The third round of the Schaffhausen kart championship took place at the 1200 metres long Autereille circuit near Besançon in France.
Until now Marti had to drive a Junior class kart in this championship while competing against the Seniors, but having already proven himself the organizers found a clause in the Swiss kart federation rules that was enough for Marti to be allowed to race with a Senior, despite being just 11. This way Marti had the chance to compete against the vastly more experienced Seniors just like Kapellen Trophy on equal footing.
During the free practice session Marti posted the 3rd quickest time. But then the clouds opened and Marti had on his disposal his favorite conditions for qualifying. The qualifying went perfect and Marti took his first pole-position in Senior with a 0.5 sec. advantage!
For the start of the races the track was already dry. In the first heat Marti led the first couple of laps, but last year’s champion Ramon von Rohr was quite fast and overtook him. Then Marti made a strategic error by focusing too much on defensive driving against the third placed Mathias Bischofberger, instead of trying to pursue von Rohr. After a few laps he lost P2 and finished third.
For the second heat Marti had to start from third, he made a good start and took second which he managed to keep until the finish.
For the final race Marti had to start from the inside on first row, which isn’t a very advantagous place to start given that the first 3 corners are right hand turns and he quickly lost second place. This time out Marti was faster than Bischofberger and soon managed to overtake him for second with a nice late braking. Then by the end of the race, Marti was visibly getting tired and had to defend once again his second place. This time out he managed to do it successfully to get yet another podium in Senior!
This race proved that Marti has what it takes to compete against drivers who are over 20 years old and vastly more experienced than him, especially in the wet.
