On the occasion of the Winter Series, hosted at the Franciacorta Karting Track, our engines sign two victories in the three international categories on track. Simo Puhakka leads the scene in KZ2 with RTZ/RSZ engines, while Maciej Gladysz wins in a sprint in OKJ.

KZ2 - Undisputed control of our RTZ and RSZ engines in the shifter category. Simo Puhakka (Tony Kart Racing Team) excels already in Friday's qualifying sessions and conquers the pole position. The Finnish driver is unstoppable also during the three qualifying heats of Saturday, winning all the races with three fast laps as icing on the cake, and in the super heat of Sunday morning he imposes his rhythm again with the fourth consecutive success. Puhakka shows to be also impeccable in the final: leading from the very first bend, the Tony Kart Racing Team's bearer conquers the victory with extreme confidence.

Noah Milell (Tony Kart Racing Team) and Jean Luyet (Tony Kart Racing Team), with an overall haul of three podiums and three fourth places, contribute to the Vortex triple-win in the general ranking at the end of the qualifying heats. The KZ world champion and the Swiss driver, together with the French driver Adrien Renaudin (Tony Kart Racing Team), are the authors of excellent performances in the final: all three finish the weekend among the first ten classified.

At the start of the final, we also find Juho Valtanen (Tony Kart Racing Team), Samuel Luyet (Tony Kart Racing Team), Alexander Schmitz (Birel Art Racing KSW), Alexander Gubenko (Tony Kart Racing Team) and Lukas Jonsson (JP Racing), all able to climb several positions in the ranking during the race.

OK - Missed podium for our DST engine in the master class of single-speed karts. Tuukka Taponen (Tony Kart Racing Team) is one of the protagonists of the weekend, with a win and two podiums in the qualifying heats which give him the second place in the general classification on Saturday night. Also thanks to a second position in the super heats, Taponen starts from the first row in the final, but the disadvantage of starting from the outside line penalizes him in the struggle of the first bend. The OK World Champion does not give up and finishes the race in fourth place.

What a pity instead for Joseph Turney (Tony Kart Racing Team), another great protagonist of the weekend. The British driver, author of a victory in the qualifying heats, jumps well in the final and immediately takes the third position, before moving up to second place. Only a post-race penalty takes the podium off Turney's hands.

Impressive comeback of Luigi Coluccio (Tony Kart Racing Team) in the final. The Italian driver performs a sequence of overtakes and climbs 12 positions in the ranking to finish the race in the Top 5. Keanu Al Azhari (Tony Kart Racing Team) is a surprise with a recovery of not less than 15 positions than the starting grid and finishes in the top ten. Maxim Rehm (Ricky Flynn Motorsport), after a fast lap in the qualifying heats, shows all his speed by climbing 9 positions in the final, followed in turn by Liu Ruiqi (Tony Kart Racing Team), who earns the "prize" of best climber of the day with 18 positions recovered.

Ean Eyckmans (EGP Racing Team), James Egozi (Tony Kart Racing Team), Freddie Slater (Ricky Flynn Motorsport) and Arbin Stureson (JP Racing) are the other Vortex representatives at the start of the final, about a third of which is made up of our engines.

OKJ - A flying triumph for our DJT engine in the "Junior" category of single speed karts, with 30% of entrants in the final powered by Vortex engines. Maciej Gladysz (Ricky Flynn Motorsport) is one of the fastest drivers of the weekend: sixth in the qualifying, he hits a win, a podium and a fastest lap during the qualifying heats. Unfortunately, however, a stop in the final heat puts the Polish driver back in the standings, but a fourth place (with a fast lap) in the super heat launches him into the final. From the tenth place at the starting grid, Gladysz quickly gains position after position, until entering the fight for first place in the final laps. On the very last lap, Gladysz threatens the leading driver and, with a decisive attack on the last bend, he manages to take the lead and wins by just 73 thousandths.

Together with Gladysz, also his teammate Oleksandr Bondarev (Ricky Flynn Motorsport) runs in the top positions of the general ranking throughout the weekend. Three times on the podium in the qualifying heats and first in the super heat, the Ukrainian driver fights for a place on the podium, but on the last lap, due to a collision with another competitor, he finishes the race against the external protection barriers.

Jan Przyrowski (Tony Kart Racing Team) ends the weekend exactly in the position he conquered during the qualifying session, fifth. The Polish driver is able to gain two second places during the qualifying heats and puts these results into practice with a good performance in the final. With a victory in the super heat, Enzo Tarnvanichkul (Tony Kart Racing Team) has good chances to finish the final in the best possible way, but a penalty spoils the final result of the Thai licensed driver. Also worth mentioning are the ten positions gained in the final, compared to the start, by Arthur Dorison (Tony Kart Racing Team). In the final, we then find: Alp Hasan Aksoy (Tony Kart Racing Team), Jimmy Helias (Tony Kart Racing Team), Enea Frey (Ricky Flynn Motorsport), Thomas Strauven (Ricky Flynn Motorsport), Salim Hanna Hernandez (Ricky Flynn Motorsport) and Alfie Slater (Ricky Flynn Motorsport).

Press Release © OTK Kart Group