Igor Walilko's High form and bad luck on Lonato “Wintercup” 2010.

XV edition of famous karting contest “Wintercup” was running on Sunday 21.02,2010 on a Italian kart track in Lonato. Igor have started his trainings on Wednesday and from the beginning it was sure that he will be one of the top drivers.

In KF3 class there was 109 drivers from all around the earth, where about half of them was the company drivers representing the biggest kart producers from the globe.

On Friday's time qualifications Igor did 7th time setting his best lap on 59.021, and he was in excellent position for the start before group round.

Same day there was also first qualification heat, where Walilko did great 8th position. Heavy rain, strong wind and low temperature about 4C caused that Igor caught cold which didn't go away till his last races on Sunday. Although cold Igor did very well on Saturday second heat, where he managed to hit second place, beating a lot of more experienced company team drivers.

Rest of the group heats haven't been so easy for polish driver, because on each race he have been pushing out from the track setting 8th and 11th place. However the last qualification heat is going to be historical according to huge lack of professional judgement and the judges who probably decided to crash all polish drivers during this contest. Walilko started from 3rd gird but just after the start he was pushed out the track, almost hitting light columns. Then he come back on the track on 25th position and managed to reach very nice 15th place after next 12 laps.

The judges punished polish driver by disqualification from the last heat explaining this, that the driver has came back on the track after his crash in a different place that he ran it out. Even if our driver wanted to come back on track in the same spot he had to drive in opposite direction, because force that threw him out was so big that he stopped after about 40 meters sliding on the green.

Needless to say, if driver is cutting short the track with not his fault and he's loosing positions in so obviously way, he can continuing the race. Unfortunately karting rules at our south neighbours are a little different, according to it our driver gained 36 penalty points at last heat. Although good results from previous races qualified him to the pre-finals but he had to fighting his way not from 15th position but from late 28th, what ruined his thoughts about podium.

Scenarios in pre-finals and finals have been the same – Igor was “droved out” from the track few times and managed to finish it on 28th position.

Just after last race Igor commented Lonato “Wintercup” 2010:

(…) I have to work a little more on my driving style. Last season I was trying to drive smoothly, but I know I have to change it in Italy. Shame that there is no observers from our federation , maybe then we wouldn't be punished by not our mistakes. Although I know that this sport is not for the soft ones but I can assure that polish drivers are not only fast but they can defend themselves. Wintercup was very important for Birel beacuse the equipment advancement, that's way we focused on testing. Our point was final and that target was accomplished. Next time we will be trying to get much more higher and I believe that I won't let down my sponsors, team and fans. (…)

Rafal Walilko after the races:

(…) Igor confirmed with his 7th time in qualifications and top 10 places in heats whatever its wet or dry track he is one of the world top young drivers. In turn un-fair, in my opinion, Igor's disqualification in the last heat I see like a judge charade and I don't want to comment it. (...)