It’s back to business for Hugo Valente

After a somewhat disappointing start to the season, Hugo Valente and his close advisors made the difficult decision to change teams. It was hard leaving Patrice Mich and the MRT team with whom over time he had built up close ties. Hugo has joined Jana Racing, where he will be racing alongside Arthur Pic, under the experienced guidance of Nicolas Moni. Junior racing is the speciality of this small two-driver outfit. The team, with master mechanic Benjamin Moine to the fore, hopes to develop and test a kart specially prepared for a driver of this stature.

Varennes sur Allier, 2nd FFSA 2006 GP series on 14, 15 & 16 April 2006

The improvements were already plain to see during open practice. The new set up enabled the kart to lap quickly without the tendency to slow up in later laps that was such a problem at the start of the season. The morale of the team increased in leaps and bounds!
Hugo was 6th fastest in his group – just 5 tenths of a second off the leader.
After two rounds of qualification it was clear how much work the team had put into preparing the kart. The driver’s confidence increased accordingly and sharp driving saw him take 3rd and 2nd places in Saturday’s heats. Unfortunately, Hugo dropped back down the field in the 3rd heat when he developed a mysterious carburettor fault in lap 1 of a race in which he had just taken the lead.
So Hugo found himself back on 7th place on the grid for his pre-final. At that stage there was still hope for Hugo but it was final curtains when he got rammed going in to the 1st bend. He had to watch the rest of the race from the sidelines and had plenty of time to get himself into good mental shape for the next race. He was boiling mad!
Then came the final. He gave it all he had from back down in 31st place. Slip-streaming his way up the field and keeping out of trouble, Hugo kept the bit between his teeth throghout all 17 laps, during which time he got past no fewer than 22 rivals! You can’t help wondering what would have happened if only that pre-final race had gone according to plan… but there you go, you don’t win kart races with ifs and buts.
In the end, he won a creditable 9th place in the final race, the same result as he achieved in Angerville last month, but this time in an entirely different frame of mind, given how far back he started on the grid.

2nd round of the Open Masters series on the South Garda track in Lonato, April 22 & 23

Hugo gets stuck in the rubber
In Italy, a combination of summer temperatures and soft tyres led to some very sticky driving! Cruelly lacking in race experience under such conditions, Hugo spent his weekend learning. He made considerable progress but it was not enough for him to qualify from a bumper entry of 85 drivers in the Junior class. And so? “Well, we decided to work on after the race to eradicate the rubber problems…” The result? Three days of practice and testing for driver and team. The next challenge is adapting the chassis to someone of Hugo’s stature. Unable to sit comfortably in the kart, he was all the while on the brake pedal, proving what they say in the paddock “brake disks that turn blue with work will let you down just when you need them most”.

Rendez-vous for the next round of the Italian Open Masters on May 13 & 14, after which it will be time for the 3rd FFSA Grand Prix at Lavelanet, in the Ariège region of France.