Kumpen and Longin happy with oval-debut

PK Carsport had a satisfying return trip to Belgium after finishing the Nascar Whelen Euro Series weekend at the Tours Speedway. Both Anthony Kumpen, Maxime Dumarey as well as father and son Longin put up a devilish battle at the French oval. At the end of the French weekend, PK Carsport is still leading two out of the three championships.
The guys from PK Carsport knew upfront it would prove to be a difficult challenge at the Half Mile oval in Tours Tours, the simple reason being that none of them ever participated in a Nascar-race on an oval track, with the exception of Elite 2-driver Maxime Dumarey.
‘As if that weren’t enough, we were also unlucky in the draw for the qualifying’, states Anthony Kumpen, still the leader in Elite 1 at the start of the weekend. ‘We had to go out on track quite early, a track which turned out to still be partially wet.’
So not a good starting position, yet Bert Longin and Anthony Kumpen managed to cross the finish in sixth and seventh position in the first race. ‘Racing at an oval is fantastic’, says Longin with a grin. ‘For 75 laps, you are racing each other at a few millimetres, not giving you a chance to relax for a sec. Luckily the races were quite disciplined, allowing all of us to drive on the limits.’
The second race on Sunday saw rain pouring down on the track. ‘That’s when you really notice the difference with the experienced drivers’, continues Longin. ‘They know the good settings and manage to find the good driving lines. Even if that only buys you a tenth of a second, in this championship that really makes the difference.’
Longin completed the second race in ninth position, Kumpen just one place higher. ‘This means I am no longer leading the championship, but only by a mere nine points’, explains Kumpen. ‘Bert on the other hand is moving up from ninth to sixth position, so all in all we managed to limit the damage. Proof: our cars are still leading the team championship and our young drivers also did a great job in Elite 2. When taking into account our limited experience, it’s fair to say we should be pleased with these results.’
Talking of Elite 2, Maxime Dumarey is now leading the pack in the championship, the third place in the opening race playing an important role in this respect. Stienes Longin, who saw his international racing debut in Tours, left quite an impression with a fourth and second place.