DJKM: Thomas Ten Brinke wins four-way championship battle
Dutchman Thomas Ten Brinke (Ricky Flynn Motorsport) rose like a phoenix from the ashes in the fight for the junior title. The youngster travelled to Genk on fourth place and led the championship after the heats. From pole position, he drove away from the rest of the field during the first final race and celebrated his first victory in the DJKM. His strongest opponent was Ben Dörr (TB Racing Team). The fastest German of the field lost some ground during the starting phase, but fought his way forward again and closed the gap to the leading driver from the Netherlands at the end of the race. He wasn’t able to attack anymore though, but still collected important championship points on second place. Zak O’sullivan (Ricky Flynn Motorsport) showed a strong catching-up race – the league leader fought his way forward from thirteenth to third place and thereby ended up on the winners’ podium. Joshua Rattican (Msport Karting) came in fourth in front of US-American Enzo Scionti (CRG Holland).
After his kick-off success, Ten Brinke managed a repeat at the last ranked race of the season as well and thereby gained the championship title. “Unbelievable, I travelled here and didn’t really think I’d have any chance of winning the title and now I’m up here. It’s a great feeling”, the youngster commented on his success.
His direct title opponents O’sullivan and Kay Askey (both Ricky Flynn Motorsport) didn’t drive good races and missed placing among the top ten – even though O’sullivan led the race in the beginning. German Dörr came in second again in front of Conrad Laursen (Ricky Flynn Motorsport), Rattican and Sebastian Ogaard (TK Racing).
Final Championship ranking DJKM:
1. Thomas Ten Brinke (164 points)
2. Zak O´sullivan (159 points)
3. Ben Dörr (153 points)
4. Kai Askey (145 points)
5. Mikkel Hojgaard (105 points)
DKM: Harry Thompson achieves title in German top-class
Championship favorite Harry Thompson (Ricky Flynn Motorsport) achieved the best start into the final weekend. The youngster of the Red Bull junior team led the field after the heats and immediately used his top position during the first final race. He achieved a considerable advance with his team mate Zane Maloney (Ricky Flynn Motorsport) – but this didn’t last long. The opponents got close again and caused thrilling fights until the end of the race. With Thompson, Maloney, Leonardo Anderrüti (Lanari Racing Team) and Hadrien David (Kosmic Racing Department), four different drivers led the field during the course of the 19 laps.
During the last third of the race, Frenchman David came out on top though and celebrated his first DKM victory. The pursuers were really closely together. Unlucky driver of the last lap was Anderrüti: The Swiss fell back from second to sixth place. The cup ranks were completed by Maloney, Thompson, Sasse and Bastian Buus (RS Competition). Sasse experienced a setback afterwards too though. Due to a time penalty he fell back to tenth place, which prematurely made Thompson the champion.
In the last race of the year, the new champion Thompson took the lead right at the start and didn’t give his opponents any chance of attacking him during the course of the 19 laps. At the finish line he had a huge reason to rejoice then: “This wasn’t an easy weekend for us, I drove on this track for the first time. Things went according to plan in the end though and I’m proud of winning.”
Behind the young Brit, Nicklas Nielsen (Schumacher Racing Team) fought his way to second place. Another driver from Denmark, Buus, came in third. Kas Haverkoort continued his catching-up race of the first race and only barely missed placing on the podium by coming in fourth. Kick-off winner David came in fifth.
Final championship ranking DKM:
1. Harry Thompson (242 points)
2. Hugo Sasse (166 points)
3. Zane Maloney (156 points)
4. Kas Haverkort (147 points)
5. Tijmen Van Der Helm (108 points)
After the thrilling final, series coordinator Stefan Wagner also summed things up positively: “First, I’d like to thank all drivers, teams, helpers and spectators for their support during this season. You can only successfully run a series like this if everything and everyone works together positively in the end. We’re very content; there were narrow decisions and fair fights in all four classes until the end. The numbers of participants were on a high level at all five races and are a confirmation of our work. Now we’re taking a winter break and are already working on the 2019 season.”
Info: DKM
Editing: Guillaume Alvarez
Photos: LRNPhoto / Fast-Media
