MEDIA INFORMATION
CHAMPIONS OF THE FUTURE EURO SERIES 2022, Round 4
FRANCIACORTA KARTING TRACK, ITALY – June 23rd-26th, 2022
For immediate release
Monday, June 27th, 2022
EMIRATI KARTING ROOKIE KEANU AL-AZHARI GAINS VITAL EXPERIENCE
AFTER STRONG SHOWING IN ITALIAN EURO SERIES FINALE
CASTREZZATO (ITALY): Young Emirati kart racer Keanu Al-Azhari made it through to the final after several impressive qualifying heat results and finished 27th of the 36 qualifiers in the OK Senior race at the Franciacorta circuit in Italy on Sunday.
The Tony Kart Racing rookie teamed up with Ruiqi Lui, Luigi Coluccio, James Egozi, Tuukka Taponen, Juho Valtonen, Joseph Turney, Jakub Rasjki and Oscar Wurz for the final round of the Champions of the Future Euro 2022 Series.
Against some of the fastest young racers in the world and a number of budding Formula One stars of the future, Al-Azhari climbed four places during the final to round off another successful weekend during his first season in the OK Senior category.
Victory in the final fell to Latvia’s Tomas Stolcermanis, with Italy’s Maksim Orlov and Jamaica’s Alex Powell rounding off the podium places. Turney claimed victory in the championship from Tony Kart team-mate Coluccio.
Keanu said: “What a great weekend this has been as preparation for the FIA European Championship on July 7th-10th. Initially, I needed some sessions to get back up to speed as I’ve been out of the kart over a month due to school exams in Dubai. So, I qualified a low P48. Then I really enjoyed the races in the official Tony Kart race team to climb to P27. I’m really looking forward to racing here in two weeks.”
After coming out of a competitive qualifying practice session in confident mood on Friday morning, Al-Azhari finished a fine sixth out of a 19-strong field in qualifying heat E/F, with team-mate Coluccio snatching the heat win. Technical issues and a five-second time penalty ruined a good run in the second of the qualifying heats, where the win fell to Turney in another of the Tony Kart Racing Team machines.
Al-Azhari was back in action on Saturday morning in a warm-up stint and then finished eighth in his third qualifying heat, with the victory again falling to a Tony Kart team racer, Tuukka Taponen.
The young Emirati was classified in 11th place in his fourth qualifying heat on Saturday and seventh out of 19 runners in the fifth of the sessions, Al-Azhari finishing ahead of two of his team-mates in the heat. With all the heats added together on a cumulative points-scoring basis, Al-Azhari slotted into 27th of the 59th runners (49pts), with the outright lead going to Turney from Freddie Slater, Taponen and Coluccio.
Sunday morning saw all the competitors take part in a warm-up for the Super Heat and Alex Powell went fastest, with Al-Azhari classified 19th in the 30-kart field.
Stolcermanis claimed the win in Super Heat 1, with Turney and Taponen rounding off the podium places. Al-Azhari finished 21st. Kean Nakamura-Berta claimed the win in Super Heat 2.
With the results of the two Super Heats combined, victory fell to Turney from Slater and Taponen, with Al-Azhari finishing 31st of the 59 runners and doing enough to make it into the 36-kart final.
Ends
For further information:
Firas Nimri, Tel: + 962 7 7728 2000, E-mail: firas@nimri.com.
www.tonykart.com
https://www.championskarting.com/