F1 drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, who used to race together for CRG and Dino Chiesa’s team a few years ago, went back on a kart last Friday, both to get some fun and for a small training session for next F1 season. The two drivers met on the ‘South Garda Karting Circuit’, welcomed by their former team manager Dino Chiesa, for a full immersion day in karting.

Both Hamilton and Rosberg, before their debut in car-racing, used to race together for the MBM team (acronym of Mercedes Benz McLaren) in 2000 and 2001, with CRG chassis; in those years they even took part in the Italian Championship Open Masters. With Dino Chiesa and CRG, Hamilton became Formula A European Champion in 2000, with Rosberg crossing the line for second. Hamilton, who turned 25 few days ago and is about to race for McLaren for the 4th season, could test the ‘LH’ chassis, recently developed by CRG thanks to 2008 F1 World Champion’s advice and technical specs.

Rosberg, who is racing for Mercedes this year, raced on a ‘Zanardi’ chassis; he already had the occasion to appreciate it last November, on the very same circuit of Lonato together with Michael Schumacher and the young Dutch star Nyck De Vries. De Vries, who was together with the two F1 drivers on this occasion too, has recently been included in the McLaren young driver development programme. Also Lewis Hamilton’s brother, Nicholas, got on a kart: he had lot of fun testing a CRG-Rotax Max.

Lewis Hamilton concentrated on the driving of his ‘LH’, both in the KF and KZ version with gears and Maxter engine. "I really had lot of fun said Hamilton after racing for almost a whole day. Above all, I enjoyed the kart with gears, which I had never tried before. I’ve always raced on a 100cc without gears, and it’s been hard for me to adjust to the driving style the KZ requires. I need to get the knack of it, but I’ve already seen that it’s total fun. I obviously felt at ease with the KF, quite similar to my old 100cc. Anyway, it was wonderful to meet again with my old team, my brother and all my Italian friends."

Dino Chiesa was very satisfied too: "Meeting again on a track after almost ten years was a great experience. First of all, both Hamilton and Rosberg wanted to have fun, without trying to get first rate performances, even though they raced at full throttle. Nicholas Hamilton had lots of fun too: he didn’t want to get down of the kart. I think he completed almost 200 laps… I hope to repeat this experience in a few months."

By MotorSport

Strawberry Racing’s Luke Varley underlined his huge talent by dominating the Rotax Grand Finals at the Ghibli Raceway, near Sharm El-Sheikh (Saturday 12 December). Having secured pole for the pre-final, Luke went on to dominate it – winning by over five seconds.

He was made to work hard for victory in the Grand Final after dropping a couple of places during the opening lap. However, as the lead pair began to tussle, Luke seized his chance and, with an incisive move, regained the upper hand. From there he was able to open a gap and maintain it to the chequered flag. Strawberry team principal Warwick Ringham was understandably delighted, “Luke drove fantastically well. Because everyone’s on the same equipment, it all comes down to driver ability and who’s got the best set-up and ultimately, who wants it the most.”

He added, “This year he’s won Kart Masters, finished second in the British Super 1 championship, won the European and now the World title – Luke’s just really good, isn’t he?!” Indeed, such has been the impression that Luke made in Egypt and with his performances throughout the season that he has been invited to compete in the Florida Winter Tour - and there is a possibility that he could land a drive with Paul Spencer’s Tony Kart Junior Racing Team in 2010. The team’s other drivers experienced varying fortunes. Formula Renault graduate, Joseph Reilly returned to complete his karting career, but after a series of misfortunes found himself in the repercharge and was unlucky not to qualify for the main final after a questionable black-flag.

The team’s sole Junior representative Henry Hunter was making his World finals debut, and acquitted himself admirably. Facing a steep learning curve, he came through the heats and pre-final to qualify well for arguably, the biggest race of his career to date. An intelligent drive saw him thread his way to an eventual 8th place at the finish. Warwick said, “Henry did really well. This was a new experience for him but the more laps he did, the better he got. In fact, what he achieved was fantastic.”

