Ed Brand became the third driver in as many races to stand on the top step of the Euro Max Challenge podium after winning last weekend's (17/18 July) latest round at the appropriately named Speedworld circuit at Bruck, near Vienna.

Racing with the Hungarian Kalman Motorsport team, Ed began his weekend brightly by recording the 3rd-fastest lap (out of 72 competitors) during timed qualifying. From there, he won two of his three preliminary heats and was 2nd in the other - giving him pole position for the first of Sunday's two finals.

In a tense race, the Freem UK-backed driver was able to maintain the upper hand over Holland's Joey Van Splunteren, beating him to the chequered flag by barely two tenths of a second.

In the main final, he again led the field away from P1 on the grid, and having shaken off the early attentions of Van Splunteren, was able to pull away and seal a historic double - crossing the finishing line with daylight between him and his pursuers.

"I'm delighted to win in my first year in the senior category," Ed said. "The level of opposition is very high and the racing incredibly hard, especially in the hot conditions (it was 40 degrees in the shade).

It is also testimony to the hard work of my team that they could give me a kart capable of winning after my crash on Thursday. During testing something went wrong and the kart went straight over the gravel trap and smashed into the safety barrier. I went in so hard I actually broke the barrier. I also scratched the paintwork on my new Arai crash helmet, so I was a bit miffed."

With just one round remaining, Ed is hoping to be able to finish inside the top three of the championship and thus qualify for November's World Finals, held this year at Muro Leccese in Puglia, Southern Italy.

In the interim, with barely any time to savour his Austrian success, he will now travel up to Lanarkshire to prepare for this weekend's (24/25 July) fifth round of the British Super 1 championship. The following week he will contest the annual Kart Masters event, often referred to as the 'British Grand Prix of Karting' (30 July/1 August).

A senior class : Kart Grand Prix

Unsealed engine

30HP

Clutch : TAG

A CIK grippy tyre

Any make /brand kart chassis - rear brake only.

Faster than a max

Tune or rebuild your engine yourself 10 hours between top end service,20 - 25 hrs for bottom end.

Rev limited to 16000 rpm  NO POWER VALVE !!! - Hoorah!

Prizes for club and S1 race meetings

Coming to a track near you in 2011

Watch this space and keep checking www.kartgrandprix.co.uk to go LIVE !

Subject to MSA approval

EUROPEAN SERIES IS OVER. COUNTDOWN FOR THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

A positive weekend for Birel team, especially in KF3 and KF2, as well as a promising prelude to the upcoming World Series.

First seasonal titles in the spotlight at WSK Euro Series 5th and final appointment in Sarno. SKF podium 1st step was conquered by Convers, Italian driver D'Agosto triumphed in KF2 and Verstappen was KF3 champion. KZ classes were dominated by De Conto (KZ2) and Thonon (KZ1). A busy grand weekend for Birel team, involving a lot of hard work and packed with spectacular results. As the single titles were out of the reach from the beginning, Birel Motorsport technicians focused on development, privileging various set-up typologies as well as innovation testing. Both Cesetti and Toman greatly contributed to the job in Super KF, the best category experimentation wise, building up confidence for the imminent World Series opening.  Cesetti ended his weekend in 6th place in Pre-Final and in 8th in the Final. Toman, who had to quit both races, was not as lucky. The same can be said about Viganò: after his relegation in 11th in Pre-Final, due to a problem, he eventually had to drop out of the Final. Convers finished first in Pre-Final, while the Final was won by De Vries; the French driver was awarded the title.  General classification wise, Cesetti has brilliantly finished Bmb engines first championship in 5th place and Toman is now 12th   absolute. Sorensen’s KF3 weekend went much better. He started off  superbly in  pole position  and then ran  brilliant legs   gaining 2nd  position on  starting grid for the Pre Final,  in which he ranked 5th  among the best behind winner Orudzhev. He was once again close to the lead in the Final (won by Spinelli) securing 7th position. Sorensen is hence championship 12th absolute and will definitely compete as a top driver in the next races. Verstappen was awarded the KF3 continental title. Birel colours and RK at their best also in KF2. Excellent Pre-Final 3rd place for Lennox, shadowed by Basz (RK), behind Lock and D'Agosto (the title winner).  Bad luck only for Barrabeig: he had to retire due to breakdown.  Yet the Final was exceptional, with a photo finish 2nd for Basz preceding Lock and 4th   for Lennox. Barrabeig raced brilliantly, regaining positions all the way up to 8th. Basz is now championship number 4, Barrabeig is 10th and Lennox 12th, with D'Agosto as title winner. Finally, Fuchs was once again great in KZ2, with 5th   in Pre-Finale e 3rd place on the Final podium.  Game over for continental series but it will soon be World Series time with the first appointment in Portimao, Portugal.

Update on Wednesday, June 9, 2010 at 7:47AM by Tim Mayneord

Considering this was the debut Championship for the new Birel BMB engines the results obtained are very encouraging. The World Series could be the chance for Birel to really stake their claim to more silverware !

 

There was much anticipation at acr running up to round 1 of the 2010 Rotax S1 at PFI at the weekend. It was a return to the catagory for the acrbirel team after an abcence of 4 years. By the end of the weekend acr and Birel were definately back on the map in Rotax.

acrbirel fielded 6 senior max drivers. Reigning S1 Senior champion Michael Simpson, 2009 Junior Champion Edward Brand, Tom Thompson, Chris Thomas , Michael Taylor and in 177 Steve Cobb.

In Rotax 177 Steve Cobb was on excellent form qualifying on pole and winning the first heat, 2nd in the second heat saw him start the final from pole. Two close starts saw Cobb demoted both times and both times he recovered to 2nd place. Cobb however was satisfied on his performance on his return to the S1 series and looks like a firm favourite for later in the season.

In Senior Max qualifying was a mixed bag, Simpson and Taylor were caught on slicks in the rain whilst Thomas qualified 7th and Brand 5th and Thompson 24th . In the heats Brand took a victory and a 3rd. Simpson started 21st in each heat, in heat 1 he was in second before touching a kerb and breaking his chain and in the second heat coming through to win !

Thomas was unlucky to be in the repacharge due to be collected someone elses accident damaging his kart which halted his meeting. For Final 1 it was Brand on pole postion, Taylor was on grid 10 and Simpson was back on 25th, Thompson started 24th. Brand led away and built up a good lead driving very maturely, Simpson had an awesome drive from 25th to 2nd to follow Brand home in a Birel 1 2.

In Final 2 both Birels were pushed wide in turn 1 with Simpson slipping down to 7th and Brand to 4th. Brand recovered well and re took the lead and started to build a cushion. Simpson picked off the places and began to close on Brand before a clinical move into turn 3 saw him take the lead. The Birel duo then worked together and eased away from 3rd place man Dan Holland (Gillard). Simpson kept it covered and led Brand across the line for another historic Birel 1 2 with both acrbirel drivers now heading the overall Championship !

" What a race !, its very difficult to achieve a result like that !" commented team boss Andy Cox " Michael and Edward have both driven fantastically all weekend, more importantly they, along with our other drivers have all worked well as a team and have delivered a superb result for us. I'm glad they took a win a piece and I'm sure that they will have further battles together for wins later on in the season ! I would like to thank our drivers, Birel for making such a great kart, our engine suppliers Steve Ogden and Nigel Horner of HRS engines and all our mechanics. I would also like to give a special thankyou to Simpson Senior who's has really worked hard for acr in the last few weeks."