Max Challenge Finals with Harrison Scott at the Algarve Motor Park
By Tiago Prata and Skip Bandele sport@algarveresident.com
One of the biggest Kart Racing events of the year, the Rotax World Finals, has been taking place at the Portimão Motor Park over the past few days and the excitement culminates tomorrow (Saturday).
The series, designed to provide youngsters with competitive racing experience with a view to producing future champions, enjoyed its inaugural finals 12 years ago in Puerto Rico.
Since those early days, it has grown in format to include more categories such as the Max DD2 Masters and has visited exotic locations such as Malaysia, South Africa, Egypt, Spain and Italy.
To date the only Portuguese-hosted finals took place in Viana do Castelo in 2006 and has now returned in the form of this week’s Algarve spectacular.
Entry for children under 14 years of age is free while adult tickets are priced between €5 and €10.
Many of last year’s United Arab Emirates Raceway winners, such as Britain’s Ben Cooper, graduating through the different age classes, are competing at the state-of-the-art Parkalgar kart track, hoping to emulate past Rotax champs such as Jean-Eric Vergne who is now with Formula One team Toro Rosso.
The Algarve Resident spoke to Harrison Scott, number 259 on the entry list, from Tonykart team. One of the three best racers from England called to the ROTAX finals, he is racing in the senior category, and was the fastest on the morning of November 27.
We watched the non-qualifying practice in the afternoon, where he and his team were experimenting with the kart’s settings, to refine it for the qualifying heats. After debriefing with the team to discuss the race, he spoke to us.
Harrison raced once before in the Algarve, and this time he found the track “really good, a fast track. I have been looking forward to it”.
For Harrison, who has family ties to the region, racing in the Algarve is a privilege: “It was always my dream to race in the ROTAX finals; it was really good doing it here, with a lot of support from family and friends, especially my family, who worked really hard for the whole year to bring me here”.
His expectations for the finals are clear: “I want to win. If everything goes well, equipment and driver, I think we can.” And he knows what he is talking about. At 16, he has a long list of achievements in Kart Racing, a ride he has found rewarding: “I had disappointments, but I love the sport, and it has been very rewarding to be able to race all over England and Europe”.
For Harrison, it has also been a good stepping stone, learning to drive and work with a team, with speed involved: “But there comes a time when you have to leave Kart Racing, and my intention is to move up to Formula motor racing, hopefully as soon as possible”.
To the Algarve Resident readers and the community, he “wanted to thank all the support I have received”. The family hopes it will help him achieve well and he offers special thanks to Algarve Removals, his supportive father’s company, which sponsors him and makes so much of it possible.
The Senior Finals will take place tomorrow (December 1) at 2.55pm.
