Round 7 of the Rotax Max Challenge at the Speedworld circuit near Vienna saw the series leaders in seniors racing for the 2007 honours, at the last event of the season. Although Dominik Kraihamer won the final race and team-mate Kevin Reichard took the overall standings for the day, the ‘Intrepid Force Rotax’ drivers both narrowly missed out on the championship victory.

Leading up to the timed practice, Reichard was fastest in all three practice sessions. The points leader going into the meeting was Robert Ortner (CRG), who set the best lap in the qualifying Saturday (43.770) to take pole position in race one. Reichard was 2nd fastest just 0.004 seconds off the pace, ahead of local driver Franz Kuncic (PCR) and Kraihamer then 4th.

Intrepid pilot Reichard took the lead early from pole-sitter Ortner in the first race and after being challenged by Kuncic, went on to take the win and maximum points. In race 2, Kraihamer worked his way through to the front off the reverse eight start grid only to be chased down by Reichard and Ortner in the closing stages. This brought the fight for the championship to a real climax in the remaining laps.

In one of the most exciting race finishes all year, Reichard moved up on his Intrepid team-mate and passed him on the last lap but made the mistake of running wide out of the corner, letting Kraihamer go up the inside to maintain his lead and hang on to take the chequered flag. Ortner was just behind Reichard in 3rd but didn’t risk his place, knowing that he had comfortably secured the national title.

Reichard had won the last round of the season to take 1st place on the podium at Speedworld ahead of Kraihamer in 2nd and Ortner 3rd. For the series, Robert Ortner was crowned the winner in of the Senior Max class by a mere three points over Kraihamer, who had been vice champion as well in 2006, while Reichard finished 3rd for the second consecutive year.

‘Intrepid Force’ driver Daniel Schellnegger ended his junior campaign on a high before his move to seniors, taking the victory at the final round of the championship. The 15-year-old finished 1st and 2nd in the races to win the overall event near Vienna. Schellnegger had already claimed the 2007 Austrian title back in September, making him Junior Max champ for three years running. His closest rival Mario Novak, also racing an Intrepid Kart, finished 2nd for the season only 5 points in front of pole-sitter and race 1 winner Thomas Jäger (PCR).