Jenkins is vice champion of Europe

Briton Scott Jenkins, Champion of Italy in 2006, drove a brilliant chase to take the European Junior vice champion spot at the meeting in Mariembourg in Belgium. A member of the “Intrepid Junior Team”, Scott had more luck than his team-mates did in their 125/Super ICC World Cup racing. All the others fell victim to incredible bad luck on the Sunday.

The forecast was for 125cc World Cup podium places for the Intrepid team drivers and a win for Alessandro Manetti but a day of overcast skies in Mariembourg found them downcast after defeat. “There’s not a lot you can do when your luck’s out”, lamented team manager Mirko Sguerzoni. Yet it had all started out so well. Newly-crowned champion of Italy and European No. 2 Manetti confirmed his status as pre-race favourite by taking pole position. Maillard Racing driver Mathieu Arzeno from France gave a great demonstration of the effectiveness of the Intrepid chassis, surprising everybody with a fine 2nd place. “This is only my second outing of the season because I also race in Formula Renault, but I soon got used to the machine. It responds really well and I was able to push it to the limit”, added Mathieu. Manettti and Arzeno confirmed their promise during qualifying by claiming 1st and 4th places respectively on the pre final starting grid. Meanwhile, Alessandro Piccini worked himself into a healthier position by climbing no less than nine places through a very competitive field.
The first stroke of cruel luck fell on Mathieu Arzeno, who had to drop out of the race during the first lap after losing a drive chain. Piccini took 7th place, and Manetti 4th. “I decided not to take any risks in the pre final”, explained Manetti, “because I didn’t want to wear out my tyres given that in this season’s major events the CIK only allow us to have six”. Unfortunately the final turned out to be a nightmare for everyone. A series of crashes put paid to all the hopes of our Intrepid brigade. Manetti got shunted into a spin during the starting dash, Piccini dropped down to 14th after coming off second best in a scrap with Cesetti, and Arnaud Kozlinski’s progress was halted by a spectacular pile up. The net result was that Manetti and Kozlinski both found themselves in hospital after the race instead of on the podium – a cracked rib for Manetti and multiple bruising for Frenchman Kolinski for their pains. American Phil Giebler, who flies the flag for Intrepid on the other side of the Atlantic, fared little better. Considering himself fortunate to qualify for the final rounds, he finally came home in 18th position.

Intrepid hits top gear in the Junior class
Intrepid invested heavily in the Junior category right from the word go and it continues to reap the benefits. At Mariembourg, drivers found the Cruiser chassis to be highly effective on what is a fast and challenging track. Scott Jenkins drove a superb pre final race to get back up amongst the leading group and then followed it up with a peerless performance to take 2nd place with some panache. For a couple of laps the young Briton managed to put the leader under pressure and took the flag just four tenths of a second behind him. After winning the Italian Open Masters, coming 4th in his European semi final in Portugal, and becoming European vice champion, Jenkins has had a great season at the wheel of his Intrepid. After flopping in the time trials, team-mate Flavio Camponeschi drove an incredible race, carving through the field from 46th up to 7th spot in the final. The Italian vice champion would have been worthy of a place on the Belgian podium.