Grabko GP are to enter into a strategic partnership with the multiple trophy winning racing outfit AD Motorsport in a move that will see their young driver talent, Deven Grabko, step into a race seat for the Helsingborg based team for the 2023 season.

​After a successful test day at the Kart Ring Klippan circuit last weekend, the groundwork for an agreement was put in place. The move means that 10 year old Deven Grabko, who raced in the Swedish Formula Mini class in 2022 with LK Racing and the Intrepid Driver Program Sweden, will move up to the Junior 60 category, also known as Mini 60, an FIA-CIK international kart racing class, with the preliminary race program to include entries in the SKCC, SKL, and KCV championships in 2023.

Grabko GP are really looking forward to joining forces with AD Motorsport, who are a young and ambitious race team, having established themselves as a one of the teams to beat on the national stage in only a few short years. In 2022 alone, they became Swedish Champions, with victory in the J60 category at the national championships in Kalmar, Sweden, with driver Melvin Kalousdian. In addition, they recorded dozens of race wins and won a further six national series driver championship titles and four additional overall podium spots, including series victories in multiple categories in the IAME Series Sweden, Swedish Kart League, and Southern Swedish Kart Champion Cup.

The driving force behind the success is former Energy Corse Racing Karts factory team driver, Alex Dahlberg, who, together with a core group of like-minded racers, founded the team in 2020, and maintains close ties with the Italian kart manufacturer. The main goal was to take the fight to the OTK chassis teams, and develop the Energy Corse chassis into a fearsome race winning machine.

After focused and determined chassis development in partnership with the Energy Corse engineers, in 2021 they started winning races, and in 2022 they ​had their breakthrough year. Now in 2023 they will attempt to go even further!

Suddenly It All Comes Together

Here we are, the final official race of the 2022 season for Grabko GP!

​We couldn’t think of a better place to come to round off the year than the Åsum Ring International Circuit in Kristianstad, Sweden.

Only four weeks ago the team was here for the final round of the Southern Swedish Karting Championship Cup. It was our 5th race weekend in 6 weeks and it showed in disappointing fashion as back to back to back to back races left less and less time to recuperate, recharge the batteries, and get the material right for the next race. Now though, there would be no excuses as the 3 week break left both team and driver rejuvenated and raring to go, with everyone and everything in tip top shape leading up to the event. All of us were hungry for revenge and to show what we could do and what we were really made of.

Grande Finale has earned its name over the past 3 decades as the premier end of season event in Swedish karting, attracting entrants from all over the country, as well as internationally, to compete for victory at the raceway that is regularly host to both European and World Championship events. It is a challenging track that has everything, from tight technical sections to sweeping high speed corners, as well as demanding elevation changes and off camber corners that give it a little extra bite for the drivers. This season was the 30th anniversary of the prestigious event, and what an honor it would be to put our name on the record books near the top of the results list here.

The event format would mirror that of the international karting environment the race facilities have on offer. It would be 3 full days of racing, with a Friday Free Practice, Saturday Qualifying and Sprint Heats, and on Sunday a Super Heat followed by the Grande Finale itself for all the glory.

​This was it, the seventh and final round of the 2022 Southern Swedish Kart Championship Cup. It was hard to believe it had already been 5 months almost to the day when it all kicked off with a maiden top 10 finish at the first round in Helsingborg.

Then a long rough patch as the team threw away a second consecutive top 10 in round 2 in Växjö when going for slicks in mixed conditions and an ill-timed rain shower ruined the day.

​A powerful salvage job in round 3 followed that, also in Växjö during a double race weekend, grabbing a handful of points in the final after starting from the back of the grid when the spark plug cover fell off during qualifying, and fighting our way back through the field in the sprint heats to come home 15th.

After that the disappointment of round 4 in Klippan, where the team let Deven down in qualifying, forgetting to fuel his kart and he had to start from the back again, this time after making up 12 places in the opening lap of the final, crashed out and limped home to 28th.

Round 5 in Jönköping saw phantom mechanical issues that were not discovered until the next round of the competition, giving Deven no chance of putting in a performance and he bravely fought on at the back of the field.

The redemption in round 6 at Malmö where even with the mechanical issues only partly repaired, he showed his grit and skill to take home his best result of the season, another top 10 finish and silverware to put in the trophy room.

And now this - what would the final round have in store for Deven?

The decisive round of an ultra-competitive Kart Cup West series championship was upon us. It all comes down to this after a long and bumpy ride full of highs and lows. From a slow start in Borås way back in April, to the podium glory of Lidköping, another podium performance snatched away from us in Skövde, and undiscovered bent chassis woes of Gothenburg, now it was back home to the Glimminge Ring for the decider. Going into the final round Deven held a razor thin grip on 2nd in the driver’s championship, but was at a huge disadvantage due to having to remove the worst result in the series from your points tally, as he was most likely going to be forced to erase 8 more points than his rivals around him. He would basically have to win and have 2 of the 3 drivers around him not finish in the final in order to hang on to his position. A realistic result and one to be proud of for the season would be to take home 4th in the driver’s championship.

Free Practice Saturday
Our man Deven was in good form, driving well with excellent minimum speed and low engine rpms higher than those around him, but the top end was letting him down badly. Again almost a second off the pace of the leaders, all at the back end of the straights, but this time the cause was known. The race motor was making its return, newly serviced, and so was a little tight, and thus the team were running it all through the practice day to break it in for the race day tomorrow. It was accepted and expected behaviour, so the mood was still one of quiet confidence as they packed in the gear prepping for race day the next morning. Data points were not lying.

Race Day Sunday

Free Practice 1 & 2 | 5 & 10 minutes | P8 & P7
The early morning session was cold and damp, so representative times were not being put up on the timing sheets. Quiet session trying to run in the motor. No panicking yet. The second session was expected to be better, but still the engine was refusing to breathe and give Deven the power he needed down the straights, about 300 revs down on where it should be. Deven was again top of the charts on the data in the corners but getting mugged on the straights by almost everyone. Still finished one better in P7 going into qualifying, but too far off the pace to be comfortable at all.

The races just keep coming, hard and fast! Marking the halfway point in our hectic 4 race September, the Team 13 Karting Circuit would again be our hosts. It was time for the 2022 Gothenburg Grand Prix, an annual event that attracts drivers from across Sweden, and the Formula Mini class was no exception.

It was a strong field full of drivers the team hasn't raced against previously, so it was going to be a good measure of our driver’s meddle, especially as we were looking to put up a better showing this time around than at the same track two weeks ago in the 4th round of the Kart Cup West. During that weekend, we had shown a notable lack of pace and the gap to the front was too large. We were looking to remedy that situation.

Practice Friday
Friday was a lost day in many respects. The team was only able to arrive at the track and get the paddock area setup complete in time for two runs in the afternoon before the track closed down for registration and technical inspection for the racing tomorrow.

On top of that, it had started to rain after lunch and by the time Deven got himself out on track it was very wet conditions. A few off track adventures into newly laid dirt in the runoff areas, meant to be planted grass but transformed into mud pits because of the rain, meant that more time was spent rinsing off and cleaning up the racing machine than driving it out on track.

​Not much time for analysis here, but Deven was able to study driver coach commentary from his 9th place finish in Malmö the previous week, so not all was lost.

​Race Day
The event had a slightly different format than what we are used to in the SKCC and KCV series the team runs in, with only a single practice warm up session before a 7min qualifying session. Then it would be two 8 lap sprint qualifying heats to determine the grid for a longer 10 lap Pre-Final race. The results from the Pre-Final would determine the starting grid for the 16 lap Feature Final.