After winning the British Open and Super 1 titles and finishing a close second in the European championship, Ed Brand added third place in last Saturday’s World final (12 December) to his impressive haul of trophies in 2009 at the Ghibli Raceway, at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt. All season long, the HRS Motorsport driver has been a front-runner and at the desert circuit located near the shores of the Red Sea, it was no different.

Having started the event with the third fastest lap in timed qualifying (out of 72 drivers), Ed then won each of his three heats to earn pole position for the pre-final. A canny second place finish in that race gave him the preferred outside line for the Grand Final itself. “Unusually, the outside row of the grid gave you a better entry line into the first corner, provided that you got a decent start, which I managed to do.” Ed led the thirty-four strong field across the start/finish line at the end of the first lap, and from there held the advantage for the next eighteen. However, the impressive Ukyo Sasahara from Japan had kept a close watching brief on the Englishman, waiting for a mistake.

Just two laps from the chequered flag, Brand pushed too hard into a corner and the Japanese dived down his inside, edged him onto the marbles, also allowing fellow Brit Matt Parry through. “I’m disappointed not to have won,” Ed reflected back home in Hertfordshire. “But if I’d started at the back and driven through the pack to finish third, I’d be delighted. So on reflection, third place is a good result.”

Ed’s father Mark was equally philosophical, “The Japanese lad drove remarkably well. Ed made a slight mistake and Ukyo went for it. That’s racing, that’s life,” he shrugged. HRS boss Tristram Oman agreed, saying “We got a top three and that’s no disgrace at all.” With the paddock thronged with journalists and TV crews, Ed’s performances throughout the week-long event turned him into something of a celebrity – “Everywhere I went there was a camera shoved in my face” – and led to offers from race organisers to demonstrate his talents in selected international events.

Ed has to rely on sponsorship to keep him racing and he acknowledges the support he receives from his family’s firm of plumbers merchants and their suppliers, he says “I would like to thank Brands of Watford, radiator company, Vogel and Noot and Contact Electrical (Watford). Without their help, I would not be able to achieve anywhere near the sort of success I have enjoyed this year.” He added, “I would also to say a big, big ‘thankyou’ to Tristram and Nigel (Horner) of HRS for their incredible hard work, help and support throughout the season. They’re a great team, have designed a monster kart in the CRG Dark Knight, and played a massive part in my most successful season yet.”

Dan Holland Racing concluded it’s already highly successful 2009 season in fine style, with another string of fantastic results. The team’s senior Rotax drivers proved they were the crème de la crème of the class - winning six of their final eight race meetings, and taking podium finishes in the other two events. The last eight weeks of the season saw Senior Rotax graduate Jack Dex take victory in PFi’s last two races meetings of the year and third place at Whilton Mill; whilst Ross Wylie won twice at Larkhall and once at Wigan. Not to be outdone, Alex Magee triumphed at Kimbolton and scored a runner-up spot at the October Whilton Mill meeting.

Team owner, Dan Holland said “Our outstanding run of results with these drivers, at the different tracks, just confirms just how strong DHR has become.” After Dex ended third overall in the Super 1 Junior Max championship and his team-mate Mike Spencer clinched third in the senior category, Dan predicts more of the same - if not better - for 2010.

Dan commented, “I’m really proud of how well the whole team did in 2009. Our run of late-season results just showed how we can be a force to be reckoned with this year. We’ve strengthened the squad with some excellent drivers and I’m really excited about our prospects for the forthcoming season. We have a really strong driver line-up, in all classes.” Despite all seats for Super 1 and the Euro Max Winter Cup taken up, DHR can still accommodate drivers looking for a berth with a top-flight team in the Formula Kart Stars (FKS) series and Euro Max Challenge.

DHR can also confirm that the latest 2010 Alonso kart is now in stock - as used by the team in late 2009 to achieve these excellent results. Demonstration chassis are available for prospective customers to test.