Dogged by misfortune throughout the season, Benjamin Lessennes finally enjoyed a trouble-free event at the IAME International Final last weekend at the Le Mans circuit. As a result, the Coyote Racing Team driver, making his return to the X30 Senior class more than six months after he won the Belgian Championship, left La Sarthe with a silver medal around his neck!
Benjamin Lessennes’s season has been a busy one, but the Belgian never lost his thirst for competition. Last weekend, on the international circuit at Le Mans, the 15-year-old from Charleroi was competing in his 15th competition of the year. And this time he was finally able to achieve a result which was indeed well-deserved considering the skills he had shown throughout the season.
Thirsty for revenge after his disappointment in the KF Junior World championship, “Benji” has already demonstrated his true speed at the beginning of October when he first appeared in KF at the prestigious German Championship. Less than three weeks later, he completely changed tune by taking part in the IAME International Final, a competition in which he was pitched against regular championship contestants all using Parilla X30 engines. Whilst 99 drivers, from 16 different countries, were entered in the X30 Senior class, the one wearing the Motorhomes STX colours finished in second position, also posting fastest lap in the process.
Nonetheless, the weekend began in a low key for the Belgian champion with a distant 39th place at the end of qualifying practice, contested at night on a track made extremely slick by storms. “Starting like that, I knew the weekend would be difficult as every time I had to battle back in the qualifying heats. But that’s the sort of challenge I enjoy!” Benjamin explained. Pulling off some fine overtaking moves to reach the leaders (particularly with one 2nd, one 3rd and one 4th place), Benjamin finished the qualifying heats in 19th position. Despite some jostling in the prefinal, he climbed to 10th place, his position on the starting grid for the all-decisive final.
“I think I fought an extremely good final, taking my adversaries one by one,” the Coyote Racing Team driver recalled. “But when I passed the chequered flag to take second place, I saw that my team-mate François Bécamel had not been hanging about. Although I posted the fastest lap, I finished a little more than two seconds from victory.“
Even so, this result was extremely satisfying for the Belgian and his team. “At last I went home with a trophy. Lady luck must have been with me!” he joked. “All year, whether it was in the European Championship or the World Championship, I constantly met with problems when I was in sight of victory or at least the podium. This second place in the unofficial world X30 championship is good consolation and I would like to dedicate this result to my partners and the VDK Racing team, who worked brilliantly. We really made great progress over the weekend and this time a podium position was not taken away from us!“
The season is now coming gradually winding down for Benjamin. “But I still have one race left,”he says with delight. “It’s the WSK Final Cup, an international competition held on the first weekend of November in Italy, at the Adria circuit. I’ll be competing there in KF to prepare for 2015. But I will not hide the fact that I hope to end the season with a very good result!“
Info Benjamin Lessennes / © Photo KSP