PRESS RELEASE - TKART - Juniors: Double Win for Dean MacDonald - Seniors: Sensational Show of Richard Verschoor - DD2: Paolo DeConto wins on Home Soil .

From May 25th to 31st the ROTAX MAX Euro Challenge held its second round of the year on the beautiful track of "7 Laghi" at Castelletto Di Branduzzo in Italy. For the third consecutive year Europe's most popular ROTAX series visited the country of dolce vita and motorsport passion, which equally is the sporting and economical home of modern kart racing. The 1.256 metres long track, which is situated right within a lake district not too far away from Milan, attracted over 130 drivers from about 30 nations in the grids of juniors, seniors and DD2 as well as the special classification of the DD2 Masters. During the weekend the Italian weather made for sunny and perfect conditions, despite the final day, which was a bit cloudy. In the end The ROTAX MAX Euro Challenge celebrated new winners on the podium by Dean MacDonald (juniors), Richard Verschoor (seniors), Paolo DeConto (DD2) and Cristiano Morgado (DD2 Masters) taking the victories on Italian soil.

Juniors: Double Win for Dean MacDonald
In the qualifying session the second of two groups proved to be the quicker one, taking the top positions in the total classification. Consequently Scott Symons (KR Sport) from the UK, who set the best time in group one only ended up in twelfth position! The fastest youngster on track was Dean MacDonald (Aim Motorsport) from the UK, while his fellow countryman Alex Quinn (CRG SPA) followed in second position by a quite big gap of 0.170 seconds. Third place went to Alain Delon Thompson (BirelART/KMS) from South Africa ahead of Indonesia's Perdana Minang (Strawberry Racing) and Fin Kenneally (Aim Motorsport) from the UK. Very unlucky was championship leader Jack McCarthy (Strawberry Racing). The opening round double winner only managed position nine in his group behind his championship chaser and teammate Kiern Jewiss (Strawberry Racing). In the overall ranking McCarthy even slipped back to 22nd place while Jewiss did slightly better by taking 19th position.

During the heats Dean MacDonald did not show any weakness. By a dominant show the youngster collected the maximum wins of three races and defended his pole position undoubtedly. Behind him the French driver Axel Charpentier (Strawberry Racing) established himself in second spot, pushing Fin Kenneally and Perdana Minang to the following positions. Scott Symons improved to fifth place, while Alex Quinn was without luck. He finished first and second in his heats but had to cope with a drop out, too. Finally he ended up in ninth place of the grid, still in front of Jack McCarthy, who took eleventh place, impressively recovering from his disappointing 22nd place in the qualifying.

In the prefinal pole sitter Dean MacDonald managed the best start, while his teammate Fin Kenneally boosted himself into second place. The British duo from Aim Motorsport pulled away from the rest of the grid and controlled the lead easily. Although Dean MacDonald was under constant pressure by his chaser, there was no successful move to come, endangering his victory. In the end Dean MacDonald crossed the finish line first by a gap of only 0.076 seconds ahead of Fin Kenneally. Third position went to Alex Charpentier in front of Scott Symons and Alex Quinn.

For Dean MacDonald the final did not prove to be a walkthrough. This time Fin Kenneally and Alex Charpentier were ready to take the battle. So the three drivers headed away from the grid and arranged the win among themselves. They showed a breath-taking race, which each of them was able to lead for at least one time. There was no decision until the very last lap. Dean MacDonald, who was leading at that point, however did not make any mistakes on the last metres and defended his position up to the finish line ahead of Alex Charpentier and Fin Kenneally. Fourth place went to Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer (Strawberry Racing), while Kiern Jewiss (Strawberry Racing) made his way up to fifth position. That was a quite remarkable performance since he reached the qualification only by the second chance heat, before he already did a great job in prefinal, in which he finished eighth. Opening round winner Jack McCarthy had to be satisfied with positions nine and 16, which threw him back to fourth place in the championship table. Here Alex Charpentier took the lead ahead of Kiern Jewiss and Dean MacDonald.

Seniors: Sensational Show of Richard Verschoor
The qualifying turned into a dominant show of the Dutch delegation. The top positions went to the Netherlands with Leonard Hoogenboom (Strawberry Racing) setting the best time of the grid. By only 0.001 seconds he was quicker than Luc Willemse (Team TKP) in second place, while the reigning junior vice champion Richard Verschoor (Team TKP) impressed by a brilliant third place. But after the session Verschoor was excluded due to under weight. So it was Championship leader Pierce Lehane (Strawberry Racing) from Australia moving up to third place, which clearly kept him within the leaders' grasp. Edward Brand (CRG SPA) from the UK and Italy's Alessandro Trombelli (MKS srl) came up with some promising results complementing the ranking in fourth and fifth spot.

