The third and last round of the European Superkart Championship was held at the track Assen in Holland in the days  5 – 7th of August 2011. It was a part of a rich programme of the Gamma Racing Day which visited nearly 100.000 spectators ! The atmosphere on the track was really fantastic ! 

The course of the whole race was characterized by really high speed in both qualifacations as well as in the final heats. Our MS Superkart Racing Team was represented by both factory pilots  – the Czech Adam Kout, who was after the first two EC round on position 6, and Marko Laine from Finland. Both of them starting of course with MS KART / VM. In total there  were 40 pilots on the starting grid, 9 of them on MS KART chassis. For this event we have prepared a new VM engine for Adam with new cylinders and crank shaft which showed a very good performance during the first tests on the dino (almost 4 HP more then the current engine). Unfortunatelly, even the new engine became the source of numerous problems and we did not manage to make a correct tuning. We were constantly struggled with high detonations. Adam finished neither  the free practice nor the first qualification. In  the second qualification we had to change the engine for the one we have used before this event and finally Adam managed to set the 5th fastest lap time. Unfortunatelly, the times run by all the drivers  in the second qualification were on average by 4,5 sec slower then in the first qualification 1 day before so in total Adam´s 5th time on that day was the 12th fastest lap time in total. Anyway, after all the problems we were fighting with before we were satisfied with that result. Marko Laine took the 23th position. From all the MS KART drivers the fastest one in the time practice was Peter Elkmann (MS Kart/ DEA) on place 10. Though, he was not even satisfied with this result because his ambitions in the last EC round pointed up to the highest places. However, he managed to get there: with an excellent drive from position 10 on the start he went forward up to the third place and reached the podium in the first final ! Adam had to retire the first race 4 laps to go from position 10 because of an engine failure, Marko Laine finished on place 19. Mark Verhaar (MS Kart / VM) from the Dutch race team of Jan Cramer passed the finish line on place 24. 

Results of RACE 1 >>

The second race was in the sign of a battle for getting  the European Champion title between  Emmanuel Vinnuales from France, who was the winner of race 1, and the Englishman Gavin Bennett. The 2011 European Champion became Vinnuales, who by a tactical drive overtook Bennett at the end of the race and got the victory. A great drive was shown by Peter Elkmann again but unfortunatelly Peter had to retire from 3rd position because of DEA engine troubles which he fighted with for the whole course of the champiobnship.  

Before the start of race 2 it rained a little so the track was not completely dry in the first two laps. Adam Kout took advantage of the track condition and managed to get from place 12 up to position 6 during the first lap. However, after the problems in race 1 his engine did not provide the maximum performance anymore and Adam went back step by step to place 11. It was a big pity because in the last race every point would have been useful for the final championship standings. Finally, 5 points from this round made together with five previous rounds 40 points and 9th place in the total ranking of the 2011 European Championship. Peter Elkmann finished in front of Adam on position 8 with 41 points. 

On place 13 and 14 of race 2 there finished two Dutch drivers of Jan Cramer´s team: Romano de Ruit and Priscilla Speelmann, both on MS KART/VM. Marko Laine got the 18. position and Thomas Urhofer from Austria on MS made place 21.

Results of RACE 2 >>

FINAL  STANDINGS >>

In this season our MS Superkart Racing Team will partecipate in one more event which will be the ISS on the 22nd October also in Assen. Both Adam and Marko will fight for a good ranking in the final standings of this championship. Marko is currently on place 2 and Adam on place 4. 

Now, we are all in suspense of the new VM engine comming out in 2012 which should help us to make our Superkarts competitive at the highest level of the European Championship. 

Milan Simak

Chief of the  MS Superkart Racing Team