Euro Challenge: Preining Undefeated in Heat Races; Mazzaferro struggles

The second day of competition brought on a full day of heat races for all three divisions on track at the Rotax Euro Challenge in Italy. An overnight rainfall dampened the facility and wet conditions for the first few on track warm-up sessions, but come race time the sun was shining and it was a jam-packed schedule of heat-race action.

In Rotax Junior, Austrian Thomas Preining (FA Kart) continues to dominate. The driver from Team TKP drove away with all three of his heat races to earn the provisional pole-position for Sunday’s Pre-Final. Max Timmermans (TonyKart) will line up second for the pre-final as the Belgium driver scored two heat wins, but finished with a fifth-place result in his final heat. New Zealander Marcus Armstrong (FA Kart) ranked third, also scoring a heat win, with Mauricio Van der Laan (Intrepid) and Luc Williamse (FA Kart) completing the top-five.

It was a difficult day for Canadian Gianfranco Mazzaferro as he started each heat from the sixth position. Finding trouble in the opening laps of each run, he would earn results of 19th, 20th and 17th to fall down the order and rank 38th overall. He will need a good run in the Last Chance Race on Sunday morning to make the main events.

All four North American drivers will be in the Last Chance race as Aiden Keel (Birel) will start from the pole-position, just missing the top-28 cut off, Mazzaferro tenth, Matt Solarzcyk (Birel) sixteenth and Michael McCarthy (Birel) twenty-third.

Mazzaferro will start the Last Chance Race in tenth after a tough day in the heats. (Photo by: Cody Schindel/CKN)