Building off of his experience at the ROK Cup SuperFinal in Italy last fall, Toronto’s Jensen Burnett has rejoined the Energy Corse Factory Karting team in Italy for more European karting experience.
After opening the season in Florida, finding the podium at the SKUSA Winter Series as well as running up front in the ROK Cup Florida Winter Tour, Burnett jetted off to Italy only a few hours after his Final in Homestead-Miami.
Joining the Energy Corse team at Adria International Raceway, he quickly got reacquainted with the Energy blue and the staff around the team. Practice for the warm-up race of the European season was immediately on the agenda.
The WSK Champions Cup hosted over 330 entries across the four main categories of European competition, Mini, OK-J, OK and KZ2, including a whopping 116 young racers in the Mini division.
Burnett showed great pace in practice, but as is the case with most North Americans on their first ventures to Europe, the importance of Qualifying caught him off guard and he struggled to settle in and set a time comparative to his early pace. He ranked 90th overall and had a lot of work to do in the heat races if he wanted a chance to make the 34-kart grid for the Final.
He advanced in every heat race from his 26th place grid spot, posting results of 14/17/21/14/13/13 and vaulted up the order to 47th overall, securing a spot in one of the PreFinals.
Needing to finish inside the top-17 to make the Final, Burnett was on the cusp all race long but ended up just two positions short of the remarkable comeback from Qualifying.
Knowing and showing he has the pace to race with the leaders, Burnett is motivated and will have another chance to showcase his talents with the Energy Corse team. He will compete in this weekend’s WSK Super Master Series, the first of the four-round championship, once again at the Adria International Raceway.
Burnett is pursuing a professional racing career and competing with the best kart racers in the world is key to his growth and development.
