Kiwi karter Marcus Armstrong proved quick on debut in the KZ2 class at the season-opening Champions Cup kart event in Italy over the weekend.
The 15-year-old from Christchurch qualified his works Tony Kart fourth and had a 12-9-8-11 run through the heats to start the Pre-Final from P6 in the grid.
Unfortunately a clash on the first lap put him out of that race, and saw him classified 30th, meaning he would have to start the Final from that position.
In that race he made it back up to 17th place and was realistic about the weekend’s racing, held in cold, changeable conditions with rain.
“Despite our bad starting grid for the Final we wouldn’t have been able to challenge for a podium with the speed we had in the rain, ” he said. “This is something that I’ll have to work on before the Winter Cup.
“Overall, though, I’m happy, as our speed in the dry was up with the best and we learned a lot for the future.”
Armstrong will this year contest the Italy-based WSK Super Master series and Cup meetings from this month to October, the three-round CIK-FIA European Championships between April and July and the single round CIK-FIA World KZ Championship meeting (in New Zealand) in September.
His next meeting is the Winter Cup one at the South Garda circuit at Lonato in Italy over the February 20-21 weekend.
