Max’s first race in this championship!
„Champions of The Future, Steel Ring, Třinec is a dream come true for me,“ said Max Karhan, explaining why it is so important to him: „I can gain valuable experience in my first season in the OK class by racing against the best drivers from all over the world. In this championship, for example, there are junior F1 drivers from teams like Ferrari, AMG Mercedes, Red Bull, Fernando Alonso’s stable, Prema, ART and others.“
„Actually, it’s before the European Championship race, which will be run with the same line-up on the same track – a kind of a sharp mock test,“ Max summed up, introducing the next upcoming race.
After moving from the WSK race in Cremona the previous weekend, the team made their first mid-season visit to the Czech Republic this 2023 season, arriving at the Steel Ring Třinec on Wednesday morning. Here they started with free practice sessions, during which they had to run practice engines and try to get the best possible set-up of the chassis for the specific tyres designed for this race. These tyres are different from the ones Max has used in previous races.
Thursday
On Thursday it started to get more exciting and the options reduced to the last free practice sessions. Max got his best time – seventh fastest in his group.
Then came qualifying, which was not at all successful, and Max set the 24th fastest time in his group.
The drivers were divided into heat groups based on their times. Max was placed in group D.
Max finished 20th in the first heat of groups C+D and 19th in the second heat of groups B+D. There were still a lot of things to work on and Max wasn’t completely happy with the chassis setup.
Friday
On Friday the day started with a morning warm-up, where technique was checked before the next races.
Max finished 20th in the next heat shootout of groups A+D and 17th in the heat shootout of groups D+E.
The gokart still wasn’t working quite to his liking and Max felt like his frame was cracked, but that didn’t prove to be the case and he had to keep fighting.
After the points were added up, Max was 63rd overall, which allowed him to compete in the Super Heat (Prefinal). It was a dream for Max to even make it there and he did!
Max finished 29th in the Super Heat, but unfortunately got an extra 5 seconds for a dropped front bumper, dropping him to 31st. He could only watch and see how his rivals were doing in the final, where only 36 riders from each group would advance.
All the time we were struggling with technical issues, especially on the dry chassis, and once a different engine had to be installed, which also didn’t work very well. „The set-up didn’t quite work and I had to fight a lot, but I’m taking it as a test before the European Championship race and I believe that we will be able to set up the technique there,“ Max commented on the race.
Thanks to our partners and the whole team for their support and the opportunity to participate in this race.
