25/06/2014

Italian Championship 2° Round

The Maranello driver wins everything from qualifying practice to Final 1, proving that he is in as great a shape as his Maranello kart. All he needed for the grand slam was Race 2, where he closed 2nd by a margin and conquered precious championship points. In fact, Camplese now leads the title hunt by 46 points. Zanchetta, instead, had an unlucky weelend and is ready to get his due in Siena.

Napoli Int. Circuit – Sarno (SA) – 22 June 2014 150 drivers, 19 nationalities – record numbers for the second round of the Italian CSAI Karting Championship in Sarno. Once more, the KZ2 was the biggest and fiercest field, with 58 drivers on track. And, once more, Maranello stood out since day one, with Lorenzo Camplese. Entering the event with a round 1 race victory to his name and standing second, Camplese immediately drove the fastest lap. Things were tougher for his teammate and provisional championship leader Zanchetta, who went even slower (23rd). The picture stayed the same after the heats (three per driver). Camplese took two wins and 2nd place, consolidating his weekend leadership. Zanchetta did a great recovery and, despite starting from the rear in each race, was twice 3rd and once eleventh. The heats also went well for Gnudi, who rose to 15th overall. In the first of the two races worth points, Camplese completes his eprfect weekend: he starts from pole position and duels with Tilloca in the first laps, then he leads the race uncontested from lap 4 until the finish-line, where he closes with a 2-second advantage. In Race 1 Zanchetta, instead, encounters more bad luck and is out after 4 laps – a bad blow to self-confidence and to his position in the title hunt. Gnudi also makes it to the Sarno finals, but he too is out after 6 laps in Race 1, at the end of which he is only 29th. Race 2 starts with the grid inversion of the top 8 spots compared to the closing order of Race 1. Even so, Camplese is again phenomenal. Rising one position per round, at lap 4 he is already 4th. After evaluating things carefully, in the last 4 laps he goes back to overtaking one rival after the other, scoring the best lap of the race on lap 10 and proving the great reliability of the material. He crosses the finish-line second, just 39 tenths behind the winner. Zanchetta’s race goes exactly the opposite way. He basically ends before he even starts, due to a race contact right after the lights go off. Yet, knowing him, this tremendously unlucky weekend will only help to make him stronger. The championship looks like an imaginary Maranello relay race, with Camplese inheriting the scepter from Zanchetta and leading by 46 points