Eight hours of racing fun in the marvellous surround of Jesolo track, teams from 4 to 8 drivers... Don't delay your registration thought the contact us schedule!!!

1°	12 hours race	06/05/2007	Circuito cittadino	Cremona (CR)
2°	8 hours race	17/06/2007	Pista Azzurra	Jesolo (VE)
3°	8 hours race	21/10/2007	Pista Azzurra	Jesolo (VE)

The first round of 2007 Rotax Mojo Max Euro Challenge was held last weekend in Salbris, France. Always variable French spring weather greeted the international field of 180 drivers presenting 30 nationalities from 5 continents with repeating, ice-cold rain showers from the Wednesday’s free practice to the Sunday finals. Parolin Racing entered the race with 4 drivers, all in the toughest Rotax Senior Max category: Belgians Michael Cool and Jonathan Knievels, the Finn Mikko Laine and the Russian Mikhail Mitrokhin; the 3rd place finisher in 2006 world finals.

The cold weather and chancing weather conditions made the free practice setup work even more difficult than usual; it was not only the drivers shivering but the poor mechanics as well! Nonetheless came the Friday qualifying sessions, where the PRK drivers all posted fairly good performances: Michael Cool qualifying23rd, Mikko Laine 28th, Mikhail Mitrokhin 32nd and Jonathan Knievels 40th.

The field was divided in 4 groups which meant 3 qualifying heats for each driver. As usual the first race of the season + rain + only 34 would qualify for the finals = lots of crashing and “controversial” moments! 3 of us made it through to the final stages: Cool 12th, Laine 25th and Knievels 31st through the second chance heat. Mitrokhin was betrayed by his engine, thus having no chance going through.

The pre-final and the final itself were not to be huge successes for the PRK. Laine had a superb start both races, but then slipped slightly backwards to earn 19th and 23rd place finishes. However respectable performance not having driven, orto mention raced, a kart since last August. Cool had too many rally cross moments in the pre-final in order to finish higher than 15th, despite posting very fast lap times. Knievels wasn’t any luckier finishing the race far behind the rest of the field. In the grand final Cool was pushed off the track in the first corner, but managed to continue to finish 27th. Laine had a another competitive showing, which resulted in 23rd place finish. Knievels came home in 31st.

Next round will be held in May in Germany… all it takes is little more testing and preparation and our guys will all fight day in day out for top-10 finishes!

The opening round of the 2007 WSK (which stands for “Winning Series Karting) was held last weekend in Sarno, southern Italy, near Naples. One of the longest tracks in the international calendar (1690m), 4 straight days of sunshine combined with total of + 150 driver international field offered high quality, thrilling racing in each of 4 categories: KF1, KF2, KF3 and KZ2. The upcoming opener of the 2007 Italian Open Masters, held 24-25 March on the same track, helped to attract lots of big caliber names, especially in KZ2, to use the race as a warm-up, not to mention that the World Cup will take place in September on the very same track.

Parolin Motorsport had drivers in each category:Finn Aki Rask and Italian Alessandro Piccolo in KF1, Belgian Michael Cool and Italian Mario Schettino in KF2, Italian Simone Favaro in KF3 and Italians Federico D’Amico and Antonio De Matteis in KZ2.

To tell the best news first, we start from KF3, the “ex- ICAJ”. The probably least expected driver to deliver the most stunning performances of the weekend and to bring the Parolin Motorsport their only podium appearances was the 13 year old Simone Favaro from Treviso, North Italy. However, this super promising kid, fresh from 60cc cadet category, racing his very first ever KF3 event, was on the song from the Saturday morning qualifying to the Sunday afternoon finals. Supported by the Parolin Motorsport, Simone, having the KZ1 vice world champion from 2000, Nico Biasuzzi, as his mechanic, did put his foot wrong not even once throughout the races. In the finals he scored 3rd and 4th places, against the best of European drivers with multiple experience… amazing performance indeed. A name to remember for a long time coming!

The KF1, described the king category of karting, and the only one having FIA world championship status, suffered of the lack of drivers; only 11 drivers entered the race, though many of them being very good ones. Parolin Motorsport drivers Rask, last year’s world number 5 and Piccolo, in his return to kart racing after years spent in car racing, suffered from various teething problems with the new-era 125cc engines. Neither had too many trouble free races, thus finishing far from the podium in the finals. Rask anyway managed occasionally show very promising pace, and was very satisfied with the handling of his new chassis, so a lot better results are to be expected this summer.

In KF2, Parolin Motorsport’s other entry, the Belgian youngster Michael Cool, in his career first KF2 race delivered a constant, good performance, qualifying to the finals despite extremely hard competition and previously unseen race track. He finished both finals in the mid pack. Michael is heavily punished by the new minimum weight rules; being a head taller than most drivers, he is suffering from significant overweight, despite being very fit and losing a good 5 kilos since the first tests a month ago! We hope that karting is not becoming “the new ski jumping”, with drivers hopelessly having to push their bodyweight down. Local driver Schettino suffered from various problems and did not qualify to the finals.

The highest quality grid was definitely seen in KZ2, including the reigning world champion Davide Foré, reigning European champion Roberto Toninelli, twice world champions Alessandro Manetti and Alessandro Piccini and the American Gary Carlton, to mention just a few. Against these big names, the Parolin Motorsport drivers De Matteis and D’Amico did respectably well;De Matteis scoring a 7th and 12th place finishes, and D’Amico in his first ever international race a 15th in the final 1 and 16th place in the final 2.

So, Sunday evening the Parolin Motorsport could pack the team truck reasonably satisfied: the young drivers showed high potential, the little experienced ones performed better than nobody could expect, and the experienced KF1 drivers had both thumbs up for the capability of their brand new karts!

The next race for the Parolin Motorsportwill be the second round of the WSK International Series, held 14-15. May in Zaragoza, Spain.