Harpham The Man To Beat In Euro Superkarts
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Great Britain’s Lee Harpham (Anderson/FPE) leads the championship by 8 points at the half way stage. He heads to Assen in northern Holland for the third event in the 2012 CIK-FIA European Superkart Championship, as the Driver-in-form and clear favourite for another victory.
It was only a snapped chain that denied him a winning double at Hockenheim in April, but he put that disappointment behind him by winning both races in front of a big home crowd at Snetterton in the 2nd event of the championship.
The only other Driver to win a race in the first half of the championship was Marcel Maasmann (Anderson/FPE), Harpham’s Dutch team-mate in the British Redspeed team. He lies 2nd in the championship standings despite finishing only 10th in Race 1 at Snetterton. But that can be explained by contact with another competitor during the race which lost Maasmann several places. He bounced back to record 3rd place in Race 2 and has been a consistent front-runner all season.
So far this season, former Champion Gavin Bennett (Anderson/DEA) has not shown the blistering pace that took him to his 3 championships. But 2nd place in Race 1 at Snetterton suggested a revival could be on-the-cards. He followed this with 4th place in Race 2. Whilst it was not a wholly convincing performance, nevertheless he is joint 3rd in the championship standings and has not given up on his chances of regaining the title.
Czech Driver Adam Kout (MS Kart/DEA) was never out of the top 4 in the first 3 races, but 7th in Race 2 at Snetterton was a disappointment. Whilst he trails Harpham by 21 points in joint 3rd place with Bennett, a strong second half of the championship could yet take him to the title.
Current Champion Frenchman Emmanuel Vinuales (Anderson/DEA) has a much tougher task to retain his crown however. His first 3 races produced a meagre 5 points but, like Bennett, he showed his best form in the championship with a 2nd place at Snetterton. Those 20 points were essential to any remaining title aspirations he might cherish. His transition back to the championship winning Anderson chassis may signal a stronger finish to the competition than the first 4 races produced.
But in any case, it may not be just the potential Champions that will shine at Assen. Whilst Maasmann has been the only real Dutch title contender in recent seasons, fellow countrymen Romano de Ruit (Anderson/FPE) and Danny Bleek (MS Kart/VM) were both a revelation at Snetterton. Neither had raced the opening event at Hockenheim. If they had done so with the same success they had in England, they would be 5th and 6th in the standings now. De Ruit in particular was in sparkling form and might have had an even better return than in England. Bleek made the podium of the British Superkart GP in the supporting programme.
So if we cannot look at them as potential Champions, with the backing and support of the vociferous 50,000+ crowd at Assen, they could well be in the running for a podium place in their homeland.
And we can never discount former double Champion Damien Payart (Anderson/FPE). The Frenchman was defeated as much by the rain at Hockenheim as by his opponents. His blank return from Germany made it an uphill struggle to win the championship. But 3rd place in Race 1 at Snetterton showed something of his true capability, although the wrong tyre pressure choice in Race 2 saw him come home a disappointing 6th.
The Assen Circuit is always buzzing with atmosphere as the Superkarts share the weekend programme with cars and motor cycles in this unique motor sport environment that always produces the biggest spectator numbers to watch a kart race in any year.
