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).

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.

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."

The acrbirel team fielded a team of four drivers. In fact it was the debut for the latest signing to the team of Ed Brand and he in turn was joined by Michael Simpson, Tom Thompson and Chris Thomas. Testing went well with the majority of the weekend being dry, Simpson made a best time of 46.25 and Brand 46.4 - both on old tyre so the expectation was high for the race. Tom Thompson suffered engine issues all weekend whilst Chris Thomas made improvements all looks in better shape for his debut in S1.

In the heats Simpson netted a 3rd from grid 20! and a win, whilst Brand captured a 5th from grid 23 and a 1st too. The acr Birel duo lined up on the front row. In to turn one both Birel drivers were conveniently pushed from behind and wide demoting them to 4th nd 5th. The race began to re establish themselves with Brand showing the initiative and passing his teammate Simpson before climbing back up to 2nd position. Simpson meanwhile was being harassed at all angles but as a true professional withstood the pressure and eased back to finish in 3rd place. Brand chased down the eventual winner Holland to cross the line just 0.8 tenths behind.

"I am delighted at our team's performance; unfortunately the race was lost for us on the first turn. It will be interesting to see if the Go pro camera's stop such incidents in the future. This was the first real run for our drivers in the dry so I am very pleased with the performance of the new Birel chassis. Now we have to focus for the S1 race here in 2 weeks, but from what I have seen from Michael and Ed this weekend its clear we have a fantastic partnership - it's a dream team! "commented team boss Andy Cox.

15TH WINTER CUP - LONATO, 19-21 FEBRUARY 2010

Exceptional double top ranking for Toman and Cesetti in SKF, positive 2nd place for Barrageig in KF2 and excellent performances in KF3 as well: a good season kickoff for Birel colours and Bmb

Birel pilots could have not done better at the 15th Winter Cup edition in Lonato, the international meeting for SKF, KF2 and KF3 classes, which opened the season last weekend. This well established early international circus competition, which is run by all KF classes top drivers, turned out to be even more interesting than usual, as it was the occasion for testing the recently homologated engines.

As already said, Birel team and BmB not only lived up to expectations, but even did better. In fact, despite the engines homologated by Bmb were at their official debut, leading competitors in all classes were tackled with equal mastery, starting from superb Toman and Cesetti ranking first and second in challenging SKF top class. The pilot from the Czech Republic was the champion, followed by his teammate on the finish line of an exciting race. Belgian driver De Brabander ranked 3rd in front of Ardigò and Kozlinski. Positive results for Birel also from Viganò, whose first day in top class earned him 9th position. KF2, the category in which BMB technicians and tuners play the leading role, was equally successful. The excellent collective results achieved by the pilots racing with BMB engines confirm such feature.

In detail, great attention for Spanish pilot Barrabeig, 2nd according to photo finish behind winner Heche.

Among the weekend's fastest, English pilot Lennox for Birel Motorsport. Unfortunately his Final went wrong due to a contact. And, contact once again spoilt the race for Sorensen (Birel Motorsport) and Waliko (KSB) in KF3.

Despite such incidents, the cadet class greatly benefited from the new BMB engines. For the record, it must be said that Tiihonen's race in KF3 was positive, with ranking very close to the top ten.

Carlo Boscolo, technical manager for BMB, highlights the positive outcome of the first competition of the season: "We were amazed by the results, mainly because the engineers we are collaborating with in the racing sector had not had much time for testing all development stages. This factor clearly shows how our "basic" engine was extremely well conceived. As a matter of fact, this is one of the objectives we set at the beginning: to provide our customers with a really competitive "standard" engine.

A quality that will be decisive for achieving good performances in the single national championships. The work of each tuner should stand as "added value" for a product which is already very competitive.

And, apart from Toman's victory, and from the one that could have been achieved in KF2, and besides the fact that in such category collective performance was generally good, what mainly encourages me is the opportunity to substantially face the new competitive season relying on the same potential the leading competitors can count on.

The first objective has been achieved and we now want to follow this path, aware that competition will be fierce and tough."

Also Birel racing division manager Mariano De Faveri focuses on the positive points of last weekend: " Concerning frames, we know we can now deliver highly competitive technical material in all classes: the innovations introduced on 2010 range have proven effective. We were always fast, with both the official and external teams.

With regards to BMB engines, my opinion is that they could soon become a new landmark in KF2. In fact, in the light of the data gathered during winter testing and this first race, we now believe our potential is absolutely remarkable.

The performances achieved by Barrabeig, Lennox and Basz can only confirm such estimation once again. Also SKF success tells us how well this engine was designed, and I think that the KF3 version will soon be at the top. We have to work hard this year to face the new challenge involving the development of both frame and engine. And no doubt it will also be very stimulating. Let's just hope we run races as successful as this one on loads of other occasions

Current Super One Junior Max Champion Ed brand has changed his original plans to race Senior Max with CRG and instead has sensationally joined the acrbirel team for the 2010 season !

