Gianluca Dingli could not satisfy his BRM Virtu Ferries Racing team more after his appointment as 2011 BRM official driver by taking the chequered flag and secure the top podium in his debut race in Sicily.
This positive start for the opening season race in the circuit of Triscina Castelvetrano (Trapani) confirmed once again that Dingli, 16, is a very talented youngster and is very eager to progress further with BRM International of Italy.
More than 90 drivers participated in this first round of the Coppa CSAI Karting Championship with a good presence in almost all eight categories, which turned out into a spectacular karting show on the track.
All races had to be fought until the last lap as all drivers were uncertain due to the weather conditions which prevailed during the weekend, thus keeping everything up till the last lap.
This was particularly challenging for Gianluca as he didn’t have a lot of experience with racing in the wet conditions and had to do the qualifying session for pole position in wet weather tyres. However, with the assistance of Mario Lena, Gianluca’s team manager, as well as guidance from BRM head office in Brescia headed by Signor Erminio Bozzoni, they managed to work around these issues and change the setup of the kart and engine accordingly. Albeit this challenging factor, Dingli still managed to place 10th overall in the Pole Position.
Luckily, the weather on Sunday afternoon improved and the race director ordered all teams to change to slick (dry weather) tyres.
Gianluca, now more confident with these conditions, was able to give a hard time to the competitors who qualified in front of him in the Rotax Max Class, Under 30 category. With the green light on the first final race, Gianluca was determined to show his real potential and ultimately passed all of them one by one to finish first.
Before the second final race, Mario Lena made some more adjustments to setup of the kart and engine to improve the performance yet a little bit more. These changes suited Gianluca perfectly and once on track, he managed to win the second final race as well which brought great satisfaction in the team as the Maltese youngster was declared the overall winner of the first event of the Sicilian Rotax Max Regional championship with Carlo Speciale and Salvatore Battaglia placing second and third overall respectively.
“It all turned positive when the Race Director ordered to change to dry” a highly satisfied Gianluca stated. “On my first win in dry conditions, Mario Lena noticed that I needed some more adjustments and this enabled me to keep the advantage I managed to achieve in the first final. I am grateful to my parents and BRM Racing Team for this first victory in Sicily.”
Dingli thanked his employer Hetronic Malta (a division of Methode Electronics Limited) for their continuous support, his main sponsor Virtu Ferries for helping out with travel arrangements, BRM Racing Srl, his team manager Mario Lena, Chevron Autodealer (Hubert Camilleri), Malta Motorsport Federation, Kunsill Malti ghall-iSport, Kunsill Lokali Rabat, Zoqdi Racing Team, Badger Karting, and all other sponsors.