Looking at the results from the first big event of 2008 held last weekend it appears that the Tonykart-Vortex dominance in KF1 from 2007 hasn’t carried over in quite the same way with other manufacturers having played catch-up over the winter.
The win in the Winter Cup help at the South Garda Karting track in Lonato, Italy went to Yannick De Brabander on an Intrepid chassis with a TM motor. Quite a contrast to TM’s problems early last year when they decided to not compete at the KF1 level because their engines weren’t up to par. TM is definitely back having taken 3 out of the top 5 places in KF1 – on three different chassis.
Also of note is that there wasn’t a single TonyKart or Vortex in the top 5 – however the results don’t quite tell the entire truth as TonyKart was very competitive but faced a few problems that put a few of their drivers out of the top positions. Expect to see TonyKart at the very front of the results sheet again very soon.
KF2 is where Tonykart chassis’ were able to shine as victory went to Robert Foster-Jones on a Vortex-powered Alonso kart followed by Jesper Wernersson on a TonKart. Jack Harvey took 3rd on a Birel-Iame combination and was followed by 5 more Tonykarts. Vortex engines made up half of the 34 finalists.
In the KF3 category as in the KF1s the TM engines were also right up there taking 2nd to 5th positions, but the win went to Finnish driver Aaro Vainio on a Maranello kart powered by an MCR engine. Maranello grabbed 3rd spot as well with Kevin Ceccon while Intrepid took 2nd with French driver Brandon Maisano.