Fast lady karter, Fabienne Lanz, sponsored by Stargate and ENGEN Extreme and managed by Xsport Motorsport, had a successful performance at the 2009 Bridgestone European Cup and at the Rok World Championship, held from 16 to 25 October in Lonato, Italy. Fabienne takes up her story:

The Bridgestone Cup European Final is a well-known international event, where most of the top competitors who compete in the Vortex Super Grand Final (19^th 0 25 October), such as Alessandor Vantini, Massimo Aceto and Paolo Baselli compete at this Bridgestone Cup event.

We qualified third on the grid, which is the prefect position to start for a race, I think. At the start of the pre-final I overtook the second-placed driver at the start, and put the pedal to the metal to keep up with the leader.

The kart found grip quicker than I thought and I was all over the back of the leader. I then overtook him in lap 5 and went into the lead. I lead the race till 2 laps from the end. It was an amazing feeling to lead the pack on their home turf. My kart lost some pace and I made a mistake in the one corner and was too late to defend the line, so I got overtaken and finished second, only to find out that the winner had an illegal clutch, which is a performance enhancer.

So this meant that we won the pre-final. I was over the moon. I got goose flesh all over. I got so much respect from the other drivers for my performance, it was overwhelming. I felt so blessed.

So we started on Prime number 1 spot for the Final. I was quite nervous, excited and totally ready to rock and roll. I remember the second driver trying to trick me on the start as he accelerated and then suddenly stopped in order to create confusion, I guessed … But I got him as I had a superb start, and lead the race for a lap or two.

Then got overtaken and fell back to third position. I did notice my kart did not want to come up to pace, which we later discovered that our tyre pressure gauge was faulty, which meant that our pressures were higher than we thought. So the tyres overheated and got damaged. Anyway we managed to finish fifth in the end, which was great. I was confident for the Super Rok Grand Final, which was the weekend after.

I was very happy with the general performance of this weekend, as we were on pace with the top competitors in this Super Rok category, and we are now number 5 in the world for the Bridgestone European Cup Super Rok series. Now I was ready for the Grand Final.

Vortex Super Rok Grand Final

All the top guns from around the world were here to compete for the world title. There were 68 competitors in the Super Rok category.

We were quickest on Friday morning, and were in the top five for the rest of the weekend. Qualifying is very important, as we get split up into groups and go through elimination rounds.

So a quick time is vital to be able to start in the front of the grid, and to stay out of the mid-pack crash zone. I was in group 1, and as soon as it was our turn to go out for qualifying, it started raining.

It was so slippery I thought I would be way down the field, but to my huge relief, we qualified fifth in our group. It had started raining a lot after our qualifying, so group 2 was totally in the wet.

So we qualified fifth overall out of 68 competitors. I felt so blessed, and knew that I will be starting on the faster lane of the track and the races should be fine.

The first heat went well. I had a brilliant start, and went into third position. I then found a good, comfortable pace and finished fourth overall. The second heat went even better- I had another good start, and overtook some drivers in the first lap and was in third position.

But then my heart stood still when my engine cut out, two laps from the end. This meant that I finished thirtieth, and put me way back on the grid for the final. We changed the fuel pump, as it was very suspect. The engine was then perfect for the rest of the weekend.

The third heat went well again, as I had a great start for the third time. This race felt so quick, as so much was going through my mind. I was praying that my kart would stay together, as the heat was unfortunate. To my relief, we finished the race in fifth position. I was so exhausted after that heat. Unfortunately the second heat would push us right to the back of the field, but that is racing I suppose, it happens.

So we started 21st out of the 34 competitors who had made it to Saturday’s final. My fellow South African team-mates started 17th (Ian Young), 22nd (Philip Viljoen), 23rd (Alex Jacovides), 27th (Shaun La Reservee) and 33rd (Ernie van der Walt).

So we were basically all together on this. The start did not go according to plan, and for the first eight or nine laps, I was dodging one accident after another. It was chaos trying to get through the field. Eventually I was in 14th position, but the front bunch had pulled too big a gap for me to catch up within 10 laps. So we ended fourteenth overall for the race. It must have been the toughest race I have ever raced, in terms of trying to dodge accidents. Everyone was just on top or underneath others, and it was like a thriller movie non-stop.

I would like to thank my Sponsors, team and all the wonderful people who have helped me in every way before and at this event and to all my friends, fans and family for their support. It is really so much appreciated.

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