Season 8, Round 1 - Adria (ITA)
After a successful Season 7, it was time to get Season 8 the 'kick off' at Adria! Another impressive turnout, having 22 drivers show up on the night of the 23rd of September. Of course, having the event streamed gave drivers a little extra to try that tiny bit harder, and also not to mention the amazing prizes up on offer this season!
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Qualifying was dominated by 9th Place finisher from Season 7, Justin Adakonis, who poled it by a margin with an impressive 50.581! Following close in 2nd Place, is reigning OKC Vice-Champion Alessandro Ceronetti with a 50.642! Coming back to OKC, Oscar Pedersen managed to put his kart in P3, just 2 hundreths of a second off of Ceronetti. Reigning OKC Champion Aaron Heathman, and Bryce Stevens rounded up the top 5 in qualifying less than half a tenth separating eachother!
Pre Final A would feature Adakonis and Pedersen filling up the front row, with Stevens and Ethan Lampe in 3rd and 4th. Adakonis would go on to win the race by 3.679 seconds over Ethan Lampe, and by doing so, setting himself up for pole position in the final. New-comer, and top amateur finisher in the race, Alxander Spetz finished his Pre Final in 3rd Position, and puts himself on the inside of the thrid row for the start of the final! The rest of the drivers who would make the final straight away, were: Daniel Vaverud, Stevens, Pedersen, Carmine Caruso and Westin Workman. To miss out on the last spot, is Leon Rullit, which puts him on pole position for the B Final.
Pre-Final B, had the most exciting front row, on the other hand! Champion and Vice-Champion from Season 7, Ceronetti and Heathman would create an exciting front row of the grid. Rookie Giulio Scrinzi, showed his worth in Qualifying and started this race in P3. This race turned out to be very scrappy, and featured many collisions, which also made for great racing! All of the havoc, allowed Ceronetti to clear off the distance, dragging along Khali Atkins, who had an amazing first lap from P4 on the grid. Last season's best rookie, Rowan Gill, raced his way to P3 from P7. Rounding up the top 5, is Scrinzi and Frank Mossman who both had troubles on Lap 1, but showed amazing pace to climb back up the order. Heathman and Ted Bradbury would round out the Top 7, meaning they would qualify for a spot in the Pre Final, leaving out Chase Fernandez, Matias Orjuela and Sam Bailey to fight it out in the B Final.
Was a fairly easy drive for Leon Rullit in the B Final, which would mean he would qualify for the final! Orjuela and Fernandez would be the other 2 drivers who made the cut, and fought it out in a valliant way! Left dissapointed, but rounding up the top 5 were Tyla Harris and Bill Wright, who both had a good race and drove brilliantly. This meant Rullit would start the Final from P14, Orjuela in P15 and Fernandez in P16, where they would fight it out to try and gain some points on the standings table.
We were set to watch a great Final, as Adakonis and Ceronetti made up the front row, with Lampe and Atkins right in heind them. Adakonis managed to get a great start in front of his rivals, and managed to edge out a 1 second gap on the first lap, as carnage unfolded behind him. Out of all that, Spetz managed to inherit P2! He valliantly defended his position the entire race, as Ceronetti dropped back to P7, and was making a comeback to the leading pack. Bradbury, Lampe, Heathman and Spetz traded places the entire race. Heathman managed to get one on Spetz and managed to break away from the fight. Lampe tried to find a space around Spetz, but he just could not. Eventually, Ceronetti climbed pack to P3, dragging Lampe along with him, and leaving Spetz into the clutches of Stevens for P5. Lampe and Ceronetti kept on trading paints, until it ended in tears on the last corners of the last lap, where the two collided. Lampe, coming out worst, rejoined the track in a dissapointing P7, and Ceronetti managed to preserve his P3 finishing position. Spetz would come home 4th, only to receieve a 5 place penalty for unsafe driving at the end. This promoted Caruso to top amatuer of the evening in P8!
With his win, Adakonis becomes our first championship leader of the season, with Heathman and Ceronetti following behind in that order. Gill in P4 and Stevens in P5. In the Amateur standings, Caruso leads over Atkins, just one point separating the two. The fight continues at Portimao, where the drivers will be continuing the scrap for the OKC Season 8 Senior X30 Champion Title. Who do you think will win? We will see on the 7th October!