2022 GRANDE FINALE

Full Attack Mode In The Wet

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.

FRIDAY - FREE PRACTICE DAY

The funny thing about the race weekend. It never actually rained down from the sky during the day while the karts were running. Rather it was at most a misty, dark daylight with heavy low clouds and fog, with water saturating the cool Swedish Autumn air to the point that it just seemed to materialize and suspend itself and hang there without actually raining. This dreary drizzle meant a slick fully wet track, but no standing water. Used rain tires it was then and the purchase of new wets for the race days. The forecast showed more of the same for almost the whole weekend with a slight chance of the sun making an appearance on Sunday. This was the context of the practice day, which consisted of three 8 minute sessions in the morning and four 10 minute sessions in the afternoon.

The team went about their work efficiently, with Deven the Kid giving excellent and consistent drives allowing the team to dial in a very well working setup by the time the last session came around, when the team were to put on their race set of wet tires and break them in for qualifying the next morning. In the intervening period between the sixth and last sessions though, the air got a bit drier and an ever so slightly less wet racing line started to appear on the track. Suddenly the times start plummeting as the last session went on and with still a few minutes to go, Intrepid Kart Driver Deven aborted and came into the pits. He reported the track being too dry for these brand new wet tires and he didn’t want to burn them up by staying out for the rest of the session. Sure enough, driver after driver started coming in after him. He had kept his head and done well to save his race material for when it counted. This boded well for the rest of the weekend. From the limited data we could gather from around the paddock, we knew we would be there somewhere in the mix at the top 10, but we didn’t quite realize what Deven had in store for us this weekend.

SATURDAY - QUALIFYING AND SPRINT HEATS

Free Practice | 8 min | P8
It was more of the same as far as the weather went on Saturday. It was very damp, and seemed to have rained overnight, and everything was back to being soaking wet without actual rain coming down. As you were, then - on with the practice wets for the single warm up session before qualifying. It was a strange session. It was clear that the kart lacked speed compared to the day before, but it was more wet as well now in the morning. However, Deven had gotten in a wet weather rhythm, and was extracting the maximum from the kart on the used set of tires. Of those out on used tires he was the leader, setting a time 1.6s off the pace and finishing the session 8th fastest. It was a very promising start to the day, but now the hope was that the conditions wouldn’t change too much in the intervening 2+ hours before the qualifying session.

Qualifying | 10 min | P2
No setup changes were made. It was a simple tire change from used wets to one run old new scrubbed wets. It was a revelation. It was night and day. It was magical. From the first flying lap, Deven never let go of 2nd place. Instead he was looking ahead, not behind. Feeling the grip in his tires immediately, he picked his way as quickly as he could through the field, and together with Intrepid teammate Alve Alehall, they had the entire track free ahead of them to fight for pole position from lap one. And that is exactly what they did. They gave each other almost the whole front straight as a gap and just went at it. It was a pleasure to watch as the two Intrepid Driver Program pilots traded blows. In the end it was Alehall who took pole by just over 0.3s with Deven taking 2nd and locking out the front row for the Italian manufacturer. Fellow ace Intrepid pilot Leo Abrahamsson made it complete by taking home P3 as well and making things look really good for team orange going into the sprint heat section of the race weekend.

Sprint Heat 1 | 8 laps | P2—>P2—>P5 (3s penalty)
At this point, it seemed like the only thing that could stop us now was ourselves. So of course - that is exactly what we did. 🙃 Deven was starting from the front row for only the 2nd time in a major event this season, and it was of no surprise, despite pre-race meeting briefings, that he got a bit overexcited. The thing was is that he made an excellent and fair start, almost inch perfect in fact, and in the wet conditions simply stuck to the outside of the long sweeping turn 1 while everyone else tried to squeeze themselves to the inside line. He then went into full attack mode like a diving bird of prey, and dove down hard and ruthlessly into the turn 2 & 3 chicane. For the other racers it was either give way or be swallowed up in the wake of Deven’s wrath. They chose the latter.

