Mach1 Kart travelled to the finale of the German Kart Championship in Genk with high expectations. In the end, the races were rather disappointing though, even though the performance of the German Mach1 chassis was impressive. John Norris finished the season on the sixth place of the DSKM.
The team had a full house on the 1.360m long track in Belgian Genk. At the DKM, Brit Harrison Newey started for the team, while John Norris, Marcel Schultheiß, Marco Forrer and Thierry Delré started at the shifterkarts. In addition to a top-class field of participants, consisting of 122 national and international drivers, the weather challenged drivers and materials. The sun was shining on Friday and Saturday and caused high grip conditions on the track. On Sunday it rained heavily. “The Mach1 chassis has done a perfect job once again. The weather couldn’t have been more antithetic. Our setup was right under these diverse conditions and the drivers felt comfortable”, team leader Martin Hetschel summed up in the evening.
John Norris started into the weekend with slim chances of winning the title. Ninth place at qualifying was very promising and a fourth place at the heats raised hopes for more as well. Unfortunately he also had to deal with a falling out, which caused John to fall back to the 24th overall position. During the final races it was then hard for him to fight his way forward on the wet track. Coming in 23rd and 24th, he missed placing in the point ranks and fell back to the overall sixth Championship position. “We don’t have to be disappointed. This was our first season at the shifterkarts and we’ve been able to impress. The field of participants was top-class”, Martin Hetschel explained.
While Thierry Delré and Marcel Schultheiß managed to enter the final races and drove among midfield, the fourth driver unfortunately didn’t achieve qualification. Marco Forrer couldn’t get past 12th place during the repechage. “Next to talent and great material, there is always a lot of luck necessary at motorsports. Unfortunately we didn’t have it this weekend. Thierry Delré especially impressed me: “He drove his first race for us and was really close to the top ten on Saturday”, continued Hetschel.
Harrison Newey started at the DKM. The young Brit was able to tie in with his performance from Kerpen during the heats and came in 12th and 13th. But things didn’t go so well during the rainy final races then. His expectations were not met due to a 26th place and a falling out. “Harrison is always getting faster and is getting along great with the material. But this is just the beginning”, Hetschel praised his youngster.
During the upcoming weeks, a lot is still waiting for the chassis manufacturer. In addition to the new chassis-homologation, Mach1 Motorsport is going to start at the X30 international finals in Le Mans. “At the end of October, the new chassis are going to be ready for test drives. We’ve applied a couple of changes and are very confident that we’ve taken a big step forward. Interested people are welcome to contact us and arrange test drives”, Hetschel invites drivers.
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