Euro Max Challenge - Round 1
Salbris - France
25th/26th March 2006
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Qualifying - The first qualifying of 2006 season had arrived but brought the
wet weather with it. Jack took to the very challenging wet track and set
fastest time in his session with a 1:18:40 a full 3 tenths quicker than the
2nd place man. But unluckily for Jack the track started to dry for the second
qualifying session and Mats Van De Brand took full advantage of this, putting
in a faster time than Jack to take pole with Jack on P2.
Heat 1 - Saturday morning arrived and the track was still wet Jack was
starting on the front row alongside Mats Van De Brand. Jack didn’t get the
start he wanted an got pushed out at the first corner and went back to
6th. But Jack quickly made his way back up through the pack and was soon up to 2nd and chasing down Van De Brand but having to settle for 2nd only just behind the first place man. Jack also claimed the fastest lap.
Heat 2 - On pole for the second heat of the day and with the rain falling heavily
Jack made the perfect start and romped away from the field eventually to win
by over 7 seconds and also claim the fastest lap of the race.
Heat 3 - Once again Jack started on pole and once again got a great start
and in a similar fashion to the race before Jack once again pulled away from
the field to win by over 3 seconds.
Pre - Final - After some decent heats Jack qualified 2nd for the Pre -
Final. The track was now dry and temperatures were in the low 20's. Jack made a decent start and kept hold of 2nd place.
But Jack had only completed 20 laps of the circuit in the dry and was struggling with the handling of the kart. He could not hold on to the flying Dutch Man Mats Van De Brand and only just managed to hold on to 2nd place, ahead of the French driver Maxime Jousse.
Final - 2nd on the grid for the final and Jack got hammered at the start
going back down to 6th place but Jack quickly made his way back up to 4th
passing the Austrian Danny Shellnegger but on the 2nd lap whilst Jack was
putting the pressure on the top 3 Shellnegger made a stupid move taking Jack
on to the grass and sending Jack back to 16th, from then on it was a damage
limitation exercise but with relentless speed and determination Jack managed
to haul himself back up to 6th position by the flag.
"I am obviously disappointed with the final but these things happen. Im just
looking on the positives and in the final we were fast enough and the
chassis and engines felt great. Protrain Racing have a done a great job with
the chassis and Steve Ogden with my engines. We hope to try put things right
in Italy and collect some more points to close in on my goal of winning the
championship. Also well done to Mats Van De Brand on a great drive in the
final".
See all the live action from the first round of the Euro Max Challenge on Raceworld TV
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