Mach1 Motorsport: Successful races in Italy

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John Norris at the Bridgestone Cup in Lonato
John Norris

The Mach1 Motorsport team participated in the old-established Bridgestone Cup finale on the South Garda Circuit in Italian Lonato with factory driver John Norris from Ireland. Despite some impassability, the team was able to persuade and gave an outlook on the chassis of 2012.

John Norris already gained momentum on the 1060m track on Thursday and Friday and was among the fastest drivers of the KF2 field consisting of 39 contestants. He had some bad luck during qualifying though. John did not have any perfect lap and lost important tenths, but he still achieved 15th overall position after 10 minutes. The Irishman started the Heats with a cool mind and did not get involved in unnecessary duels. In the end he twice came in 7th and secured the 8th starting position for the pre-finals on Sunday morning. Despite his great performance, John was at odds with the day’s development. “The power of my engine kept decreasing and I wasn’t able to fully attack in the end”, the overall winner of this year’s Graf Berghe von Trips Memorial explained in the evening.

The team was able to deal with these problems over night though and John managed to drive a top-five time. But not everything went perfectly on Sunday as well. His Mach1 Kart’s rear axle had loosened during the pre-finale and John had to forfeit the race due to a blocked break. During the finale’s 28 laps he was able to step it up once again though. Due to great lap times and neat maneuvers he managed to fight his way through the top-class field and finished on the remarkable 12th position. “We were highly competitive during the entire weekend and can be very content with the first hardness test of the 2012 chassis. The chassis can be very easily adjusted and it pardons a lot of mistakes. These qualities were especially helpful during my catch up race”, the Mach1 Kart driver analyzed his last race of the season.

Throughout the following weeks he is going to support his teammates with both words and deeds at the U18 world championship and will complete more test drives with the new Mach1 Kart. “Even though I love racing, I’m looking forward to my tasks during wintertime. I will support our clients during the test drives and further the development phase of the new chassis.”

Similar to Norris, team leader Martin Hetschel is looking forward to the winter months: “We did a great job during the last couple of years and are now reaping the benefits of it. Our chassis’ development has been very positive and we were able to celebrate several great successes.”


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