TazioRacing.com: Recap of first round of 2012 CIK FIA Academy Trophy

Sunday July 8, the first round of the 2012 CIK FIA Academy Trophy in Braga Portugal came to an end. We had a clean weekend free of accidents and spin outs. The only small incident was a broken chain which costed us a free practice session. Tazio had three practice sessions on Friday to learn the track and find the speed. We didn't do bad, considering Tazio's lack of experience with the environment. Saturday morning the rain came and the track was soaked. We had our only free morning practice on wet tires. When it was time to go out for our 8 minutes qualifying the track was almost totally dry and everyone went out with dry new LeCont tires. These changing conditions didn't agree with us as we were still in learning mode, so we couldn't post a fast enough lap time. The format works just like the SKUSA Supernationals, with three qualifying heats in each group, with 24 drivers each heat race. Tazio started 21st in his three heat races. In his first heat race Tazio had a brilliant start avoiding a first turn accident and making several passes, finishing 10th out of 24, Giving Tazio his first top ten finish in an International heat race. see this result at the following link:
http://www.cikfia.com/competitions/cik-calendar/2012/braga/academy/results/result/seventh/day/second/article/academy-1.html.
The second and third heats were not as good and Tazio couldn't manage better than 17th and 19th, which meant that after all the results were added, Tazio was outside the top 28, and outside the Final A (the main final). This meant that he would race in Final B. He started in 8th out of 19, had a bad start and dropped to 11th, but came back to finish 8th. The drivers that were really on top form were mostly European drivers that are currently competing in all major KF3 European championship. There is no questions that this crop of drivers are among the best 13 to 15 year old drivers in the world. They were all very fast and made no mistakes. To race among them was an incredible experience. The next race is in France next month we are hoping for a better result.