Italie Lonato 11.05.08 WSK - International Series

The international competition in back in Lonato, on the Garda Lake, for the second time in this 2008 season. After the Winter Cup held in February, it was the turn of WSK on the track of South Garda Karting.

The foundation "Julie Tonelli pour l'Enfance" has been a partner of the WSK international series since the second race at Angerville. Luca De Nonno's highly professional organising team has acquired great experience and the collaboration with Julie Tonelli has become a sort of institution.

At Maranello, the Julie Tonelli culture is transmitted to the youngest generations thanks to the constant support provided by Davide Forè and team manager Armando Filini. Davide Forè was finally able to reach the top again, after a period of modest results. Davide was not fully satisfied though, as he was not able to get on the highest step of the podium. In KF1, he now follows Austrian pilot Patrick Fontner, who obtained brilliant results at Lonato. In KF3, five Maranello pilots defended Julie's colours. In this very hard fought category, where young pilots are extremely competitive, it is often hard to qualify for the finals. Portuguese David da Luz, Czech Roman Krist and Russian Edward Frolenkov were not lucky in this sense, despite their repechage. Kevin Giovesi qualified with difficulty and jumped to 24th position in the final. Russian Maxin Zimin obtained the best result, constantly gaining positions, heat after heat, and ending 8th.

KF3 was dominated by French Brandon Maïsano who won all the heats, the pre-final and the final! After this brilliant result, he is now at the top of the series overall ranking. Dutch Nyck De Vries obtained positive results as well during his Italian weekend, after the disappointing performance at Angerville. The race was not easy for Nyck, who had to fight up to the last lap in order to get on the second podium step. The maturity of this young rookie is striking, both when he speaks to journalists about his performances and during the race. These two pilots are likely to be destined to become great champions! Mathieu Jaminet was not able to qualify for the final despite a very hard fought race. Belgian Guillaume De Ridder made his best and ended 20th in the final, after a series of very intense races. Last but not least, Jonathan Hélias had to overcome the disadvantage of a modest qualifying time, which compelled him to catch up in every race, thus making his life difficult. At the end, he finished 18th.

In KF2, Kevin Mourey had some problems that prevented him from qualifying for the finals. Finnish Miki Weckström and French William Benedetti went through repechage but only William was then able to qualify. He finished 20th, then 22nd and made his best to obtain a positive result. Tipped as one of the favourites, Matteo Vigano had an accident and lost all his chances to do well. English Tom Grice and Belgian Damien Dupont finished 24th and 25th respectively. Portuguese José Cautela, instead, finished 9th in the final, after starting from the 17th place in the pre-final.

In KF1 the pink butterflies led the group with Armand Convers, Jean-Philippe Guignet and Jonathan Thonon. Convers won the pole, the Super Pole and the pre-final; Guignet finished 3rd twice and Thonon finished 2nd in the pre-final but then broke in the final. Davide Forè scored the points of his 6th place, after catching up 23 positions; Jérémy Iglesias finished 8th. Thanks to a constant performance, Matt Truelove ended 18th, just ahead of Patrick Fontner, who came 21st. Florian Alfano, who had problems with his chassis, was not up to expectations, although he did pretty well in the repechage. The same cannot be said for Vittorio Mangili. Norman Nato had problems too and was finally forced to withdraw because of a brake malfunctioning.