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Scattered throughout Europe, the qualifying races for the European KF2 and KF3 Championships have been very fruitful for the Maranello brand. Despite the very high level of competitions, most of the drivers from this prestigious Italian firm have conquered their qualification ticket and will have the honour of racing in the final phase - Alcaniz in Spain for the Western Region, Val Vibrata in Italy for the Central Region and Göteborg in Sweden for the Northern Region.
Regardless of the distinctive features of the circuits where KF2 and KF3 drivers raced on 11 and 13 July, the Maranello chassis always proved its competitiveness. “When you need to arrive in the first 20 or 25 drivers in a karting race where the overall number may even exceed 70 participants, it is not that easy” Armando Filini, Maranello team manager, commented. “Therefore it is important for drivers to rely on high-performance equipment. This is why we pay great attention to the quality of our products and to the professionalism of importers, distributors and competition services that represent us in Europe and in the rest of the world”.
There were numerous places of honour for this brand, which has got used to collecting good results in the KF2 and KF3 categories. Indeed, the last two European Junior/KF3 champions (Miki Monras and Jack Harvey) have triumphed at the wheel of a Maranello, while Monras also conquered the title of European KF2 vice-champion last year.
In KF3, Maranello colours shone bright on the Göteborg podium thanks to Finnish driver Joni Wiman. Krebs, Vainio and Suninen completed the spectacular group performance of the Italian brand, which saw four of its chassis in the top 10 and a total of seven pilots in the 25 qualification positions. At Val Vibrata, Kevin Ceccon (Ennio Gandolfi Racing Team) and Kevin Giovesi also had the honour of entering the top 10, just like Josep Oriola Vila and Mitchell Hale at Alcaniz.
Maranello can also afford to be optimistic about its winning chances in KF2 in Portugal (early August), given that the “men in red” have been omnipresent in the top positions. Zdenek Groman was the most constant in Italy, where his sister Tereza won one of the heats and secured her qualification. In Spain, British James Thorp and Luke Wright both reached fourth place during the finals, while Russian Yan Vonzanok achieved the best result for Maranello in Sweden.
“Some other drivers had excellent performances and would have deserved to qualify too, but race mishaps prevented them from achieving that result”, Armando Filini concluded. “For example Finnish Henri Rajala in KF3 or Spanish Ruben Rodriguez and Finnish Miki Weckström in KF2. Miki even won a qualifying heat, but missed the qualification just for one single point!”
Comments by Armando Filini, in charge of Maranello Team “In the end, 11 of our pilots qualified in KF2 and 14 in KF3. This is an excellent overall result for Maranello. Our brand will therefore be able to count of a high number of talented drivers at upcoming European Championships, where we will do our best to repeat top-level performances. Well done to all the drivers, the technicians and the team for this weekend”.
Maranello Team Qualified Drivers in KF2:
James Thorp (GB) Maranello-Maxter
Luke Wright (GB) Maranello-TM
Zdenek Groman (CZ) Maranello-Parilla
“Giaguaro Nero” (I) Maranello-Parilla
Tereza Gromanova (CZ) Maranello-Parilla
Alfredo Gagliardi (I) Maranello-Parilla
Michal Fousek (CZ) Maranello-Parilla
Riccardo Brutschin (D) Maranello-Parilla
Yan Vonzanok (RUS) Maranello-Parilla
Tim Van Laarhoven (NL) Maranello-Parilla
Ruben Van Kampen (NL) Maranello-TM
KF3:
Josep Oriola Vila (E) Maranello-TM
Mitchell Hale (GB) Maranello-TM
Jeffrey Schmidt (CH) Maranello-TM
David Manuel Tomas Da Luz (P) Maranello-TM
Kevin Ceccon (I) Maranello-TM
Kevin Giovesi (I) Maranello-TM
Eduard Cheever (I) Maranello-XTR
Joni Wiman (FIN) Maranello-XTR
Thomas Krebs (DK) Maranello-XTR
Aaro Vainio (FIN) Maranello-XTR
Teemu Suninen (FIN) Maranello-XTR
Jonas Hansen (DK) Maranello-TM
Ville Mäntylä (FIN) Maranello-XTR
Mattias Lindberg (S) Maranello-TM
Posted on July 18, 2008 by Mary-Ann Horley in the Results category.
Tagged with Alcaniz, European KF2, European KF3, Goteborg, Maranello.
Mary-Ann covers most of the major international races for Karting Magazine, Kartlink and Kartcom.fr as well as being a web designer for some of karting's top drivers and teams.