Deven stormed off with a little gap behind in his wake. The only problem was is that the start camera caught him head steering, as he looked over at Alehall to time his start he drifted out of his corridor by mere centimeters only a few tire diameters from the 25 meter line - and it cost him 3 seconds added to his race time after the race. But for the moment he was riding high on a clean and agressive start that cemented his P2 position through the first lap. It was going to be a battle the whole way through. On lap 2 he made a mistake just after the chicane and it was all he could do to keep the kart pointed forward as the rear came out on him and he lost momentum into the wide entry, 180° turns 4 and 5. The #119 of Henrik Bergström was there to take advantage, who himself was already having a fine race weekend. He dove down cleanly on Deven and took the place. Deven wasn’t having any of it however, and the two battled it out in the slippery wet in what was the most heart-in-mouth close racing of the heat.

How they managed to fight that hard and keep it clean with no significant contact is still a mystery. They did it though, and eventually Deven won out the fight and was able to regain a bit of a gap. It was an amazing display of racecraft from both drivers, and Deven showed the ability to adapt and plan an attack as he first made two failed attempts at the backside hairpin of turn 7 before taking the spot in the technical section turns 7-8-9 complex instead. Unfortunately he couldn’t make a 3s gap, only 1s, and was demoted to P5 after his false start penalty. It was a bitter pill to swallow for him after a pretty epic drive, but he would have to get past it in order to get the most out of the weekend.

Sprint Heat 2 | 8 laps | P2—>P4
One positive about the full weekend race format is the downtime between sessions. Deven had time to reload and re-center after the penalty, and was back in focused form as he lined up on the pre-grid for the second heat. This time it was a picture perfect start and again it was only Alehall that could resist Deven’s aggressive and decisive start. He was through the chicane keeping his P2 position, again using the outside line in the wet to his advantage. It was, however, short lived. The lightning fast #116 of Alve Strömberg had found life in his tires and was unstoppably quick. Deven smartly didn’t fight with him as he realized the pace difference in the two racing machines.

He put in his best laps of the race in this middle stint and seemed to have a lock on 3rd position. Then his problems began with 3 laps to go. The tires seemed to go off after lap 5. Suddenly you could see how Deven was struggling for grip and fighting the kart where he had looked nicely planted before. Other were getting quicker and he was getting slower. His 2 second gap back to P4 became 1.5s, and then with only a lap to go it was 0.6s. The final lap was a desperate defense as the much faster kart behind bore down on him. He battled for all he was worth and successfully defended all the way through turns 1, 4, 6, 7, and 8. It looked as though he had done it, but then came the super wide entry of the final turn leading onto the front straight. The kart behind dove in very early and took the apex away from Deven, who tried to pull an inside out maneuver as he had done in turn 7 successfully earlier in the lap. Here though, it was a dead drag race to the line, and Deven was forced to take the more narrow exit, preventing him from giving the engine the optimum freedom, and lost the race up the hill to the finish line by 0.2s to drop to 4th place at the death.

It was tough to take, but after a good period of reflection, and the official result that showed that Deven would line up on the 2nd row of the grid for the Super Heat on Sunday made it a bit easier. The team still had all the chance in the world, especially with the starts Deven had been producing. What did need to be solved though, was the tire situation. It was a worrying development that the tires had suddenly fallen off like they had. There was no overheating going on, and pressures looked good, the same as qualifying and the first heat. Well - it would all be decided on Sunday Race Day.

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SUNDAY RACE DAY - SUPER HEAT AND GRANDE FINALE

Warm Up | 8 min | P10
The morning session was more of a, “get your blood flowing” session to make sure things were good to go for the super heat. The weather situation was unchanged again for the morning. Misty dreary, damp. No setup changes necessary as the team threw on the older set of wets and mostly went out to verify carberator jetting and tire pressure settings. It was an encouraging start to the day as Deven went out and recorded a P10 result on the old tires, again being right at the pointy end of the times of those on older tires. On to the Super Heat!!

