IAME News: CIK-FIA World Cup Report

press release

 



Nyck De Vries (Photo: IAME)

Nyck De Vries
(Photo: IAME)

Last weekend (4th-6th September), at the Circuito Internazionale di Napoli, the World Cup for the KZ1 and KF3 categories was held. The drivers with IAME engines, in KF3, took second and third places. However it was a shame that Nyck De Vries, who had dominated for the entire weekend, ran into problems in the final.

There was plenty of drama in this weekends race at Sarno which awarded the World Cup for the KF3 category: the “favourites” (including the seasons dominant driver, with his IAME engine, Nyck De Vries), could only stand and watch others celebrate on the podium. This notwithstanding that De Vries (Zanardi/Parilla) was once again the absolute protagonist of the weekend: But only up to the start of the final. From there his kart had problems. He didn’t give up and managed to finish fifth, but with a soar taste in his mouth. So it was the ever quick Dennis Jake (Top Kart/Parilla), finishing second, and the surprise of the weekend Pierre Gasly (Sodi/Parilla) who took the last available ticket for the podium destination, who carried the IAME flag.

The many qualifying heats were dominated by one man: Nyck De Vries. By the end the Dutch driver would have recorded 0 penalties. Not a single mistake, not a single hesitation. First. Dennis Jake finished in an overall third place, while Pierre Gasly drove well in all the heats apart from one, in which he received a penalty big enough to see him start from 15th spot. He would make up for it.
In the pre-final De Vries only lost first position at the start and only for a few meters, and then from there led all the way and nobody would challenge him. He finished with the fastest lap (it would remain the fastest race lap of the weekend even after the final) and with the fastest top speed. The runner-up was the other protagonist with a Parilla engine, Dennis Jake, who finished in an excellent second place. Gasly finished 12th.

The story of the final seemed to have already been written. However, in Sport nothing can be written in advance. Nyck De Vries realised that something was not right during the warm up lap just before the start of the race. His kart stuttered (and his top speed in the race would result to be slower than in the pre-final): he wouldn’t show the form he had showed all weekend. An excessive act of caution induced the mechanics to change the engine in the pause between the pre-final and the final, but the new engine was set-up for wet races. This fact forced the driver to drive a defensive race in which he was overtaken many times: in the tighter parts of the track he was forced to overtake as much as possible because he was regularly re-passed on the straights. In the end he would not get above sixth place, finally managing to take a fifth place which he certainly didn’t find satisfactory. However Dennis Jake took control of the IAME situation: he started second, fought for the lead, was involved in a contact and lost several positions (on the fourth lap he was 8th). Then he started his come back, he was second with two laps to go (but it was too late to hope for a win): well done anyway. Pierre Gasly also did well, starting from the back. After just a few laps he was in first place (7th lap), but then lost ground after having pushed the kart and his tyres over the limit. He finished third behind Jake to complete a podium that could have been a Parilla hat-trick……

The words of IAME Technical Director IAME Andrea Bossaglia: “A shame. This is the second title we have gifted to our competitors this year. It was a simple human error: after the pre-final Nyck had some problem with the ignition, but he was held in parc ferme for too long and we didn’t have time to fix it. So we chose to change the engine, but… the new engine was tuned for wet weather use, very penalising to use in the dry!! I am not angry with anyone, we feel sorry for ourselves but above all for our driver who, in such a condition, drove a miraculous race”. He then added: “Anyway we are happy with the performance of our IAME engines: even without what would have been a merited victory for Nyck, we managed to place two drivers on the World Cup podium”.

 

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