After a very difficult month of May we took the time to reset our perspective. The week after the race in Kerpen we built a new chassis from the ground up and started to train immediately in Mariembourg. Countless hours of tweaking, testing and training over the next weeks to master the setup. Yet on Sunday before the race it looked like we would have to abandon it. During outdoor activities with the yought movement, Lukas made a hard fall resulting in intense muscle stress and a stiff neck. Over the course of the next days we tried to support his recovery as much as possible together with the support from Siel Lareu and Velghe-Raes.

With some doubt and painkillers we started training on Wednesday and Thursday – stint per stint, taking rest in between. Despite the intense pain the lap times were beyond anything we had seen before proving that both Lukas and the setup were ready for the race on Saturday.

During qualifying on Saturday we managed to position Lukas at the front of the pack with only one opponent in front of him. Once he was able to overtake he started to lead the pack improving pace lap by lap. The last lap being the fastest of all which resulted in the pole position being awarded by 0.1 seconds over Bruce Chirino and Liewe Lathouwers who took P2 and P3. We’re back fighting with the front runners!

Heat 1 was a different experience. The level of driving was not up to the standards of what we are used to from Lukas. Too wide at turn 2, too fast into the last right hander. The rest of the pack could quickly catch up and Bruce Chirino took over the lead. On top of that we received a 3 second penalty for leaving the corridor too early during the start – which, after seeing the videos on Monday should have been contested by us. End result: P5.

In heat 2 we showed again solid pace and driving performance. We managed to fight our way up to P3 driving with Milan De Ruit and Bruce Chirino towards the finish line. Due to a penalty for Milan (causing a collision) we were afterwards promoted to P2. The final was an exceptional fight between 3 very skillful drivers with Bruce Chirino leading followed by Milan De Ruit and Lukas. Super happy with the podium after all the hard work and difficult stretch towards the race.

Results summary

Qualifying Practice: P1
Heat 1: P5
Heat 2: P2
Final: P3

Thanks to our team CRG Belgium for spending countless hours supporting us with top material and expertise! CRG for the fantastic Mini Black Mirror and Precision for the amazing kart chains. Shout out to all my sponsors who always continue to believe in our story even when we got a small setback: Joris Buyse, LAMAC Machinery, Carwash De Singel, FiftyFive.