Monaco Kart GP

Superb weather conditions greeted the drivers for the Monaco Cup, covering the KF3 junior drivers, the outstandingly quick KZ2 gearbox aces, and the KF2 TM powered 6-hour endurance teams.

Run over three two-hour events, two of the endurance races were held today (Saturday), where the no,39 team was led by Nelson Piquet Jnr, the (former?) F1 driver who last raced for the Renault F1 team, until the Singapore race fixing scandal rocked motor-sport. Despite a big problem during the last 15 minutes of the 4th hour, Piquet hung onto the lead, but only by 24s from the British outfit Screen 4 Life, with Kartograph, another British team in 3rd place.

The winner of race two though was the impressive British outfit led by Dean Hawkey, who but for an engine problem in race one would have been leading the event overall. They had started race two 9 laps down on grid 15, but by winning race two and more0or-less stering clear of trouble, ended Saturday only 5 laps adrift, after a superb recovery of 4 laps, no mean feat in this company!

Only one KZ2 heat was completed and that went to the ever consistent Intrepid driver and Dutch champion, Bas Lammers, who had said earlier this afternoon how much he "loved this circuit", which incorporates part of the Formula 1 track round by the swimming pool complex and LA Rascasse...

In KF3 Carlos Sainz Jnr was impressive, with the expected pace from Nyck De Vries sadly lacking at the moment. Hopefully the Zanardi mounted team can make some changes overnight to give the Spanish champion hotter competition?

Zuera, Spain - WSK Championship

After the World Cup at Alcaniz around one hour south of Zuera, the WSK racing had to be good to match what took place the previous week - and to be honest it was!

Not only was it hotter with clear blue skies and blazing sunshine, but the on-track action at Zuera was just as frantic. Just ask Ignazio D'Agosto after the Formula KF2 pre-final... he was one mighty unhappy chap.

Where happy chaps are concerned though look no further than Bas Lammers. He was awesome a couple of months ago at Wackersdorf in Germany, and he was awesome again today in Formula KZ2. On the grid for the pre-final just minutes before the start I asked Bas if he could win today from row four, sat on grid 8? "Of course," he said with a grin, "it will not be a problem for me." I thought he might be joking - he wasn't, and he won quite comfortably!

As for the final later in the afternoon, he led the first lap from pole, dropped to 2nd on lap 2 afetr CRG's Rick Dreezen took the lead, and then fell behind his Intrepid team-mate Jeremy Iglesias on lap 10. Final lap and Bas was still 3rd with one corner remaining with Dreezen just ahead. He pounced and took 2nd place with 100 metres to go, only for Iglesias to celebrate (!) before he passed the chequered flag, leaving Bas to sweep past to win by 0.090s! The pic shows what is now coming to be the 'Bas Jump' after he has won.

Karting Magazine will carry a full report in the November issue due out on the second Wednesday in October.