The following heats were highly balanced with a very close competition. In the end one counted four different winners in six races. An outstanding job did Pierce Lehane, who managed two wins, boosting him onto the pole position ahead of Friday's quickest Leonard Hoogenboom and Luc Willemse. Brett Ward (Aim Motorsport) from the UK, Dutchman Rinus van Kalmthout (Daems Racing) and Edward Brand complemented the top six positions. A remarkable performance showed UK driver Jordan Lennox Lamb (BirelART/KMS). He was fast indeed by celebrating two victories. On the other hand he had also one less good result in the course of the heats, which cost him a top position in the ranking. Finally he took the seventh place in the grid, still leaving him every opportunity for the main races.

The prefinal was really exciting. In the early stage of the race up to ten drivers, lead by pole sitter Pierce Lehane made demands for the victory. So Lehane had to struggle hard to keep the pack behind. But that was not easy at all, since Rinus van Kalmthout took the lead by halftime. When Lehane tried his counter strike, the battle got more heated, resulting in a collision, which threw the championship leader back to 15th place in the end. On the top Rinus van Kalmthout kept cool and defended the lead bravely against Jordan Lennox Lamb, who finally took the second place. The UK drivers Sam Marsh (Dan Holland Racing), Brett Ward (Aim Motorsport) and Edward Brand saw the chequered flag in the following positions.

A big surprise was to come in the final race: Richard Verschoor, who had been excluded in qualifying, was in brilliant shape. After having picked up the prefinal from 18th place, he improved to 8th position. From that spot, the Dutchman boosted himself quickly to the top in the final. After he gained the lead, he was even able to increase the gap to his chasers, finally taking his first senior win in the Euro Challenge. Second place went to Rinus van Kalmthout in front of Jordan Lennox Lamb, Leonard Hoogenboom and Spain's Mauricio van der Laan (CRG SPA), while Pierce Lehane recovered from his unfortunate prefinal result by finishing in seventh spot. That helped him to defend the championship lead.

DD2: Paolo DeConto wins on Home Soil
On home soil Paolo DeConto (CRG SPA) had a perfect drive in the qualifying. The man from Italy drove the wheels off his kart by a fastest lap time of 47.955, being the only driver to break the sound barrier of 48 seconds. Yet the gap to his chaser Rasmus Markkanen (VRT) from Finland was not really big, counting only 0.078 seconds. In third position followed Hungary's Ferenc Kancsar (BirelART/KMS) ahead of championship leader Anthony Abbasse (Sodikart) from France and the Finn Roope Markkanen (VRT).

During the heats local hero Paolo DeConto was unstoppable and won all races. By that maximum success he clearly defended the lead in the ranking. The chasers Rasmus Markkanen, Ferenc Kancsar and Anthony Abbasse all were able to take one win and consequently ended up tie in the heat ranking. So the better qualifying results determined the order in favour of Rasmus Markkanen ahead of Ferenc Kancsar and Anthony Abbasse, while Roope Markkanen completed the top five positions before the prefinal.

As he had already proven before, Paolo DeConto was strong in the prefinal, too. He made the best start while only Ferenc Kancsar seemed to be able to follow the Italian. During the first laps Kancsar kept in the leader's slipstream but towards the end DeConto increased the gap constantly and took a controlled victory. Kancsar gained a secure second position ahead of Abbasse, who made his way up to third place. Rasmus Markkanen and Austria's Max Hofer (Speedworld) completed the top five of the ranking.

In the final DeConto complemented his dominant performance. Again none of his opponents was able to keep the pace of the CRG manufacturer driver. Consequently DeConto celebrated a clear start-finish victory again. The best supporting roles were played by Ferenc Kancsar, Anthony Abbasse and Rasmus Markkanen who had a long and tough fight for the podium positions. In the end Kancsar took the second place ahead of Markkanen. Abbasse took the fourth place but was excluded after the race due to a technical non-conformity. So Germany's Marcel Schirmer (RS Competition) inherited the fourth place ahead of Max Hofer, completing the top five results. Due to his exclusion, Abbasse even lost the championship lead. Now Ferenc Kancsar owns the top position ahead of DeConto and Schirmer.

As for the DD2 Masters Cristiano Morgado (Sodikart) took a secure double win. In the prefinal Russia’s Igor Mukhin (CRG S.P.A.) and Tamsin Germain (DG Racing) from the UK followed in second and third place. In the final Mukhin defended his second position, while Martin Pierce (Rotax Praga Racing Team) from the UK made his way up to third place of the podium.

Now the ROTAX MAX Euro Challenge has reached the halftime of the season and is going for a small break. But from 20th to 26th of July Europe's most original ROTAX series heads for the third round of the year, giving its Comeback in Germany on the modern circuit of the Prokart Raceland at Wackersdorf. This venue will herald the final spurt of the season, focussing on the top candidates for the 2015 championship crowns. By the way: RGMMC has not finished its racing calendar in Italy yet and will be returning for the 2015 ROTAX International Open from 23rd to 25th of October, giving its debut at the Adria Raceway, where the ultimate last chance places to the ROTAX MAX Grand finals can be raced for. So stay tuned on the official website www.rotaxmaxeurochallenge.com or rgmmcmedia.com, where you get all information regarding reports, photos, results and live TV stream.