THE WSK CHAMPIONS CUP, FIRST EVENT OF THE 2015 WSK SEASON, HAS JUST AWARDED THE WINNERS NIELSEN (DK– TONY KART-VORTEX KF), SARGEANT (USA – FA ALONSO-VORTEX KFJ) AND HAUGER (N– CRG-LKE 60MINI)

DRIVERS WILL NOT HAVE RELAX: THE WSK GOLD CUP IN ADRIA (I) ON 1ST MARCH IS APPROACHING FAST.

THE NEW WSK LEADERS: THE CHAMPIONS CUP WINNERS.
WSK Promotion, once again, fulfilled expectations offering spectacular races to kart racing fans thanks to its first appointment of the 2015 season. The season-opener, the WSK Champions Cup, was on schedule at the past two weekends of 1st and 8th February. Both the events were hosted by the International Circuit La Conca in Muro Leccese. The first winners were awarded last Sunday, after a series of sudden and unpredictable changes at the top of the standings of the three categories KF, KF Junior and 60 Mini. Drivers aimed at achieving the best point-scoring positions in the Prefinals and in the Finals in both the races.

NIELSEN BEATS VERSCHOOR AND BASZ IN KF.
He aimed at winning the Prefinal and the Final: that is what Nicklas Nielsen (Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega) needed to achieve in the second round of La Conca in order to close the gap with the leadership of the category. He did not manage to enter the Final at the previous week and, at the end of the first round, he could count only on the 30 points he scored as winner of the Prefinal on 1st February. He was 40 points behind the leader, the Dutch Richard Verschoor (Exprit-Vortex-Vega), who gained the top of the standing winning the Final at the end of the first round. Nielsen’s main opponent was the Polish Karol Basz (Kosmic-Vortex-Vega). He, too, fell short of expectations in the first round, but in the second appointment of the Cup Basz and Nielsen challenged each other in both the races of the final phase, leaving the rest of the pack well behind them. Both the races were won by Nielsen, while Verschoor, one of the rookies of the category, did not manage to keep the pace which brought him the victory of the first round. The Dutch driver saw the leadership slipping off his hands; he got overtaken also by the surprising Casper Andersen (FA Alonso-Vortex-Vega), who even managed to nick the third position in the race. So, Nielsen won the WSK Champions Cup taking over the leadership in the final standing, 30 points ahead of the Dutch. Basz gained a well deserved third position: he was the great protagonist of the category together with Nielsen. Fourth place for Andersen, ahead of the Russian Egor Stupenkov (Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega) and the Italian Lorenzo Travisanutto (PCR-TM-Vega). Both Stupenkov and Travisanutto showed great potential, even though they were luckier in the first round rather than in the second.

SARGEANT OVERTAKES LUNDGAARD IN KFJ.
We had a thrilling finale also in KF Junior: Logan Sargeant (FA Alonso-Vortex-Vega), the first American to win on the circuit of Muro Leccese, beat the Danish Christian Lundgaard (Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega), who had dominated in the first round. Sargeant won the Cup thanks to his double victory in the Prefinal and in the Final, even though he was able to secure the result only on the last lap. The race, in fact, was stopped because of a sudden and short shower and, at the re-start, the Indian Kush Maini (Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega) gave Sargeant a hard time. Lungaard, who dropped back to the last positions in Pre-final A, recovered as far as to fifth place in the Final, even though he had to be content with the second place in the final standing. Excellent third position for the Brazilian Felipe Drugovich (Kosmic-Vortex-Vega). He scored this brilliant result thanks to a victory in the Pre-final B. Drugovich was nearly overtaken by Maini, one of the best rookies seen in Muro Leccese: the Indian, finally, placed fourth ahead of the Chinese Yue Yang Sun (FA Alonso-Vortex-Vega), and of the French Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer (Tony Kart-Vortex-Vega), sixth.

HAUGER GRABS THE 60 MINI CROWN ON THE LAST LAP.
In 60 Mini the happiest driver and the most disappointed one belong to the same team. The Norwegian Dennis Hauger (CRG-LKE-Vega) is the first king of the season in the midget category, while his team-mate, the Italian Leonardo Marseglia, saw the victory slipping off his hands on the last lap on last Sunday. Gamoto Kart, the team based in Palermo, celebrated both its drivers: Hauger won the title thanks to his consistency, while Marseglia made himself conspicuous in the second round, when he was definitely the driver to beat. The Italian, who had kept the leadership of the category until the last lap, paid dearly the tussle occurred in the last metres of the race, when he lost both the podium of the Final and the first position in the final standing. It was then that Hauger took advantage of the battle between Marseglia and his opponents: he overtook them all, winning the Final and grabbing the victory in the WSK Champions Cup. Consistency was fundamental also for the Italian driver Luigi Coluccio (Tony Kart-LKE-Vega), the winner of the first round and the runnner-up of the Series despite a second weekend full of troubles. Excellent result also for the Italian Giuseppe Fusco (Lenzo-LKE-Vega), third ahead of Marseglia. Marzio Moretti (Tony Kart-LKE-Vega), who placed third last Sunday, grabbed the fifth place of the Series, ahead of the Italian Mattia Michelotto (Top Kart-Parilla-Vega).

NEXT APPOINTMENT: THE WSK GOLD CUP.
International kart racing is ready to move to Northern Italy, home of the Adria International Raceway. The facility is hosting the WSK Gold Cup on the weekend of 1st March. The single-round event will be the ideal ground for those drivers seeking payback after the results of the first series of the season. The Gold Cup is going to be another WSK success: many drivers have already entered the competition filling the online form available on wsk.it.