At the famous Bugatti circuit in Le Mans, France, there took place the official event of the CIK-FIA European Superkart Championship 2019 on the last weekend of October (25 – 27 October 2019).
The drivers of the fastest kart categhory Superkart arrived in Le Mans to compete in three final heats and to score points for the title of the European Champion. Of course, Adam Kout, the Czech Superkart pilot, who has been racing for MS Kart Racing Team for several years, could not be missing at the start. Adam Kout is a double European Champion and also a triple European Vice Champion. He came to Le Mans with the MS Kart team to logically fight for the top places in the final ranking of the European Championship. The biggest rival for Adam Kout was last year’s European champion Peter Elkmann.
The results of the qualifying sessions showed that the competition will be high. Adam Kout finished fourth in the qualifying, which meant start from the second row to the first race. Race 1 brought a huge bad luck to the Czech driver in the form of a torn front tire in lap 4 when Adam was confidently leading the whole field from the start. The front tire burst was caused by an “explosion” of the wheel rim valve (manufacturing defect). The retirement in race 1 has determined the starting position for the second race. Race 2 was already under rain and a lot of water on the track. Immediately after the start Adam started to overtake and moved very quickly throught the starting grid. Already in the lap 7 Adam managed to take the lead in front of the second Peter Elkmann! However, 2 laps to go Adam Kout’s engine got some water and it caused a drop in performance. Peter Elkmann returned to the first position and Adam finished third.
By winning the first and second race Peter Elkmann secured the European title for 2019. Adam still had the opportunity to fight for the title of European Vice-Champion in race 3. The results of the first two races determined for our pilot to start from the eighth row. Despite this Adam Kout managed to start excelently again and raced in a phantastic way: in lap 5 he was driving already on the second place behind the leading Andreas Jost. At the moment when there was to be a fight for the first place between the first two drivers a defect appeared in the gearbox of the DEA engine of Adam and our driver had to stop ta race.
Adam Kout thus basically counted only the points scored in race 2 (3rd place) in the total scoring which finally brought 13th place. After some very successful years this final result is a big disappointment for the Czech driver as well as for the whole MS Superkart racing team. Everyone from the MS KART team hopes that this year in Le Mans they have taken bad luck for several years ahead….
Final ranking of the CIK-FIA European Championship 2019
1. Elkmann Peter – Anderson / VM Motor
2. Morley Liam – Anderson / VM Motor
3. Andreas Jost – Anderson / VM Motor
4. Sebastia Alexandre – Anderson / DEA
5. Harpham Lee – MS Kart / VM Motor
13. Kout Adam – MS Kart / DEA
Text: Vráťa Ondráček
Foto: FotoSport.cz
