Practice & Qualifying: Rotax World Final
UP & DOWN DAY FOR TEAM AUSTRALIA AT ROTAX GRAND FINALS
Time Trials have been completed with some mixed results for the Team.
Highlight of the day was Jason Pringle qualifying in 3rd position out of 72 drivers in the high quality field of DD2. Jason was very fast in the DD2 class last year in Egypt and todays performance was exceptional. Lets hope he can keep up this form for the heats tomorrow.
Above: Jason Pringle was the best qualified Australian at LaConca, 3rd in DD2. Two Aussie are in the top 10, with Damien Ward 9th.
Pierce Lehane qualified 7th in Junior Max which is always a category that is full of World class talent. Pierce qualified 2nd fastest in his group of 36 karts but the second group of drivers seemed to enjoy slightly better track conditions and Pierce dropped back to 7th overall. Pierce's 7th qualifying place may not quite show how fast he really is, in practice this morning on used practice tyres Pierce was 3 tenths faster than the entire field so he is going to be one to watch as the weekend progresses.
All the other Aussies are confident of being able to move forward tomorrow in the heats. Tomorrow (Friday) will see each driver compete in 2 heats of racing.
Above: Jonathon Venter, Q15 in Jnr MAX
JUNIOR MAX - 72 Drivers
Pole Martin Rump 50.985
7th Pierce Lehane 51.250
15th Jonathon Venter 51.401
47th James Macken 51.684
SENIOR MAX - 72 Drivers
Pole Edward Brand 49.838
43rd Kyle Ensby 50.566
60th Troy Bretherton 50.882
61st Steven Scoble 50.886
DD2 - 72 Drivers
Pole Daniel Morad 49.098
3rd Jason Pringle 49.195
9th Damian Ward 49.264
22nd Travis Millar 49.431
DD2 MASTERS - 36 Drivers
Pole Scott Campbell 49.467
20th Tony Prendergast 50.431
Above: Steven Scoble deep in thought while prepping his kart. There is a profile on Steven on the Rotax site HERE.
words from Jason Pringle:
"Just a bit of an update on how it is all going. We have been in Italy since Monday and getting well and truly into the lifestyle, espically at the beach side town of Ortanto.
"We have had two days of practice. Things were going well and I was in top ten in most sessions. Qualfying went really well and ended up 3rd postion overall out of 72 drivers, which makes things a lot easier for the heat races leading up to Sunday's Finals.
We will have two races tommorrow (Friday) and one on Saturday which will decide postions for the pre final."
Above: The Ventor-mobile has been pimped!
Above: Who is that masked man? Tony Prendergast!
Above: Bruce Otter "livin' the dream"!
Above: Travis Millar enjoying the special benefits
Above: Pringle crew, John and Jace and all those karts lined up
Above: Tony Prendergast ready to practice
Above: Touch parking, Italian style