Victory in Castelletto
2017 RGMMC X30 Euro Series Finale in Castelletto
Castelletto Laghi 7 in the Pavia region of Italy, just south of Milan, played host to the fourth and last IAME X30 Euro-Series Kart Prix of the year. The event remained largely sunny, with any rain which did materialise coming largely throughout the night. This left the circuit wet for the early sessions on Saturday/Sunday.
Chris missed the last race in Salbris, but hit the track determined to make up for lost ground. He immediately showed his speed setting the fastest lap in Qualifying Practice. The changeable conditions mentioned above meant quite a few of the drivers made their tyre choices at the last moment, thereby hoping to make the most of the drying track. Several drivers got caught out however, most notably the poleman Chris not making it to the grid on time to take part in the first heat.
In the second heat however things got back to normal, with Chris winning, Van Der Helm second and Dimitrov third. Chris backed this up with a win in the third heat of the day with Van Der Helm once again second, and Van T’hoff grabbing the third place this time. As a result of the first heat DNS, Chris found himself down in 6th place for the Sunday race.
It was deja vu on Sunday morning as similar conditions to Saturday greeted the drivers. Tyre choices split the Pre-Final into two halves, whereby drivers on wets pulled away, until that is, the track began to dry. The dry tyre selections then came into their own lapping around 5 seconds per lap quicker than the wet team. The winner of this Pre-Final was Moulsdale, with Joulie second and Ali Akabi third.
Final: No problems with the weather this time around as sunny and dry conditions greeted the competitors. Moulsdale took the lead, while Askey passed Joulie for second and made a challenge for the front as both he and Moulsdale pulled away from the pack. Chris was determined however to progress as quickly as possible through the field. From 7th place he was up to 3rd by lap nine and was soon on the leaders tails. There followed an intense three way battle which saw Moulsdale drop down to third, with Askey now second as Chris went on to take a very well earned victory. This secured the runner up title in the X30 Junior class for Chris, despite missing the earlier round at Salbris.
The video race report can be found here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu5w5sgXlfg
Photos of all the leader of every day, as well as race highlights by The RaceBox can be found on the websites of X30 Euro series www.x30euro.com, Telemundi Media www.telemundi.com, and the X30 Euro Series facebook fan page https://www.facebook.com/x30euro/