Lady Karter, Fabienne Lanz impresses in Italy
November 05 2009
Fast Lady Karter, Fabienne Lanz, sponsored by Stargate and ENGEN Extreme, had a successful performance at the 2009 Bridgestone European Cup and at the Rok World Championship, held in Lonato, Italy from 16th – 25th October 2009.
At the Bridgestone Cup European Final, Fabienne showed early on in the practice sessions that she has the pace and is running up front among some of Europe’s finest karters in the Super Rok category, such as Alessandro Vantini, Paolo Baselli and Lorenzo Caponi.
Fabienne qualified a solid 3rd, “the best place to start a race from”, she said.
She had a lightning start and soon lead the 15 lap Pre-Final. She kept her cool and took a whopping win. “I just kept telling myself to stay calm and focus on pulling a gap. I was over the moon when we won. I felt so blessed.
So Fabienne lead the way in the opening stages of the Final race, but fell back to 5th position as the kart lost a bit of pace, which later was proved to be a result of a faulty tyre pressure gauge. This resulted in the tyres overheating and the kart losing pace.
She is now number 5 in the world in this series for 2009. “This is a great result for us and I am amped for the Grand Final next weekend”, she said with a smile around her face.
Fabienne competed at the Super Rok World Grand Final the weekend thereafter where twenty two countries qualified to participate this year. Each country sends pre-qualified drivers to compete amongst the very best drivers in the world. All competitors race with the same make of Vortex ROK engines, but are however allowed to use their choice of professional racing chassis.
Fabienne Lanz impressed spectators and fellow competitors alike as she lit up the track on the damp Friday practice sessions, topping the time sheets with a fastest lap time amongst 68 fellow competitors in the Super ROK 125cc category.
During Friday and Saturday, more practice and qualifying heats allowed Fabienne to fine tune her kart placing her consistently in the top three places.
An unfortunate fuel pump failure in the second qualifying heat, two laps from the end, knocked Fabienne back in the overall average rankings that dictate the final race starting position and she had to settle for starting in a disappointing twenty first place out of thirty four finalists on the grid.
On race day all the hard work and preparation throughout the week seemed to be in vain as Fabienne would now have a monumental task to pick her way through the rest of the field to gain as many places as possible in the 20 lap race.
“My main aim was to keep clear of any incidents to have the best chance of overtaking the slower drivers, commented a frustrated Fabienne.
Finally after an exhausting race, Fabienne managed to steer clear of incidents and picked her way through the field to claim 14th place with a fastest time of 44:28 seconds, which was 4th fastest lap time overall. Fabienne was still placed ahead of all other fellow South African nationals from her country.
“I’m happy that I managed to show my pace in the kart, despite the disappointing fuel pump failure. This is something one cannot prepare for, but like they say “that’s racing”. I’m grateful that I had a safe race and I’m looking forward to next year. I would like to thank all my sponsors, my team, fans, family and friends for their continued support”