​Deven Lewis Grabko has achieved a season to remember, completing a meteoric rise to prominence. He took Swedish karting by storm in 2024, exceeding all expectations. The ultimate dark horse, bursting onto the scene as one of the youngest drivers on the grid to become the Scandinavian nation’s most decorated junior karting driver by the end of the season.

The numbers speak for themselves. 39 competition entries. 20 top 5 finishes including 12 podiums with 6 race victories. 2 National Titles and the Winner of the 2024 Gothenburg Grand Prix, one of the most prestigious races on the Nordic karting calendar.

The young Swedish American pilot showed consistency and poise, crowned Champion of Sweden’s two most competitive and demanding national series. Grabko claimed the 6 round IAME Series Sweden X30 Junior Championship in dramatic style, delivering under immense pressure by completing a must-win comeback victory in the final round to claim the title in one of the most dramatic conclusions to the competition in recent history.

​​Grabko’s second championship was confirmed as he took the 7 round Junior 125 South Sweden Kart Champions Cup title in style, with a margin of over 30 points to the 2nd place finisher in then end.

In both championships, he achieved more podiums than any other driver, his consistency reinforcing his championship winning qualities and cementing his position as a multiple national title holder. 

12 year old Swedish-American racing talent, Deven Grabko, has been selected to represent the USA at the 2024 FIA Motorsport Games to be held in Valencia, Spain during the 3rd week of October.

Deven, who is represented by the well-respected Italian Driver Management Agency, Minardi Management, has already made an impact on the international junior karting scene, scoring an impressive top 10 finish at the age of 11 in his junior category and World Series Karting debut, where he finished 7th in the WSK Final Cup at the hallowed South Garda Karting Circuit in Lonato, Italy, last November. 

The news of his nomination to represent the USA at the 2024 FIA Motorsport Games, dubbed the Olympics of Motorsport, comes on the back of not only his very strong debut in the international junior karting categories, OK Junior and X30 Junior, but also continued positive results during the beginning of the 2024 season, confirmation of his quality. Grabko currently races with his team AD Motorsport, who are based in Helsingborg, Sweden.

​Together with his team, he has enjoyed a very successful start to his first full season of junior karting, scoring two race wins, three podiums, and several additional top 5 and top 10 finishes in the first half of the season, which also included debuts in the IAME Euro Series Winter Cup in Valencia, Spain, and the IAME Series Italy Open Games in Lonato. Deven now leads the drivers championship in Sweden’s largest and most prestigious karting championship, the South Sweden Kart Champions Cup, in the Junior Open 125cc class going into the Summer break.

Deven is super happy to confirm his renewed commitment to the championship winning AD Motorsport for the 2024 race season! 🏎️💨💨💨

Deven’s 2024 International race program with the team will include select rounds of the IAME Euro Series and IAME Series Italy in the X30J category as well as the Champions of the Future and CIK/FIA European Championship in the OKJ category.

In addition to this, Deven will complete a full double duty Swedish race program to include the South Swedish Kart Champions Cup and IAME Series Sweden championships in both X30J and OKJ categories as well as the Swedish National Championship.

The season will start early for the young driver, who will travel to Valencia, Spain in a week’s time to prepare for the first race of the season, the IAME Euro Series Winter Cup, from January 31st to February 4th.

Deven had this to say about the news, “I am so happy to be able to race with AD Motorsport again this year! I am really grateful to be starting my junior career with them, it is going to be such a great place for me to develop and the team is amazing, and growing fast. It feels really good to be a part of it.”

Alex Dahlberg was equally stoked, “We really like Deven here, the energy he brings, and feel we can really contribute to his development and help him reach the big potential he has. He is a great ambassador for the team and the brand. It will be a really exciting year with him in our organization.”

Giovanni Minardi of Minardi Management shared these thoughts, “We are pleased to see Deven settled in a place where he is comfortable and can focus on development. We want big things for him in the future and know that he can acheive them.”

More fun news and announcements to come, watch this space! 👀👀👀

#karting #racing #motorsport #speed #grassrootsracing #kartingemotionandpassion #minardimanagement
#winningenergy #energycorse #admotorsport #grabkogp #usackarting #usacnation #kartingsweden #kartinglife #sbf #fiakarting #coolkarting #hardwork #nevergiveup #believe
#brunbergs #gotrollhattan #sweden #usa #iameseriesitaly #iameseriessweden #iameeuroseries #championskarting

​Going into the final round of the Kart Cup West, it was as tight as it could possibly be between the top 3 drivers, and absolutely anything could happen, with only two points separating the trio of Hugo Eklund, Deven Grabko, and Alexander Frykberg going into the last race of the season at the Gäddered Motorsport Complex Karting Circuit outside of Borås, Sweden in the village of Svaneholm.

There was extra pressure on our man Deven, who had held on to the second spot in the Kart Cup West National Series Championship for the last three rounds after a piston ring failure at his home track in Uddevalla cost him an otherwise sure podium finish, and his off in qualifying at the 3rd round in Lidköping where he was fastest on track all day long had cost him another podium. Had he secured those two results earlier in the season, he would already have already been sitting on 80 points going into the final round and had the series already wrapped up going into the final round.

As it was, he was on 70 points, one point behind the leader, Hugo Eklund, and one point ahead of 3rd placed Alexander Frykberg. He was also at a disadvantage to all the top 4 in the series on the tiebreaker criteria, which were best results, as Frykberg had a 2nd place in Skövde to Deven’s two 3rd place finishes in Gothenburg and Skövde, and Eklund had the victory in round 1 in Uddevalla.

So it meant he would have to beat them both on track outright in order to win, as any tie in points would go to the other driver.

SATURDAY FREE PRACTICE

The weather would be wet most of the free practice day, and in these conditions, Deven was untouchable. With laps time between 1 and 1.5 seconds faster than the closest competitor, things were looking good at lunch time on Saturday.

The afternoon running was still looking good, as the track moved over to dry conditions and slicks went on. Deven still held an approximate 3 tenth gap to the next fastest drivers in the early afternoon. The gap was closing, however, and as the track gripped up more and more, parity was reached and by the last run, the team was now looking at a 2-3 tenth deficit in pace to the fastest drivers instead, chasing time instead of setting the pace.

It was a worrying development going into the race day where it was forecast for sun and dry, more grippy conditions than the free practice day. The kart was stepping out in the back on our driver, preventing him from being able to fully push at key moments on the track, and race engineers were having trouble mitigating the issue.

This was how the situation ended going into race day.