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Millroy Takes Top Ten Finish At Italian Open |
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Monday, 26 March 2007 |
Surrey based karting champion Ollie Millroy took a hard fought tenth place in the opening round of the Italian Open Championship at Sarno after struggling against changing weather conditions in the early part of the race weekend.
The works Zanardi racer was left with a mountain to climb after the opening wet qualifying session, when his team opted to wait for what was a drying track to get up to speed before letting Ollie out to set a time.
Unfortunately with just a few minutes of the session gone, the heavens
opened and he was only able to set the 27th fastest time on what was
now an incredibly wet circuit, putting him 18th on the grid for both of
his heats.
A crash at the start of the first heat put him seemingly further out of
contention when he had to retire with a bent axle. In the second heat
it looked like it was going to be a repeat for Ollie when he was caught
up with others racers and was once again forced off the track.
However, this time he was able to battle his way back to the chequered
flag and was given a lifeline to make the two finals with the ‘last
chance’ race. A solid drive to third place allowed him to take up the
31st position on the grid for the first final on Sunday afternoon.
More torrential rain meant that conditions were tricky for the first
race and a great drive from Ollie allowed him to cross the line in 18th
place, the same spot he would take to the grand final.
With his kart now on form, a fired up Ollie was able to put in another
fighting drive to break into the top ten during the 15-lap final,
giving him reason to be happy with the weekend.
“We were on the back foot after qualifying, it was a good strategy
which would have saved the equipment and tyres but everyone else had
set their times in what turned out to be the driest part of the
session,” said Ollie.
“It was a great race in the second final though and I’m really happy to
have broken into the top ten by the end of the weekend. I’m especially
happy as we showed that we have plenty of pace so it looks good for the
rest of the season,” he added.
Ollie now has a two week break before heading back into competition, at
the opening round of the French championship at Essay. Before he gets
there though, he’ll be taking a well earned break in the Spanish
sunshine after a hectic couple of month’s build-up to the start of the
European season.
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