64 | 50.10 | | 4. | Johan Renaux (France) | 3.70 | 50.22 | | 5. | Scott Campbell (Canada) | 4.29 | 50.31 | | 6. | Antonio Fernandez (Spain) | 5.87 | 50.34 | | 7. | Cameron Thorpe (Australia) | 6.12 | 50.30 | | 8. | Satosi Nakagawa (Japan) | 7.52 | 50.25 | | 9. | Cenel America (Netherlands) | 8.65 | 50.31 | | 10. | Jan Andreasen (Denmark) | 12.59 | 50.56 | | Other | | 28. | Nick Weil (USA) | 39.19 | 51.23 | |
Rotax Junior - Heat 1 Results
| Pos. | Driver (Country) | Diff. | Best Lap Time| 1. | Adam Chritodoulou (UK) | | 50.14 | | 2. | Benjamin Salvatore (France) | 1.75 | 50.29 | | 3. | Earl Bamber (New Zealand) | 4.94 | NA | | 4. | Michiel Beutels (Belgium) | 5.53 | 50.56 | | 5. | Dominik Kraihamer (Austria) | 6.26 | 50.45 | | 6. | Christopher Boisclair (Canada) | 6.97 | 50.57 | | 7. | Nicolas Dezutter (Belgium) | 8.99 | 50.65 | | 8. | Julian Murmann (Australia) | 9.36 | NA | | 9. | Luuk Glansdorp (Netherlands) | 9.56 | 50.24 | | 10. | Tim Megenbier (USA) | 12.23 | 50.90 | | Other | | 14. | Kevin Poza (Canada) | 16.60 | 50.87 | | 21. | Mike Herda (USA) | 25.46 | 50.93 | | 28. | Hugo Ouellette (Canada) | -1 lap | 51.12 | |
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