Castelletto in Italy hosted round two of the RGMMC Rotax Max Euro Challenge.
Adam Smalley kept up his great one lap pace by taking 4th overall in his qualifying group in Junior Max. The second group made use of better track conditions to set better times, meaning Smalley was classified as 9th overall in both sessions.
Smalley converted his strong starting positions into a two 3rd positions in his opening two heats, narrowly missing out on 2nd position in both. An unlucky third heat saw him finish down in 8th position after getting muscled out of position and fighting his way back through.This gave Smalley a starting position of 8th for the Pre-Final.
A good start saw Smalley immediately gain ground and breaking into the top 5 by lap 4. From here he was in a race long battle with a train of karts fighting for the victory, as he crossed the line in 5th position, just 0.1s behind his rival and 1.5s off the victory.
The Grand Final saw a great start see Smalley vault up to 2nd place, before early battling put him back down to 4th. Smalley maintained his position for the rest of the race, finishing just 0.1s off a podium finish!
Josh White led the Coles Racing Rotax Max drivers over the course of the weekend. Despite only qualifying 11th overall in the combined timed qualifying, Josh hit the fore in the heats, taking two 2nd places and a 3rd to wind up second overall on the grid for the Pre-Final.
Fellow Rotax Max Drivers Josh Skelton Tom Croydon and Stephanie Le Vesconte qualified 22nd, 34th and 35th after some unlucky heats masking solid pace for the trio.
White initially dropped a place at the start of the Pre-Final, before battling past his two rivals to take the lead on lap 6. White was never headed for the remainder of the race, bagging pole position for the Grand Final. Skelton endured a difficult race where he was baulked throughout finishing an eventual 23rd. Croydon gained 6 positions in his race, whilst Le Vesconte was taken out of contention on the 2nd lap and forced to retire.
White held the lead in the Grand Final for the opening laps, before his rivals behind made use of the slipstream and got onto his rear bumper. On the fifth lap White was deposed of the lead and became embroiled in a close contest with Scholl for the victory. As the laps ticked by, the gap never increased over 0.2s, but White was unable to make a move stick, finishing the Final in 2nd, but banking important points for the championship and maintaining Coles Racing's podium run in all competitions!
Another strong weekend for Smalley and White see's them both sit 5th overall in their respective championship standings, still in contention for the title with two races to go!
