30.09.2014 10:23

Edīte Garjāne; 25^th of  September 2014

The ProKart racing season has come to an end with an exciting Retrokart stage, taking place on the 20^th of September at Madona go kart track. With more than 150 drivers including veterans and mechanics as well as breaking track lap time record and other exciting moments, Retrokart was not least exciting than the rest of the season.

A warm welcome on the DD2 track was given to the new Latvian champion in autocross, Beate Klipa who wasn’t as lucky in the go kart track as she’s been in her specialty, autocross, in the last season and came 14^th in the final. Martins Lapins stole the show in DD2 with getting in front of everyone else very early in the track. Henrijs Grube came in the second, but Andis Feldmanis in the third position.

After a tight race among nine drivers in the DD2 Master class semi-finals and competing shoulder by shoulder with Ilja Aloskins, Juris Zalitis managed to save his leading position in the final, leaving the second and third position for Aloskins and Armand Kancs, respectively.

Tense competing was also witnessed during the Junior class race - after fighting Titas Jurkonis, Veronika Golavcova’s kart turned sideways during the second lap in the finals. This made her leave the leading position to Jurkonis and the second and third postition for Kert William Reinaste and Madars Dirins, respectively.

A great performance was made by Valdis Brutans in the Open 100 class semi-finals. Brutans is also one of the founders of ProKart and proved himself being not just an excellent organiser of the races, but also a great driver, winning the race and leaving Rihards Macanovskis and Mindaugas Kestenis in the second and third positions, respectively.

A pleasant surprise occured during the KZ2 race, when Martins Lapins broke the track’s lap time record. Previously the record of 43,2 seconds belonged to Lithuanian driver Paulius Paskevicius, but it’s now raised to 42,75

Lapins earned the first position, leaving Rytis Gumauskas in second and Sander Tamm in the third position. ‘sadly for his fans, Driver Raivo Luhse withdrew from the race while being in the second position.

After a tight run in the KZ2 Master class race, where jevgenijs Rudans and Eriks Garsparovics competed for the first position, Gasparovics turned out to be the leader at the end, leaving Rudans and Vitalijs Sakalovs behind.

A crash happened already in the first turn during the MicroMax class race, but the driver,Maksims Kubarevs, quickly took a hold of the situation and even got into the third position at the end of semi finals and finished first in the finals. Matiss Malinovskis came second, leaving Mikus Jesevics in the third position.

The Minimax class drivers were faced with a dramatic race when the son of Estonian driver Raul Jeets did a somersault with his kart and the red flags were waved. However, after the competition resumed, the first three positions were taken by Matvejs Makusins, Kristians Rihters and Vikentsi Toumanov, respectively.

As usual, Open 125 experienced the most drivers competing and an extremely close race was taking place in both semi finals and  in the final. At the end, Dainis Safonovs finished the track first even though he hadn’t participated in races for about four years. Kristaps Gasparovics and Haralds Garkaklis came in the second and third positions, respectively.

The leading positions in N125 class were taken by Aloyzas Cekavicius, Imants Fadejevs and Olegs Vlasovs. But the first three positions in the Retro class finals went to Tiit Ruutli, Arnis Seidlers and Oskars Zeila.

Unbeatable in the Raket class semi-finals proved to be Kristers Linde, but everything changed in the finals where the leading position was taken by Kardo Tamm, leaving Valters Iecelnieks and Karlis Grava in the second and third positions, respectively.

In the TK class fininals Antons Pletnovs came first, leaving Andrejs Masulis in the second position and Helena Eliza Zolmane behind. A positive increase in the number of female drivers was seen in the TK Junior class where Jelizaveta Aleksejeva came first, leaving Ralfs Kalnins second and Luize Cera in the third position.

The final stage of this season was made more special by welcoming the veterans and technicians to compete as well. The first three positions in the Mechanics Rental class went to Raivis Meilands, Jurijs Sestakovs and Krisjanis Grava, respectively. The leaders in the Mechanics Sport class were Otto Birznieks, Daivis Ivanovs and Maris Akmens, paying extra bit of attention towars Otto Birznieks performance as the driver went on the track with a double-engine kart.

The leading positions in the Veteran class went to Janis Grava (1^st position), Andris Stals (2^nd position) and Alfs Mednis (3^rd position) but the first position in the Veteran Sport class went to Dairis Viksne, leaving Agris Feldmanis and Andris Paipa behind. In total, Retrokart stage saw 41 mechanics and veterans competing last Saturday.

The final awards ceremony for the season will be held at the Godvil Concert Hall in Riga on the 6th of December at 6pm. There will be no fee to attend the ceremony although it’ll cost 20eur to book a table. Keep updated with all the news regarding the ceremony on the ProKart website and the Facebook page.

ProKart says many thanks to all the drivers, judges, referees, organisers, sponsors and everyone who helped throughout the season as well as kept calm and patient when things went not exactly as wished at times. ProKart hopes to see you at the awards ceremony and on the track after the well-deserved season break.

We also remind that it is still possible to apply for the race in Samalininkai on 11-12 of October.