Kart-SM: Ekaterina Lüscher gets serious
SEASON START IN ITALY At the start of the 2020 Karting Championships in 7 Laghi, there was a fierce battle for victory in the five categories. Ekaterina Lüscher had a great start in the OK Juniors. This year, there will only be four rounds of the autobau Swiss Kart Championship. But they have their work cut out for them. This is what the [...]
This year, there will only be four rounds of the autobau Swiss Kart Championship. But they have their work cut out for them. This was demonstrated by the races last weekend at 7 Laghi near Pavia in Italy. There was no lack of excitement at the belated season opener.
Now the competition knows
Ekaterina Lüscher's performance was outstanding. She won all three races in her category (OK Junior). The 13-year-old from Kallern near Wohlen AG already announced her intention to compete for the SM title in the run-up to this year's season. Now her competitors in the OK Juniors know that she means business.
In none of the three heats in 7 Laghi did she let anything slip. In the final, she relegated last year's champion Elia Sperandio to second place by five seconds, and in the heats she showed Jérôme Huber and Dario Cabanelas the tailpipe in each case.
Despite her three victories, she was modest afterwards.
Ekaterina Lüscher: "There is not much to say. We were simply well prepared and gave our best as a team. That paid off in the end."
Triathlon for the youngest
Lüscher was not the only lady who made positive headlines at the season opener. Also the 10-year-old Chiara Bättig from Meggen LU showed strong performances in 7 Laghi in the Cat. Super Mini. In the two preliminary heats, she only just missed the podium in fourth place.
This was decided in all three heats by the trio Enea Frey, Tiziano Kuzhnini and Sergio Koch. Kuzhnini won the first heat, Frey the second and the final - but in both cases only by a razor-thin margin over Kuzhnini.
Full points for the defending champion
In the X30 Challenge Switzerland, the field with the most participants, everyone is chasing defending champion Savio Moccia in 2020. But the 18-year-old from Lyss didn't let that rattle him at the start.
This year, Moccia, who is competing as a privateer, had to give way to Italy's Valentino Baracco in all three runs. However, Moccia came in second and was the best Swiss skier, scoring the full number of points.
Behind him, fellow brand member Yoshindo Baumgartner established himself as the strongest pursuer. For Danny Buntschu, whom Moccia declared as the number 1 title opponent 7 Laghi ago, things did not go according to plan at the start. In the first heat he was disqualified for underweight. In the second heat he finished sixth, in the final seventh.
Three races, three winners
In the OK Senior category, a different pilot crossed the finish line first in each of the three heats. In the first preliminary heat, Nathan Neuhaus was ahead of Patrick Näscher. The 2018 champion was then the fastest in the second heat, this time closely followed by Miklas Born.
The latter then came up trumps in the final, winning ahead of Näscher and Mattia Banella, who finished third in each of the three heats.
Miklas Born: "I was unhappy with my set-up in warm-up and qualifying. So we changed everything. And that worked very well, even though Näscher briefly took the lead in the final."
Quadrangle in KZ2
The race results were also very close in the KZ2 shift karts. The top 4 were separated by barely two seconds in all three heats.
SM returnee Nicolas Rohrbasser was the man of the heats, with Italy's Paolo Castagnetti standing in front of him in the first heat. In the final, the 2017 Swiss champion finished fourth overall, with Castagnetti also taking the win (out of competition).
The fastest Swiss in the final was Marco Bellanca. In the sandwich of Bellanca and Rohrbasser, Théo Vaucher finished.
Returning rider André Reinhard, 2018 KZ2 champion, finished 3rd, 4th and 4th in the SM standings on his comeback, putting him one point behind Bellanca in the championship. Reinhard lacked experience on a track with a lot of rubber abrasion in the final, besides he had to fight with a broken rib the whole weekend.
Next round in Wohlen - but without spectators
It continues with the autobau Swiss Kart Championship on September 12 in Wohlen. Covid 19 measures will also apply there and will even have to be tightened compared to 7 Laghi.
It is clear that the races will take place under exclusion of the public and there is a minimum limit of escorts per pilot. The exact guidelines will be communicated in the next few days.
