Junior Super Heats: Pohjola and van Langendonck victorious at the Slovakia Ring

The Super Heats of the European Junior Championship were held in fine weather on Sunday morning at the Slovakia Karting Center.

Super Heat A: Pohjola wins
Iacopo Martinese (KR/Iame) took the lead straight away, but Niklas Schaufler (KR/Iame) took P1 on the third lap with Roman Kamyab (LN/TM) and Joel Pohjola (Tony Kart/Vortex) in his wake. Kit Belofsky (KR/Iame) rejoined the top five and quickly took 4th place from Martinese. Aloïs Girardet (Energy/TM) had made up some ground in 15th position, while Louis Cochet (KR/Iame) went on the offensive to move back into the top six. Pohjola attacked Schaufler on lap 8 to move into the lead. Kamyab followed in 2nd place. Cochet was pushed into the grass and found himself 19th before being forced to retire. Pohjola took the lead with the fastest lap and a 0.675″ advantage over Kamyab. Schaufler finished 3rd ahead of Belofsky and Scott Marsh (Tony Kart/Vortex). Martinese was 6th and Christian Costoya (Parolin/TM) had moved up six places to 10th.

Super Heat B: van Langendonck reaches his goal
Dries van Langendonck (Exprit/TM) got off to a perfect start ahead of Filippo Sala (LN/TM), Rocco Coronel (KR/Iame) 3rd, Ilie Crisan (Tony Kart/Vortex) 4th, Jensen Burnett (KR/Iame) 5th and Bosco Arias (KR/Iame) 6th. Kenzo Craigie (KR/Iame) was eliminated early on when an incident on the first lap caused the slow procedure yellow flags to be waved. The race resumed on the fourth lap. Sala put van Langendonck under pressure in front of a compact field. Van Langendonck began to pull away from a group that was battling hard behind him. Sala was relegated by nearly a second at the halfway stage, Arias had moved up to 3rd ahead of Crisan and Burnett, while Coronel had dropped back to 6th. Thomas Pradier (Tony Kart/Vortex) had made up seven places to 14th. Arias climbed up to P2, 1.5″ behind the leader, and tried to close the gap, while Sala was in defensive mode against Crisan. Van Langendonck won and secured pole position for the Final. Arias was 2nd at 1.2″, Sala 3rd at 3.4″ and Crisan 4th at 7 hundredths. Burnett was 5th. Pradier came 14th after losing a few places in the battle.

Provisional results pending publication of the final rankings.

Info Kartcom with Kartlink / Photo © KSP