Zuera in Spain hosted the third round of the Rotax Euro Challenge, where our drivers in Junior Senior and Rotax hit the track
Adam Smalley was the team’s only representative in the Junior Max class with a difficult qualifying session seeing Smalley take 18th on the grid for the heats. Smalley made up decent ground in heat 1, taking 10 places to come home in 8th place. Heats 2 and 3 unfortunately saw Smalley pick up penalties for front fairings along with a whole host of other drivers giving Smalley 17th on the grid for the Pre-Final.
Smalley quickly worked his way up the order to sit in 10th place by lap 5, but contact from another driver saw Smalley drop to the back of the field and finishing in 28th place. He had it all to do from the back of the grid in the final from 28th. A good opening lap saw Smalley make up 5 places to take up 23rd place as the field completed lap 1.Smalley settled in and continued his progress through the field, picking off each competitor as he came across them to steadily move his way up the order.
As the chequered flag waved, Smalley had taken half the field to finish in 14th and limit the damage caused by the misfortune in the Pre Final.
Josh White led the way for Coles Racing in qualifying, taking 11th ahead of teammates Tom Croydon, Josh Skelton and Stephanie Le Vesconte in 22nd, 23rd and 25th respectively.
Heat 1 saw White and Le Vesconte on the move with White gaining three places to finish 8th with Le Vesconte moving up five places to finish 20th. Skelton crossed the line in 20th, but a 5 second penalty saw him drop to 22nd, just ahead of Croydon in 24th.
Heat 2 saw more progress from White to finish 8th on the road, but a 5 second penalty dropped him to 14th. Skelton gained 6 places for 17th ahead of Le Vesconte and Croydon in 22nd and 23rd. Heat 3 saw White hold station to collect 11th place after losing ground in the opening stages and dropping to 15th with Skelton and Croydon following each other up the order to finish in 17th and 18th respectively and just ahead of Le Vesconte in 20th.
White lined up in 8th for the Pre-Final and was embroiled in a close race with several other drivers until contact from behind saw him drop down to 22nd on lap 5. White pushed on and recovered well to come home in 13th place. Croydon continued his march further forward to move up to 16th place from 23rd on the grid despite a difficult first few laps with Le Vesconte tucked up behind him in 17th place. Skelton also progressed well, going from 20th on the grid to cross the line in 12th, but a 5 second penalty unfortunately dropped him to 19th.
Coles Racing teammates White and Croydon lined up in 13th and 16th on the grid for the Final with Le Vesconte on P17 and Skelton racing from P19. A stunning first lap saw White up into 5th before taking 4th and getting in stuck in with the lead group. White dropped back to 5th on lap 5, but held on to the drivers in front of him to regain 4th place with a handful of laps to go.
The chequered flag waved with White coming home in 4th, but falling foul of the front fairing rules and picking up a 5 second penalty to give him 10th on the final classification. Croydon, Le Vesconte and Skelton all endured hard racing with Croydon having to settle for 20th and Le Vesconte and Skelton classifying as 22nd and 23rd respectively after not seeing the chequered flag.
The Zuera results mean Smalley is currently 7th overall in the Junior Standings, whils White leads the way for Coles in Rotax Max with 5th overall in the standings.
The next event will be the Briitsh Kart Grand Prix for Kartmasters, hosted at the PF International Circuit on August 4-7.
