10th WINTER CUP

BIREL COLOURS IN THE FOREGROUND

IN THE CLASSIC RACE OF LONATO, BIREL DRIVERS MADE IT TO THE PODIUM IN ALL CLASSES.

The 10th Winter Cup in Lonato ended with excellent results for the Birel colours. In the Lombard race, a regular appointment starting off the season for all the top teams, Birel drivers were in the foreground in all classes. The Spanish duo made up of Merhi and Costa (Birel-Iame-Vega), first and second respectively, confirm Birel’s domain in the Ica/Junior class. Cunill held third on the podium, while when it comes to Birel, the highlight goes to the performances of the Pic brothers, who constantly ranked among the leaders throughout the entire weekend, and of Frjns and Munne. Unfortunately, Peter Antonfeld had an unlucky start with the Motorsporti team: he was penalised by a light influenza, which stopped him from entering the finals. Nicholas Risitano was expected to be the attraction in the 100 Ica, but after having performed very well throughout the qualifiers and preliminary heats, the Latium-born driver ran into a contact at the start of the final. After running the first lap at the rear, he caught up steadily throughout the race and recorded the fastest lap. He crossed the finishing line fourteenth. In any case, Risitano has shown a considerable potential and is very likely to run a season at the lead. The same holds true for Englishmen Jordan Oakes and Jamie Croxford (Birel –Tm-Vega), who finished the finals 3rd and 4th. The victory, instead, went to Italian Brenna who was flagged ahead of German Wittmann. In Formula A, Englishmen Catt and Litchfield (Birel-Tm-Bridgestone) performed at excellent levels throughout the weekend. Unfortunately, they were both stopped during the final race by technical problems. Mainly, Gary Catt had launched an attack on race leader Ben Hanley and seemed very likely to be the winner. The victory went to Hanley, instead, who was the protagonist of the final sprint with Davide Forè: during the last lap, the two drivers striving for victory touched each other and the Italian was given a 10-second penalty and relegated to 4th place. Thus, Marco Ardirò won second, while Sauro Cesetti took the third step on the podium. The Marches-born driver was satisfied with his performance on all accounts, since he had the opportunity to test several technical solutions before the international races. The appointment with the big names is for the “Margutti Trophy” in Parma scheduled on March 3rd-6th.

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