Super Heat | 8 laps | P4—>P6
The Super Heat concept is different than a pre-final or semi-final, and is used to make the race weekend more fair by reshuffling the grid and giving another chance at a result. The classifications from the first two heats are used to make the grid for the Super Heat. Then all the results from heats 1 and 2 as well as the Super Heat are averaged together to make the Feature Final grid. What this meant for the team was that barring any catastrophic loss of pace or a crash, a top 4 grid spot should be secure with any top 10 result. Knowing this was one thing. Trying to get your fledgling racing driver to allow this fact to sink in was quite another. However, Deven showed surprising maturity as this information sunk in during the morning team briefing, and he said, “so I don’t actually have to worry that much and just make sure I am up there near the front?” A resounding yes was the answer, and the team went out and lined up on the pre-grid.

As we were tipping the kart down on the grid, we noticed it - a huge sky-wide break in the clouds, almost like a laser straight cut and beyond clear blue skies! It was heading directly our way. It would not reach us for this race at all, but with almost 3 hours intervening between this race and the Grande Finale, thoughts were already churning in the team’s head. Surely it would be dry for the final if the sun beat down on the track for 3 hours?? It was a question for another time. Right now we had to secure our grid spot for the Grande FInale. Again nobody was a match for Deven’s irresistible starts. He cut his way into the first chicane and took one place into 3rd. He didn’t quite have the pace to hang with the pair ahead, but again the middle stint looked like he would relatively comfortably take home 3rd spot and cement his place for the Grande FInale.

Then it happened again. Lap 6. Lost 0.3s in pace. Lap 7. Lost another 0.3s. Powerless to stop the kart behind from passing him. Now P4. Lap 8. Another 0.4s fall off and he has no answer again as the kart behind almost effortlessly gets by on the final lap. We cross the line P6, and wonder what is happening. It seemed that a pressure or temperature threshold was being reached where this particular set of tires just weren’t working. While this result was fine for the team, as Deven would start P4 for the Grand Finale, an awesome result thus far and one we would gladly have taken any day of the week if offered to us, but it was a 12 lap race, and if these tires were only going to last us 5 full race laps, we feared we would tumble down the order if the race would be run in wet conditions.

GRANDE FINALE | 12 LAPS | P4—>P2 🏆🏆🏆
This was it. Everything this weekend that had come before was only a pretext to this Grande Finale. Last race of the year. We’ve been here before. We’ve succeeded and we’ve failed. One more time into the fray! Full attack battle mode engaged. The sun had indeed come out. Even before the lunch break the final two Super Heat races had produced slick tire winners even in mixed grid tire choices. It was fully dry on track during the post lunch track walk inspection by the team. Now we went back into the data and looked up the best dry setup we had for this beautiful track. Then it was turning the screws, setting up the chassis, double checking everything one more time, topping off the fuel tank to eliminate any chance of underweight issues. Rechecking the front alignment after ride height adjustments. Checking and rechecking the tire pressures. Everything was good to go. It was going to be a fully dry track but with virtually zero rubber laid down. Grip levels would be low and it would be very important to nail the tire pressures and get them up to temperature as much as possible on the formation lap. Deven followed his instructions to the “T.” After P1 slowed down the field and everyone settled into their grid formations, Deven was one of the only drivers who kept weaving back and forth as much as he possibly could all the way to the final corner as the karts rippled into their respective start corridors. As the karts rolled up you could almost feel the confidence flowing out of the Grabko GP #14 as Deven bore down on the start finish line. You could sense something was about to happen.

