Qualifying Setback Derails Gore’s Viterbo Weekend
Swedish-Australian karting driver Axel “Axeman” Gore was left wondering what might have been at Viterbo after strong pace throughout the weekend was overshadowed by a difficult qualifying session and a string of incidents during the fifth round of the ACI Italian Karting Championship.
Competing in the OK-N Junior category with AKM Motorsport from September 25–27, Gore arrived at the Leopard Circuit showing impressive speed throughout testing and continued that form into official practice.
However, qualifying proved to be the turning point of the weekend. After showing competitive pace in the lead-up sessions, Gore and the AKM squad were unable to replicate their earlier speed when it mattered most, leaving Axel P17 in his qualifying group and facing starts around P20 for each of his heats.
With such a competitive field, starting deep in the pack inevitably increased the risk of becoming caught up in incidents — something Gore experienced almost immediately.
Starting P20 in Heat 1, Gore's race lasted only two corners after he was caught in contact at Turn 2 on the opening lap through no fault of his own, resulting in an immediate DNF.
Heat 2 brought another early setback. Again starting P20, Gore was forced to take evasive action when an accident unfolded directly ahead at Turn 5 on the opening lap. Taking to the outside to avoid the incident dropped him to the rear of the field, but Gore responded with strong pace and fought his way back to P20 by the chequered flag.
The third heat again demonstrated the speed that had been evident throughout the weekend. Starting P20, Gore began working his way forward and looked capable of mounting a charge towards the top 10. Having climbed to P17 by Lap 6, he was hit from behind and forced off circuit before further contact damaged the front of his kart and severely compromised his visibility. Despite the damage, the Axeman battled on to bring the kart home in P26.
Heat 4 provided another difficult race from P20. After a challenging opening phase and a penalty following close battles in the pack, Gore reached the chequered flag in P25.
Those results — particularly the opening-heat DNF — left Gore with a mountain to climb in the pre-final, starting P33 out of 36.
But once again, his race pace quickly came to the fore.
In trademark Axeman fashion, Gore carved his way through the field, gaining 10 positions by Lap 5 and continuing his charge to reach P20 by Lap 8. With momentum firmly behind him and another significant recovery drive unfolding, Gore was forced to avoid an incident ahead, costing him several of the positions he had worked so hard to gain.
Undeterred, Gore immediately began fighting back and recovered to P20 once again, capping off a drive that demonstrated the pace and racecraft that had been evident throughout the weekend.
While the final results did not reflect Gore's underlying speed at Viterbo, the weekend provided a clear focus for the remainder of the season: qualifying.
With Gore and AKM consistently demonstrating competitive pace in testing, practice and race conditions, putting together a stronger qualifying performance will be key to allowing the young Swedish-Australian to start further forward, stay clear of the midfield incidents that hampered his Viterbo weekend and convert his speed into results.
Axel Gore:
“We had the pace all weekend, but we really need to pull everything together in qualifying. That's what cost us this weekend. You can't expect to start 20th and work your way through four heats without getting caught up in something.
"AKM gave us the package and our pace was there throughout testing and official practice, but for some reason the whole team lost around half a second in qualifying. We haven't been able to work out exactly why — it may have been a bad set of tyres — but ultimately it doesn't matter. We just need to do a better job when qualifying matters most."
"We worked our way up from 20th towards the top 10 in one heat and Colucci punted me off into Turn 5. In Heat 1, I was punted off before Turn 2. I don’t know who it was, but four karts just don’t fit into Turn 2. Then in the pre-final, I worked my way from 34th to 19th, only to get tangled up in another incident ahead of me.”
“At the end of the day, it all comes down to quali. We just need to do a better job there, and that will be our focus for the balance of the year. Quali, quali, quali.”
