CHALLENGING DAY FOR AUSTRALIANS IN ITALY (includes video)

Liam McLellan in action during the heat races at the CIK-FIA Winter Cup in Italy (Pic: KSP)

Team Australia trio Liam McLellan, Matthew Waters and Troy Loeskow endured a challenging second day at the CIK-FIA Winter Cup in Italy on Saturday.

Following Loeskow’s impressive qualifying performance on Friday, confidence was high in the camp with the focus for all three drivers on gaining some good results across their three heat races.

When Loeskow’s engine failed to start prior to his opening heat he was forced to start from the back of the field. He was then caught up in a melee that damaged his Ricciardo kart and after pitting for repairs he would cross the line one lap down on the leaders. He then finished ninth in his second race, before being one of many drivers who endured a post race penalty dropping him to 15^th. He finished 18th in his final heat after again being forced to pit to repair his front fairing.

For McLellan, his day was also filled with drama after also falling victim on two occasions to the new CIK-FIA front fairing rules where driver is penalised 30 seconds should their fairing come dislodged during the race.

Queensland driver Troy Loeskow (Pic: KSP)

“The conditions were very challenging our there today, it was very wet to start with and then it started to dry out but it was very, very cold,” said McLellan.

“I also had a drama with some contact that caused my nosecone to become dislodged from the new mounting system which meant that I got a post race penalty.

“Courtesy of my results I’m now up the front of the second chance race and I need to make sure I keep my nose clean in that race to get through to the final.”

It was a troublesome day too for Matthew Waters with the 2013 Australian KF2 Champion struggling to come to grips with the challenging conditions.

The trio will all be forced to qualify for the final stage of the event through the second chance race that will be contested on Sunday morning (Italian time).

Also competing at the event are fellow Australians Brock Plumb and Lachlan Hughes in the KZ2 and Mini Rok class. Plumb will start from 11th position in the second chance race tomorrow while Hughes will start from 18th in the pre-final for his class.

Updates will be provided throughout finals day on www.karting.net.au along with Karting Australia’s Karting Australia’s Facebook Page, Twitter Feed and Instagram account

A full timetable of events can be found by clicking here.

The final day of the event will be streamed live across the internet throughout the weekend on www.southgardakarting.it