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Jack Harvey bounced back from his recent
non-finish in the Margutti Trophy by taking third place in the opening round of
the Winning Series of Karting (WSK) at La Conca in southern
Italy at the weekend. The result puts the
14-year-old reigning European Champion third in the KF2 class
standings.
The Newark Steel backed Birel
Motorsport driver went into the event full of confidence after a superb run the
week before at the Margutti event. After a frustrating time during some of the
early event testing, the Birel team worked incredibly hard to give Jack just the
set-up on the kart he was looking for. Two fourth and two second places in his
heats were enough to give him a second row starting position for the
points-scoring pre-final.
A great start allowed him to
slot into third place as the field came out of the first corner and over the
course of the 16-lap race he was able to get up to second place, finishing less
than a second behind the eventual winner.
His result put him on the
front row for the grand final and in the early stages of the race he was able to
start closing in on the leading racer. However, Jack was forced into a battle
with the two chasing drivers, which eventually meant he was forced to drop back
a place, losing ground on the two guys now ahead of him in the process and out
of contention for victory.
A superb drive to the
chequered flag meant that he was still able to claim the final podium spot and
his two top-three results mean that he left the Italian circuit third in the
points.
“Second and third in the two
point-scoring races over the course of the weekend is a great result,” said
Jack. “The meeting started off really well for us in testing on Thursday, but we
struggled a bit on Friday and I thought that we might be in for a tough
weekend.”
“But I’ve got to thank
everyone in the Birel team, they worked so hard to give me the best kart
possible. Everyone was fantastic over the weekend and I was able to drive as
hard as possible every time I went out. You can’t ask for more as a driver when
the team is working that hard for you. I’m pleased I was able to get some good
results to repay them,” he added.
Jack now has several weeks before his next
European event. However, more testing to stay at the sharp end of the KF2 field
as well as having a crack at the MSA KF2 ‘O’ plate event at the end of the month
will keep him busy before he heads out to Lonato at the beginning of
May.
“It’s been a hectic start to
the 2008 season for me so far,” he said. “There is a break now before the next
WSK event, but I’m going to be out on track elsewhere as I want to stay as sharp
and focused as possible for the rest of the season,” he
added.
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