Rotax MAX Challenge Grand Finals 2023 Champions Crowned

Rotax MAX Challenge Grand Finals 2023 Champions Crowned

• Jenson Chalk wins Micro MAX title, Rory Armstrong wins Mini MAX, Timo Jungling clinches Junior MAX crown
• Andrej Petrovic takes Senior MAX, Ragnar Veerus wins MAX DD2, Ben Cooper triumphs in MAX DD2 Masters
• Mats Johan Overhoff wins E20 Senior title, Joao Goncalves takes E20 Master, Veeti Salmi wins E10 class

Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), “The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East”, crowned over the weekend the champions of the Rotax MAX Challenge Grand Finals (RMCGF) 2023.

After a full week of top-class karting action at BIC’s world-class grassroots motorsport facility, Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC), it all came down to the Finals in each of the nine categories, and the day produced plenty of thrilling, wheel-to-wheel action.

The winners when the dust settled included Jenson Chalk from the UK in the 125 Micro MAX category, Rory Armstrong from the UK in the 125 Mini MAX class, Timo Jungling from the UK in the 125 Junior MAX, Andrej Petrovic from Serbia in the 125 Senior MAX, Ragnar Veerus from Estonia in the 125 MAX DD2, Ben Cooper from Canada in the 125 MAX DD2 Masters, Mats Johan Overhoff from Germany in the E20 Senior, Joao Goncalves from Brazil in the E20 Master, and Veeti Salmi from Finland in the E10 category.

Team UK were also winners of the Nations Cup, followed by Team Canada and Team Belgium, while Team USA won the Team Video Contest.

Meanwhile, Team Bahrain’s drivers also made their presence felt on the final day, with Luca Houghton placing ninth overall in the Junior MAX Final and Tye Mejia climbing an impressive 13 places in the race to finish 17th. Shaikh Ahmed bin Saqer Al Khalifa was also in the top 10 in his category, ranking eighth in the E10 Final, while Lewis Smith was a strong 12th on the final E20 Senior classification after gaining three positions.

At the end of all the action, winners were presented their respective trophies in the podium ceremonies.

This year’s RMCGF featured a total of 384 drivers from 62 nations who battled all week at the Sakhir karting facility. They covered a total of 16,174 laps for a total distance of 22,870 kilometres.

Chalk was crowned in the Micro MAX category after 12 laps in their Final, ahead of Denmark’s Andreas Kjellerup, who made his way up from seventh to take second, 0.073 seconds in front of the UK’s Edward Haynes, who completed the podium.

In the Mini MAX, Team UK added another RMCGF win to their total, as Cole Denholm initially crossed the line first, but it would be Armstrong who would win the closest race of the year by just 0.048s. Denholm was deemed to have gained an advantage out on track and received a five-second post-race penalty, ending up sixth. Armstrong would be closely followed by Estonia’s Nikita Ljubimov and Jacob Ashcroft, with the trio being separated by a mere 58 thousands-of-a-second after 14 laps.

Jungling put Team UK on the top step of the podium once again, winning an exciting 18-lap Junior MAX Final by 0.486 seconds ahead of Belgium’s Beau Lowette. Pole-sitter Louis Comyn would be in contention for Team France, but would have to settle for the final step of the podium. Houghton kept Team Bahrain holding their breath, as he would also be part of multiple drivers that had a chance to secure the win. He took fourth before being demoted to ninth after having been found to force another driver off track.