Organised on the 7 Laghi circuit of Castelletto, the second and last WSK Open Cup event was not spared by the weather. The cool weather was accompanied by many showers, although the Finals were held on a virtually dry track. Hugo Sasse in OK and James Wharton in OK-Junior confirmed Parolin’s excellent competitiveness while the successes multiplied in Mini in parallel with the revelation of two young talents in the Parolin Racing Kart team with the Russian Khavalkin and the Chinese Zhang.
The competition was complicated for everyone due to the weather. The Castelletto track experienced every condition, from flood to fog, with an infinite number of variations in grip.
“The Parolin chassis coped successfully the difficult weather at Castelletto,” said Marco Parolin. “In all categories, the performance was there, in the rain, in the dry and in all conditions in between. The races were not always favourable to the factory team, whose momentum was broken by several incidents. We did not obtain the results we could have reasonably expected, but we can be satisfied overall with the performance of our chassis and drivers during this autumn competition. I would like to congratulate in particular our two new drivers, Anatoly Khavalkin and Shimo Zhang, for their superb debuts with us, while Peter Bouzinelos convinced us with his great comeback. We are very sorry that Rashid Al Dhaheri’s troubles prevented him from participating in the fight at the front as he deserves.“
Hugo Sasse started well with the 2nd fastest time in his session in OK Qualifying, but lost ground due to a chain failure in the first heat. He came back from 13th place in the heats to 9th place overall and despite this misadventure was close to being in the top 10 of the WSK Open Cup.
The times of the official OK-Junior team drivers were not outstanding, but they mostly corrected the situation well afterwards. James Wharton climbed to 3rd place in his Prefinal after recovering more than 20 places in the heats. Matheus Ferreira finished 6th in his Prefinal ahead of Timoteusz Kucharczyk, who set the 2nd fastest lap in the race. The Final allowed him to improve further and finally reach 11th place. Wharton had to retire at the beginning of the race due to mechanical problems while he was in 2nd place. Ferreira did not finish the Final either.
The new Chinese rookie Shimo Zhang shone at the top of the second Qualifying session, ranking 2nd among the 66 drivers present. Anatoly Khavalkin moved up in the heats from 8th to 4th place, confirming his promise in the process. Rashid Al Dhaheri regained 10 places in the heats and represented the team’s best prospects in 6th place in his Prefinal after Khavalkin’s retirement. Al Dhaheri had to retire with fuel problems midway through the Final as he climbed back up before being penalised for his spoiler. The young Australian Peter Bouzinelos, 45th in Qualifying, made it to the Final. He climbed to 22nd (+12 places), but his dropped spoiler cost him six positions.
Parolin Racing Kart will be back on track next weekend at the WSK Final Cup in Adria with the ambition of achieving more convincing results that match their potential.
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