The clip that you can watch above dates back to a rainy Sunday of 2012. On the 15th of April, the Circuito Internazionale Napoli staged the opening round of the WSK Euro Series. The Final 2 of the KZ1 category, disputed in very slippery conditions, ended by a brilliant gesture of sportsmanship from the Dutchman Bas Lammers towards the Belgian Rick Dreezen.
Lammers, at the time driving Praga chassis, was chasing down the Tony Kart-colored Dreezen during the majority of the final race before unintentionally hitting the back of his rival to take the lead. But Lammers, in true fair play, gave the position back to the Belgian who he felt deserved to salute the chequered flag first after putting such a strong performance in the rain.
Bas Lammers: “I don’t remember exactly what happened but, at that moment, I caught him but was braking too late. I didn’t want to take him out and I felt it was not fair. I wanted to give the place back because, for me, he deserved to win that race. I feel like I did the right thing.”
Rick Dreezen: “It was very fair to give the place back to me and I still took the win. I think that it shows the respect that we have at the highest level. We know what to do, we drive all at the limit to fight to win but, in the end, we have to respect each other and it’s nice to race against that kind of people.”
A true story of sportsmanship between two great drivers and men still racing at the top seven seasons later, Dreezen having finished runner-up in the latest World KZ Championship with
Video: WSK Promotion
Text: Guillaume Alvarez
