Malukas, Fraïsse, Cavalloni and Babington win in Le Mans

The winners of the 2015 IAME International Final have been awarded their trophies and prizes, after today’s final races took place under the Le Mans sun. The 4th edition of the event was a great success. A record 326 entries representing 44 nations have been able to fight on an equal playing field with power provided by the fantastic IAME X30 engines.

X30 Junior (98 drivers aged 13-15 years old)

American David Malukas (BirelART) continued his winning streak in the prefinal and the final to bag the Junior title. Britain’s Callum Bradshaw (Tony-Kart) finished 4.5 seconds adrift with a charging Carlos Leon on his tail. The Spanish young gun with the FA Kart started from 10th on the grid. Kenny Roosens (Kosmic) had a good battle with the future winner in early stages but eventually the Belgian had to be content with 4th. The fastest lap was set by fellow Belgian Ulysse de Pauw (BirelART on his way from 29th to 12th in the final.

X30 Senior (123 drivers aged 15 years old and over)

The “original” X30 category attracted a massive entry and some twenty drivers couldn’t even make it to Final C. Thomas Ricci (France / Tony-Kart) beat the leader of the qualifying heats William Godefroid (Belgium / Kosmic) in the prefinal and pulled away early in the final. He began to struggle for pace come mid-distance, and finished 8th. Vincent Fraïsse took the flag and his first IAME International Final victory after clinching two European and two French titles in 2013 an 2014 in the category. Godefroid shadowed the Frenchman across the line. Kevin Breysse was third just like in 2014 with a tiny 0.158 sec. deficit to the winner. Fourth-placed Tom Bale (UAE / Tony-Kart) set the fastest lap.

X30 Master (71 drivers aged 30 years old and over including 15 Veterans aged 45 years old and over)

Jérémy Peclers from Belgium dominated the qualifying heats and the prefinal but unfortunately retired from the final. X30 Europa Challenge runner-up Gérard Cavalloni (France / PCR) fought his way through the leading pack to beat last year’s winner Kip Foster (Australia / CRG) by a minimum margin of 0.111 seconds. Briton Gary Turkington posted the fastest lap and recovered from 18th to 3rd while X30 Europa Challenge winner Nicolas Duchateau (France / Kosmic) moved from P21 to P4 in an action-filled X30 Master final. Belgian Christophe Adams took the Veteran class honours.

X30 Super Shifter (gearbox 175cc karts, 34 drivers aged 15 years old and over)

UAE driver Sean Babington achieved victory in the morning’s prefinal and in the afternoon’s final at the wheel of his Energy kart, each time with a significant margin. Henrique Chaves from Portugal took the runner-up spot ahead of the X30 Super Shifter 2015 Portuguese champion Yohan Sousa. They were both driving a Zanardi. Matteo Vigano (Top Kart) shined all week-end only to retire from the final with three laps to go.

A large audience witnessed Sunday’s races and high quality live streaming images were also available for the fans worldwide. See you in 2016!

Info IAME / © Photo KSP