Barbados’ kart driver Zane Maloney recovered from ninth position and drove away with the honours in the OK final of the WSK Super Master Series at La Conca in Italy last Sunday.
Driving the VortexBridgestone FA Kart, he stormed into third position behind Denmark’s Nicklas Nielsen, in a Vortex/Tony Kart, and Briton Jonny Edgar, at the wheel of an ExpritTM, to grab his first major victory since being promoted to the senior class.
Maloney emerged victorious in the three-way fight leading Edgar, before the third place was eventually taken by the Spanish driver Pedro Hiltbrand in a CRGTM Kart in a sprint to the finish line.
Nielsen was the favourite and had started well, opening a gap between him and the group of Edgar, Pedro Hiltbrand and Luigi Coluccio. However, the Italian crashed in the first lap and he was forced to retire.
The race then got calm, and the action resumed with four laps to go as Maloney attacked Edgar. The Barbadian driver not only surprised Edgar but also the crowd by overtaking his rival with two wheels in the air.
Finally, in the last two laps of the race, Maloney overtook Nielsen, who lost another place to Edgar and the Danish driver went off track and lost all the grip in his tyres and was overtaken by Hiltbrand and Noah to the final fifth position.
The Spanish drivers had their difficulties before Kilian Meyer and Genís Civico finished inside the top ten. Tony Kart’s David Vidales was 14th, with Carles Martínez and Javier Sagrera finishing 20th and 26th, respectively.
The victory promoted Maloney to the fourth place in the classification, while the German Hannes Janker (KR-Parilla) kept the lead, thanks to his seventh place finish in the final.
The next round will be held in Sarno, near Napoli, in two weeks’ time. (TT)