"I am delighted to have signed Ed, he is a fantastic addtion to our team line up. He will make a very strong pairing with Michael Simpson in the Senior Max class. To have two current Super One champions in our team for 2010 is awesome. Its Ed's first year in seniors but from what I have seen in some tests he is without doubt senior championship winning material too!

Its important in any team to have strength and depth. With our senior team line up now completed with Ed Brand I think Birel's return to the Super One Rotax championship will help us reach our goals" said team boss Andy Cox

Like new teammate Simpson, Brand will use the new 2010 Birel RY30 S2 Motorsport chassis but will continue his successful partnership with his engine builder (HRS)Nigel Horner who is now solely concentrating on the preparation of engines.

Brand will shake down the Birel for the first time this saturday at PFI before more tests ahead of his first race at PF on March 7th.

Brand will also make use of a new collaboration between acrbirel and the Official Birel team for the Euro Max series Kalman Motorsport (KMS) run by Peter Kalman. The collaboration bewteen ACR and KMS will see awning and team support available for any UK Birel owner who wishes to paricipate in any round of the Euro max series which kicks off his Euro at Salbris next month.

The 2010 Senior acrbirel team line up : Current S1 Champion Michael Simpson; Current J S1 Champion Edward Brand, former 177 S1 Champion Steve Cobb and Birel Academy graduates TomThompson and Chris Thomas.

For more information on the acrbirel team or information on the new 2010 Birel RY30 S2 chassis call acr : 01527 889595 or visit www.acrbirel.com

The acrbirel team fielded three drivers at the February club meeting at PFI, overall the entry was nearly 270 which is a welcome and positive sight for the start of 2010 season. The Rotax max grid was made up of 30 drivers and was a quality field. Michael Simpson sat this test and race out as he prepared to fly to Spain for the Euro Max race this week with Birel.

Conditions were horrible , very damp and a track that was very slippery and refused to dry. In Rotax 177 Steve Cobb tried many different settings to find the balance he liked but had more trouble with his engine before he found his real turn of speed. Two seconds in the heats placed him grid 2 behind Milan Mach. The final saw a dry line and slicks were now required, at the start Cobb shot into the lead before later on a slight mistake saw him drop to 4th. On the last lap Cobby was awesome and somehow was challenging for the lead into turn 3, but alas his rear wheel touched a wet patch and sent him off into the grass, a win lost but a promising 2010 debut.

In senior max new acrbirel drivers Tom Thompson and Chris Thomas did not disapoint. Both were on the pace in testing, in the heats Thomas recorded a respectable 7th place and set him a top ten grid slot for the final, unfortunately an optimistic Tonykart driver who seemed not to be fitted with functioning brakes! helped Thomas off the PF circuit and denied him a sure top 10 finish. Teamate Thompson had a real high and then a real low of a day. In heat 2 Thompson drove a flawless race pulling away from the experienced works CRG driver Ed brand to take his first win in devastating and confidence boosting style. In the final Thompson made a great start and was in 6th before being pushed wide and off. After re starting stone last Tom recovered well to 13th place and set the 5th fastest time despite being in traffic!

In SKF Johnny Walker (AMT Racing) tried the Birel RY30 S2 for the first time, and was mightly impressed. In the final Walker made a great start and lead for four laps before being successfully challenged by Briitsh Champion Mark Litchfield. Litchfield eased surely away to victory but Walker was destined for a secure 2nd place before his chain snapped with 2 laps to go ! Walker will continue to test the Birel this week.

So as you can see whatever the weather or track condition isn't time you chose the Birel RY30 S2 ?

ACR are pleased to annouce a new Scottish agent for Birel karts and accessories : L M Motorsport

LM Motorsport is owned by Lenny Messenger who has many years experience in karting both as a driver and a mechanic. In 2007 Messenger himself took the Formula Blue WSKC Championship. Based near the famous Larkhall circuit LM Motorsport now runs a team for Rotax Max and Formula Blue catagories.

Over the years Lenny has formed close ties with one of the famous karting families in Scotland, the DiResta's. Recently announced Force India F1 driver Paul DiResta and his brother Stefan (Rotax Max) and their father Louis have passed on invaluable advice and support to Lenny in the setup of LM Motorsport.

LM Motorsport will provide a professional, approachable and competitive service to drivers and will go the extra mile to satisfy drivers requests. Services available are kart storage,kart prepartion and race day awning and driver coaching facilities. The team will of course use Birel chassis and LM Motorsport will benifit with full support from UK Birel Importer ACR on technical matters and product development. L M Motorsport will stock all Birel chassis and spare parts to give thier clients a 100% support package.

"I am delighted to appoint LM Motorsport as our new Scottish agents, Lenny has the right attitude and his professionalism and attention to detail is exactly what we need to push the Birel brand in Scotland - he will do a great job ! " commented Birel UK boss Andy Cox.

L M Motorsport have a demo kart of the new Birel RY30 S2, to book a test drive or enquire about the services on offer from LM Motorsport contact them at lmmotorsport@btinternet.com or call Lenny on 07971 605558.