The 15th Winter Cup at the South Garda Karting circuit in Lonato del Garda in Brescia is proving too challenging for young Maltese driver Jacques Mizzi.

Unfortunately, the regulations have changed since last year, and instead of nine groups all the drivers in class KF2 have been placed in six groups.

It is possible that the bad weather is restraining the organizers to fewer groups, to cover the programme in less time. This race is living up to its name!

After timed practice, Jacques classified 33rd in Group A, that is at the end of the field. If there were nine groups he would have been placed in the 24th position, with fewer drivers to contest the qualifying laps. In his first lap he clocked 66.383 secs, but apparently he had problems in the second lap. The best lap counts for qualifying.

At the time of writing, it is not known whether he committed a driver error, or was caught in the rain and wind. Similarly, at this stage, it is not known whether he is finding difficulty with the track, or whether he has any mechanical problems.

There is, of course, no comparison between the 1.01 km track at Lonato and the track at Hal Far. In Malta fewer drivers compete in each class of each race.

Mizzi has a whole learning curve ahead of him, but he still had to perform in the qualifying round or the “second chance” yesterday.

Whatever the outcome, this will be considered as a useful educational experience for future events both in Malta and abroad for Jacques who is only 17 years old.