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We’ve been a huge fan of Tom ever since I made the trip down to the Dubai Kartdrome to watch the little man pop in some fast laps….Tom has recently been hitting the European Circuit and thanks to Mike (his Pops) we have a great insight into what he is up to…So over to Mike!Last weekend my son 11 year old Tom and I travelled to Italy to compete in the 2009 Bridgestone Cup Final held at the South Garda Karting Track.Tom has previously tested at this track but this would be his first race on the circuit competing against 30 other drivers from Europe, Poland and Canada.Click pics to read on!
We arrived on Thursday morning at the BRM factory to have the kart setup for Tom and by lunch time we were at the track ready for testing. Around 15 drivers in the Mini ROK class were also testing. Tom was fast from the start posting consistent top 3 times.
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Friday testing saw the arrival of even more drivers with the local boys starting to turn up, Tom still managed to stay in the top 5 times despite some very quick local lads, we spent the day trying different engines and gearing setup.
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Saturday was the first big day with free practice in the morning and official timed qualifying in the afternoon. Our times seemed to drop off in the morning practice, but Tom pulled out all the stops to qualify 14th with a lap time of 50.446s
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Tom lined up 14th on the grid for the 12 lap pre final on Sunday, mini karts in Italy do a standing start rather than the normal rolling start we do in Dubai. Tom nailed the start of the pre final gaining 5 places before the first corner, unfortunately he had to give up a few places to get back onto the rubber line and off the marbles. Over the next nail-biting 12 laps he worked threw the field to finish in 8th position.
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On the 15 and final lap Tom nailed the start getting upto 5th position, a small mistake on turn three let four drivers threw dropping him back to 9th on the first lap. Tom ran with the front pack for most of the race finishing in 8th position. A great result against some of the best European drivers on there home track.
We left the track shortly after the final to drive back to Milan for the flight to Dubai, at the airport we got a call from the team telling us Tom had been promoted to 7th position after the winner was found to have an illegal engine!
