Hitting the right tempo

The Bailly brothers, Benjamin and Sébastien, displayed flashes of brilliant driving during the 3rd round of the Italian Open Masters in Jesolo – the temple of Italian kart racing. They showed a fine turn of speed and adapted well to the conditions on what is a difficult circuit. Benjamin certainly did himself no harm – his performance puts him up in 4th place in the KF1 championship.

The historic track in Jesolo was one of Ayrton Senna’s favourite haunts. As any experienced team manager will tell you, it is never easy to shine the first time you race on this famous circuit near Venice. But Benjamin Bailly did. And at the first attempt, too, during this May 20 weekend. With typical application, he concentrated hard on getting his kart set up perfectly so that he could rub shoulders with the best of them during his first season’s racing in the top category. “We had several options available for the set up so it was important to make the most of practice in order to make the best choices,” said the Belgian driver. “You can’t leave anything to chance when you are racing at this level. You have to work on the minute detail because they it make all the difference. For example, here in Jesolo our Dunlop tyres tended to make the back end of the chassis lose grip compared with the karts shod with Vega’s. So with the Kosmic team and my mechanic Guy De Nies, we worked out changes as the race progressed and managed to clock the 2nd fastest lap in the last final race”. Already 3rd after two excellent qualifying heats, Benjamin also managed to get onto the front of the grid for the final stages, which was just reward for the faith shown in him by his financial and sporting backers. He certainly hasn’t let them down. In Race 1 the competition for the top spots was keen. “I was lying 3rd when somebody came up hard behind me. I was thinking of preserving my championship points, so I decided it was better to make sure of 4th place rather than run the risk of a collision with him”, was Benjamin’s intelligent analysis of the race. Sadly, a problem was to mar Race 2 for him. “My engine cut out at the off, so I got shunted by another kart and lost about a dozen places. It was a real shame because we were going so well until then, and a podium place seemed well within our grasp”. But Benjamin Bailly didn’t give up. He rolled up his sleeves and managed to get back up to 6th in the race. “Two weeks after taking the lead in the French championship, this was still a good week-end for me, because it got me back to 4th in the standings, only 3 points behind the driver in second place”.

Effort goes unrewarded

In the land of the singing gondolier, Sébastien Bailly got his oar stuck in. Under difficult track conditions he turned out to be quite a performer ! “Sébastien was not at home on this track, which he was discovering for the first time, but he performed well despite the high standard of the opposition. With a little more luck he might have finished in the top ten”, commented Sébastien’s team manager Olivier Maréchal. In fact Sébastien was lying 12th after the time trials, “despite having been baulked in my fastest lap and being in a KF3 category that had 79 entrants”, as he pointed out. But the programme in Italy didn’t turn out exactly as he would have hoped.
“In the first qualifying heat I got caught up in the melee at the start of the race and only managed to come home 8 th. In the second heat a stone got caught up in the transmission and made the chain come off. Somebody spun right in front of me in the 3rd heat after I’d got off to a great start. I found myself right at the back of the race, but I was pleased with my climb back through the field to finish 12th. Fortunately I managed to finish the last heat in 6th place despite a bent steering column and suspension rod that I had picked up when somebody hit me in the first few laps.” Despite these mishaps, Sébastien picked up his ticket for the final. But once again someone crashed into him, terminating a magnificent climb through the field and putting paid to his hopes of getting amongst the points. “Some drivers think that a race is won or lost in the first few laps but it’s often a case of ‘more haste less speed’. It’s a terrible shame for me to miss an opportunity like this, especially as I felt so good at the wheel of my Kosmic-Vortex. Still, I showed I was really quick at Jesolo, at least I can take this from the race”.