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Britain’s Joseph Reilly (Strawberry Racing/Tonykart) claims he had “the right strategy” last weekend at Busca to steal the lead in Sunday’s final from his team-mate and victor at the opening round, Luke Varley (Strawberry Racing/Tonykart). Reilly had virtually been unbeatable in Spain last March, but an incident at the start of the final ruined his chances of making it a white-wash, so the trophy along with the series points, were handed to Varley.

The “all-green” podium that dominated the Max was also split this round by rival chassis manufacturer Intrepid. It was New Zealander Josh Hart (Intrepid Force Rotax/Intrepid) now representing Austria at the Euro, who set an untouchable pace in qualifying (59.170)and looked like a favourite when he won two of his three heat races Saturday, while posting the best lap in all.

The 22-year old wasn’t able to secure the pre-final pole ahead of the English pair, who both had double wins as well, so would start on grid 3. Polish driver Karol Dabski (Uniq Racing/Intrepid) joined Hart on the second row Sunday morning, displaying more of the determination that saw him take P1 at the first ever Rotax Winter Cup earlier this season and be second fastest to Hart in the official timed practice on Friday. Local Italian Simone Favaro (Parolin Racing Team/Parolin) had the outside start on row 3 next to Joey van Splunteren (DFK/Gillard) as the first of the reputable Dutch talent.

With Reilly starting on pole, Varley managed to squeeze in behind at the start, as Dabski immediately worked his way across to claim P3 from Hart, who was left to dice with Van Splunteren. Hart slipped back to 6th, as former Euro Junior champ Mats van den Brand (Team TKP/Intrepid) showed some form to be running in 4th. On lap 2, Reilly lost the lead to Varley, who made the most of his new MOJO D2s when they were at their optimum.

A black flag on the next lap signalled a disastrous end to the meeting for Tom Fawcett (RL Race Team/Tonykart), who featured strongly at the Spanish round and was 10th in the series so far. Meanwhile, his new team-mate Tatiana Calderon (RL Race Team/Tonykart) was having some positive results to climb her way through to P6 ahead of Van Splunteren. Hart eventually found his feet and recovered for 3rd behind Reilly, once again setting the fastest lap. Dabski maintained 4th from Van den Brand.

The starter was not satisfied to let them go, so the Senior Max final had an additional two formation laps before the lights changed. This time Hart closed the gap on the pole-sitter, as did Van den Brand off P5; leaving Reilly on the outside to have to settle for 4th going through turn 1. Hungary’s Laszlo Marton (Kalman Motorsport/Birel) watched his podium hopes disappear, forfeiting his row 5 start when he had to make some repairs in the breakdown lane following the opening lap.

The next time around, Reilly was in second and already had Varley in his sights, which he impressively executed on the third lap. Hart also appeared to surprise the past British Junior number one soon after, to trail Reilly for 2nd, though Dabski was unable to do the same, pushing to the limit to keep Varley honest when he couldn’t find a way past.

With only 4 laps gone, an amazing drive from Antoine Barthon (MD Competition/Tonykart) to come from grid 16 to 6th, saw the Frenchman who finished 3rd in the last race in Zuera, setting himself up for the chance of another trophy. The pace-setters varied from Reilly in 1st to Hart, Varley and also top 3 qualifier Sandro Lukovic (Speedworld by MKR/PCR), carving his way up the field from the last row to savour 11th.

Well beyond the first ten, there was 27.5 kilometres of nothing but great racing, with less than one second separating the quickest to slowest laptimes in the final. Reilly stayed focussed and never faulted to give Hart no opportunity to lead. Varley couldn’t close the gap, while Dabski did his best to in 4th, making the slightest error on lap 17 before setting a lap that was a mere 0.008 seconds off Hart’s pole time, with just one to go. Barthon had passed Van den Brand for 5th, with the best result for a female driver in Euro Senior Max to-date going to Colombia’s Calderon in 7th.

Driving for a new team for the first time in 7 years, Mike Joossens (DFK/Maddox) overtook Alejandro Lino (Speedsupport/Energy) in the latter stages to finish 8th, while Van Splunteren made up the top 10. Missing from the front-runners was series leader James Greenway (Strawberry Racing/Tonykart), who was unwell during the meeting at Busca.

The accolades at the Italian round went to Joseph Reilly, rising to 4th on the points’ ladder:

“We made the best decision this weekend to have the right tyres, tyre pressures and ideal set-up to win. The pre-final went well for me; I started from pole and used my old rubber to save my new tyres for the final, finishing second to my team mate Luke Varley, who had chosen to use his new set. It just gave me the edge in the final I needed to get into the lead and stay there for the win. We tried really hard all week to find the right set-up and it all came together in the heats, then we managed to wrap it up in the pre-final and final. The result is good for the championship points and I’m feeling quite confident now going into the third round. I want to thank Warwick and David and Strawberry Racing for all their hard work, and my team mates for being there and ‘having my back!’ Also thanks to my sponsors back home in London and my parents for all their support.”

Photo by Bas Kaligis