Tamás Gender Junior started his first season in the OK Junior category. The 12-year-old kart driver from Parolin Racing Kart competed in the WSK's first race of the year, the Champions Cup in Lonato, Italy, where he reached the final and gained 14 places.
For Tamás Gender Junior, this year's first round of the World Series of Karting (WSK), the Champions Cup, kicked off the 2023 season. The 12-year-old competed for the first time since December in the OKJ category, in which he made his debut last September, and feels he is now used to the new challenges of the class.
The Parolin Racing Kart racer had a good weekend in Lonato, Italy, where he qualified for the final and finished in 22nd position, after gaining 14 places. The HUMDA-supported athlete felt he could have achieved an even better result if he didn't have to use four new tyres in the semi-finals.
"We had a very successful race weekend. The factory team, Parolin Racing Kart, had not yet come to this race, so we completed the weekend with the Modena Kart team using the Parolin chassis. We had to get used to the new environment, but it was a very quick adjustment and luckily my mechanic and coach were the same as before, which made it easier."
"This was my first race since the Valencia race in December and overall it went very well. I was able to get up to speed quickly and overtook a lot, although I lost grip after ten laps in the first heat, but the team managed to fix the problem the next day and on Saturday my kart was running perfectly. This was reflected in the other heats as I was able to overtake a lot."
"The OKJ field is much tougher in every way than I've competed in before, but I feel like I've grown up for the task. In the final, I gained fourteen places from my starting position and finished 22nd. I couldn't improve on that because we put on four new tyres for the pre-final on Saturday, as I started from the back and we wanted to qualify for the final. But that meant I could only use two new tyres in the final, which wasn't a big disadvantage at the start of the race, but it was later."
"My plan is to keep improving in the upcoming competitions and of course I want to keep getting better and better results and make it to the finals. After this year's first race, I would like to thank my mechanic Rafael Polise, my coach Felice Tiene, Modena Kart, GFR Engines, HUMDA and Fit4Race for all their work over the weekend."
Tamás Gender Junior will next compete at the first round of the WSK Super Master Series in Lonato on the first weekend of February.
Tamás Gender Junior, OKJ results
Participants: 56
Qualifying: 36
C-D heat: 18. à 24.
B-D heat: 18. à 16.
A-D heat: 18. à 12.
Preliminary races total: 34.
Prefinal: 17 à 18.
Prefinal overall: 36.
Final: 36. à 22.
