Bas Lammers aims high for rest of karting season

With the 2014 CIK-FIA European KZ Kart Championship having reached its conclusion, deaf racer Bas Lammers has claimed fourth place in the series but has a bigger ambition left for the remainder of the year.

The Championship began close to home for Dutchman Bas with the Belgian circuit of Genk playing host to the opening round.  A poor qualifying session saw him start his heats back in 16th place on the grid. After setting fastest lap in the opening heat, a transmission failure in heat 2 left him coasting across the finish line and lining up on the ninth row of the grid for the pre-final. Worse was to come with a first corner accident forcing him out of the race and in 29th place for the final. A superb drive took him up to twelfth place at the chequered flag.

There was better to come in round 2, at Wackersdorf in Germany as Bas finished on the podium, in third place after winning the pre-final. After the race Bas commented, “I am very happy to be on the third step of the podium. My victory in the pre-final proved that we are going in the right direction. The Formula K team has done a very good job!”

It was on to Sweden, and Kristianstad, for the third and final round of the series. Despite the performance of his kart being down a little on those of his closest rivals, strong starts in each of his heats were followed by a third place in the pre-final.  With tyre management a key factor in the hot conditions on the day, Bas managed to take fifth place in the final and fourth in the championship. 

"It's always disappointing not to win a championship, but the progress made since the beginning of the year with the Formula K team is very encouraging," Bas explained after the race.

The performance is all the more remarkable since it is the first year that Bas has raced for the team, who have themselves just returned after a two-year break away from competing at the highest level of the sport.

As well as competing in the European Championship, Bas has also been taking part in the Italian WSK Super Master Series where, after winning the opening round he took the runner-up spot. Bas still has plenty of racing ahead of him, including the remaining rounds of the German DKM championship but at the moment, the team are enjoying some well-earned rest. As he explains, “At the moment we have a break for 3 weeks and everybody is taking a holiday to charge the batteries for the second part of the season. We have been very busy, travelling and testing a lot. I'm very proud of the team and members of Formula K because they work incredibly hard and they do the best they can for me.”

He adds, “Our Formula K chassis is one of the best chassis at the moment but we still need to make some steps forward to fight for victory!” Bas now has one goal in sight above all else and that is victory in the World Championships which will take place at Sarno in Italy over a single weekend from October 10th to 12th. As he puts it himself, “We all are proud and we are content but everybody in the team wants the same, WINNING! That's our goal for the rest of the season!”