Tony Kart: victory, podium and pole position at the Final Cup
In the first round at Franciacorta, the Tony Kart Racer 401 T triumphs in the OK-N category final and also secures the third place, while in the OK class it finishes second, after the pole position in the qualifyings.
The Tony Kart Racing Team positively starts the 2026 WSK Final Cup. In the first round of the championship, held at the Franciacorta Karting Track in Castrezzato (Italy), the Tony Kart Racer 401 T dominates the OK-N final, powered by the Vortex VTS-N, gaining a podium finish in the OK class after taking the pole position in the qualifyings, with the support of the VTS unit from the OTK Kart Group’s ‘engine division’. Our racing division also attends the OKJ, OKJ-N, MINI Gr.3 and MINI Gr.3 U10 classes, the latter two featuring the Rookie chassis.
In OK-N, Jenson Eric Burns is among the category’s leading players throughout the weekend. The Australian sets the third-fastest time in qualifying and, in the subsequent qualifying heats, gains two wins and a fastest lap, further enriching his haul with a first place in Sunday morning’s pre-final. In the final, Burns confirms his superiority: starting from the front row of the grid, he takes the lead on the opening lap and maintains firm control of the race right up to the chequered flag; his victory is accompanied by a third-place finish for another Tony Kart Racer 401 T. Thanks to his results from the first round, our driver tops the overall standings with 110 points, double that of his nearest rival.
Thanks to his WSK Euro Series title and victory in the fourth round of the ACI Italian Karting Championship, Andrea Giudice consistently leads to the top of the standings, achieving a third-place finish as his best result in the qualifying heats. However, a collision on the third lap of the final sends him to the back of the field and subsequently forces him to retire.
In the OK class, Ilie Tristan Crisan starts at his best possible, securing pole position in qualifying thanks to a time of 47.044 recorded in Group 2. Unfortunately, however, shortly after the start of the first qualifying heat, he is innocently caught up in an accident that forces him to retire. The Canadian bounces back with two wins and two fastest laps in the remaining two heats, as well as finishing second in the pre-final, before securing the middle step of the podium at the end of the final. Valerio Viapiana also had a solid weekend, consistently holding his own amongst the frontrunners throughout all the sessions and narrowly missing out on the podium in the final, finishing fourth overall. Endo Arata put in a flawless performance and contributed to the team’s results at Franciacorta.
In OKJ, Julian Frasnelli, having finished second in Group 2, is among the fastest drivers in qualifying and maintains his pace in the qualifying heats, where he secures a win and a third place, as well as winning Pre-final B. In the early stages of the final, the Italian is right in the thick of the battle for second place, but a collision sends him off the track and causes him to lose several places, preventing him from finishing the event on a high note.
Fresh from his victory in the fourth round of the FIA Karting European Championship, Emerson MacAndrew-Uren enjoys a weekend of steady improvement and finishes the final in seventh place, followed closely by his team-mates Augustin Feligioni and Yubo Wen. Stepan Mazepin makes his mark as early as qualifying with the fourth-fastest time in Group 1 and, in the final race on Sunday afternoon, made up 11 places. Antonio Ianni, meanwhile, stages a comeback, moving up 12 places. Oiva Vettenranta and Jean Poujol gains further experience in preparation for the upcoming events on the calendar.
In OKJ-N, Giuseppe Noviello shows good pace in the qualifying heats, achieving a second-place finish as his best result, but is forced to retire early from the final. Li Linghan recovers up 17 places during the final race, whilst Can Tuzuner is forced to retire just a few laps from the chequered flag following an accident. Having competed in the MINI Gr.3 for the first part of the season, Nahil Padovani Amador makes his debut in the category.
In the MINI Gr.3, Alfie Richard Mair kicks off the weekend with the fastest time in Group 1 of qualifying, clocking a time of 54.822 seconds. The British driver, recently crowned WSK Euro Series champion, goes on to secure a win and a second place in the qualifying heats, before also taking victory in Pre-final B. In the final, Mair moves up to second place right from the start and remains firmly behind the leader for most of the race. On the final lap, however, he is pushed off the track whilst battling for the top positions, losing ground and finishing well off the positions he has hold up to that point.
It is his team-mate David Johannes Aagten who come out on top in the final. After setting two fast laps in the qualifying heats and finishing the Pre-Final B in third place, the Polish driver made up eight places in Sunday afternoon’s race and crossed the line in the top five. Forced to start from the back of the grid in all the elimination heats, Zane Pace rounds off the weekend with a top-15 finish in the final. Alvaro Medeiros ends Saturday on a high note with a top-10 position in the provisional standings, but a retirement in Pre-final B affects the rest of his weekend. Farel Beretta Dugat, on the other hand, shows a good progress and ends the event having made up 11 places in the final.
In the MINI Gr.3 U10 class, Romeo Ferrante remains among the frontrunners throughout the weekend and shows a flawless performance with a top-10 finish. Aiden Moreira also makes it through to the final, but a collision midway through the race brought his race to a premature end.
The next event on the calendar for the Tony Kart Racing Team is scheduled for 17–20 September at Le Mans (France), where the FIA Karting World Championship KZ, the FIA Karting World Cup for the KZ2 class and the FIA Karting International Masters’ Super Cup for the KZ2 Masters will take place.
