The last round of the Schaffenhausen karting championship was at Wohlen, Switzerland on 24th October. This was to be the decisive round for the fight for 2nd place in the championship and that’s what Marti was preparing for. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. Marti’s competitor Mathias Bischofberger wasn’t present and before the event, he had lodged a protest against Marti for having points in the Senior championship while having driven in the first two rounds(Lyss & Levier) in the Junior championship. It’s a strange protest, but in any case, the outcome of the protest means that Marti will either be 2nd in the Senior championship or 1st in a weakly contested Junior championship and 3rd in Senior.
The weekend didn’t start very well as Marti was just 6th fastest in qualifying, his worst result of the season. Qualifying at Wohlen is more important because the track is shorter and slower than the previous tracks, so overtaking isn’t very easy.
Having to start in the mid-pack proved risky and Marti was pushed from the track at the start and rejoined last. As usual, he showed his fighting spirit and climbed up to finish in 4th place.
In the second race, he made a great start, moved up to 2nd, and then made a mistake late in the race which meant he could only finish 6th.
Sadly, things went from bad to worse and for the final race, Marti had to start from the pit lane because his engine couldn’t start in the cold. Once again he fought his way through the field and finished 5th.
The disappointment of finishing 5th illustrates how much Marti has grown. He’s still 4 years younger than the next youngest driver in Senior, yet he managed a lot of podiums and improved his race craft considerably over this short season.
The race at Wohlen was on Saturday, but on Sunday there was more racing for Marti! This time back to the rental karts in the 4 hours at Roggwil.
Last year Marti dominated in the 24h race at Roggwil lapping a full 1 second faster than everyone else, but this time he had a bad draw for the kart and his times were 1.6 slower than last year!
This 4-hour race was extremely overbooked, so much so that the organizers decided to do two 4 hour races and then one final 21 lap race to decide the overall winner.
Marti drove in the final and had to start from P5. He fought hard and managed to finish 2nd, but there was not enough time to overtake the leader.
This was the end of yet another weekend from which Marti comes away with a trophy!
