Returning Champion – Ricardo Romkema
2006 marked the second year in a row that a driver from Holland won the MAX class at the ROTAX MAX Grand Finals. The champion that year was Ricardo Romkema who put on a storming drive in the wet to claim his first World Championship. As defending champion Ricardo is a target for all other MAX drivers to beat. However, he says he feels very relaxed this year and under no pressure.
In addition to competing back home in Holland, Ricardo also runs in the ROTAX MAX Euro Challenge Series. He says he hopes to race cars one day and would like to run in the DTM Series.
William Bamber
Thursday, 29 November will mark the 14th birthday for Wanganui, New Zealand’s William Bamber. He celebrated early by qualifying fourth in the Rotax Junior class. His goal is to race cars someday soon and pulls for Lewis Hamilton because he also came from modest means.
William is making his first trip to the Grand Finals as a driver. However, two years ago his brother, Earl, took third in the Grand Finals when they were held in Lankawi, Malaysia. The elder Bamber brother is on hand this week to help William with setup and driving advice after having just run a successful test for the New Zealand A1GP Team.
The fast Three
Wednesday was the day of official qualifying here at the Kart Circuit in Al Ain. Those that set the fast time in their divisions are:
Junior MAX – Katsuta Takamoto, Nagoya, Japan
MAX – David Sera, Melbourn, Australia
DD2 – Pier-Luc Ouellette, Quebec, Canada
Nagoya, Japan’s Katsuta Takamoto set the fast time this afternoon in the Junior MAX division. His time of 59.336 seconds put him atop a field of 72 competitors. Katsuta is currently in his third year of racing and runs Yamaha competition in addition to ROTAX back home in Japan. After qualifying on pole he said through his interpreter that he was “Very Very Happy,” But that his run was still not perfect and that he would push even harder in the heat races.
In the MAX class, David Sera placed his Intrepid at the top of the time sheet with a lap of 57.986 seconds, a time over two-tenths faster than his nearest rival. David, a 19-year-old who hails from Melbourne, Australia, has raced karts since he was seven years old and lays claim to two Australian ROTAX National championships. When not running the Australian ROTAX series, David also runs in the Euro Challenge and some Australian Clubman (Yamaha) competition.
The DD2 class saw the fastest speeds of all and it was Canadian Pier-Luc Ouellette on pole with a scorching lap of 56.584 seconds. Pier-Luc has been racing karts for 10 years and is making his second trip to the Grand Finals after coming very close to making the podium in Portugal last year. Pier-Luc recently won the MAX class at the SKUSA SuperNationals in Las Vegas, giving him the distinction of being the firjst man qualified to run at the ROTAX MAX Grand Finals next year.
ROTAX BRP