A Stunning First Half of 2017
A Stunning First Half of 2017 for Chris Lulham – Running with Piers Sexton Racing
OK Junior
The season started with the Winter Cup held in South Garda, Italy, 19th February 2017
The Winter Cup opens the high level European racing calendar.
Chris scored two heat wins and two second places, giving him second place for the final.
He was leading the final with three laps to go when a collision ended his challenge, however he set the event lap record along the way at 48.646 seconds.
He contested two of the WSK Super Master series races, round two at Castelletto and round four at Sarno, both in Italy. In Castelletto he had a first and second in two of the heats and problems in the other two. This meant he started the final in mid pack and eventually finished eighth.
Sarno was a strong race for him, coming second in timed qualifying and winning three out of four heats. In the fourth he had a mechanical failure meaning he starting the pre-final in eighth place. He won the pre final so he started pole for the final, however a collision from behind took him out of the lead of the race on lap three.
FIA CIK Junior European Championship , the toughest junior karting series in the world by far!
The first round was held at Sarno near Naples in Italy, 23rd April 2017.
Chris qualified fourth in the first of three groups but with track evolving for the other groups this left him in 28th place overall. A new rule this year means there are no pre-finals in CIK giving extra emphasis to qualifying times. Heats are short at just 7 laps leaving little opportunity for forward progress so he had to start the final from 25th place. However a blistering performance saw Chris scythe through the field and, up to 6th place at one point, eventually settling for 8th, however a nose cone penalty meant a final classification of 13th.
The second round was held at the circuit of Fernando Alonso (two times F1 world champion) and is situated near Oviedo in Northern Spain. Chris was on fearsome form for this event and quickly got to grips with the tricky track layout based on corners that emulate Alonso’s favourite from the F1 circuits around the world.
He was fastest on Saturday warm up prior to taking pole position later in the day by 0.2 seconds. In the three heats that followed on Saturday he scored a first, first and first! Giving him a full house and the perfect karting day! Such was his dominance the local Spanish journalist called him “El Matador de Oviedo”!
On Sunday morning in the last heat he only needed to finish in the top seven to be assured of pole position for the final so he drove a cautious race to come home in a safe third.
He felt confident going into the final from pole position, however just as all the karts were leaving for the grid the weather gods decided to intervene and it began to rain. This would lead to a chaotic race in which Chris finished second.
Earlier in the weekend he had established the event record at 58.106 seconds which also now stands at the OKJ lap record at the Alonso track.
He is third in the FIA CIK Junior European Championship.