The lights went out. It was a perfect start. The grip he had achieved by continuing to warm his tires long after most others paid off in spades. Deven shot off the line and took 3rd spot before the gaggle of karts even got to the turn in point of the first corner. Then he produced a heart-stopping moment of genius. Instead of taking the outside line like he had done the whole day, he dummied the 2nd placed kart ahead and then switched to the inside instead, catching him off guard, and found the grip to stay in the throttle and power past through the chicane! He was already in 2nd spot and bearing down on the leader as they headed to the first 180° turns 4 and 5. His extra grip advantage stayed with him and he got a run on P1 down the long straight between turns 5 and 6, and coming out of the latter he made a move to the inside, getting right alongside the leader. He kept to the outside racing line which forced the leader into taking a narrow entry to the turn 7 hairpin compromising his exit. Meanwhile Deven shot out of the corner like a missile, dove down the inside of the left handed turn 8 and was through!

He was leading the race. He was a rocket ship. He extended his lead during the remaining portion of the lap as the now 2nd placed Alve Alehall defended his position from those behind. Crossing the line after lap 1, he was almost a full second ahead. But bearing down now from behind though, was the lightning quick #116 of Alve Strömberg. The 2022 SKCC series champion had been getting faster and faster as the weekend went on and it was clear that his tires had turned on after the first lap and he was at the wheel of his own fighter jet. There was simply no answer to his pace as he inevitably caught Deven. The pace advantage was too great, and Deven knew it. But he wasn’t going to give up his first lead of a major final without at least a bit of a fight, and he definitely didn’t give it away, making a good account of himself as he held Strömberg at bay the entire 2nd lap without losing too much speed and momentum, crossing the line side by side to start lap 3 still in the lead by just 0.011s as they sped down towards turn 1, where Strömberg got the inside line and made the pass. Deven was now in 2nd spot and still 1.2s ahead of the battle going on for 3rd behind him. Again it was Bergström behind, who was having a weekend to remember himself, and he slowly but surely was bearing down on Deven, who seemed as though his tires may have peaked a little bit too early with his aggressive and exciting driving style. On lap 5 of 12 Bergström had latched onto the back of the #14 Grabko GP machine and had his best chance at an overtake that he would get. Deven kept his cool as the crossed the line and the #119 tried to get his nose down the inside. Again Deven held his nerve and shut the door, turing into the the racing line and then taking a wider mid-corner line in turn 1 to fire himself like a slingshot through the turn 2 & 3 chicane, making himself a bit of a gap again. He was not letting this one go no matter what.

He then held off attack after brutal attack the rest of the lap before managing to pull a couple of tenths of a second gap through the final section of the track to be able to head down the start finish straight and take turn 1 unchallenged at the start of lap 6. It was the hardest he would have to defend the rest of the race, because another kart got in on the podium fight action. The #4 of Casper Nilsson Gil had found pace and also made it past the pole sitter to get himself in to 4th position. He showed good opportunism to take advantage of the fight for 2nd to close up and get himself in with more than a shout. He went on the attack and suddenly Bergström was on the defensive rather than the offensive. An epic battle for 3rd spot ensued that went on for the entire remaining 6 laps of the race.

It was a boon to our man Deven who was then able to extract himself from fighting at all and focus on bringing home his hard fought 2nd position. He pulled out a relatively safe 1 - 1.5s gap that remained for the rest of the race, and the fist bump as Deven crossed the line was a priceless moment in the young lad’s short career. He had done it. Not his first trip up on the podium, but his first ever trip to the 2nd step. Also the first time he led a race at a major final.

​Epic!

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WEEKEND SUMMARY

What a weekend!

Deven was on top of it for the entirety of the event, from free practice through to an excellently executed qualifying. He then showcased his entertaining and fearless driving style through the sprint races and on to the Super Heat, culminating in a powerful and explosive performance in the Grande Finale, earning him more than a few admirers and no small measure of respect up and down the paddock, both on and off the grid.

We're actually a little bit speechless here. The performance the Kid (Deven Grabko) put on display here this weekend was on another level, and we are just so happy that he had the machinery firing on all cylinders underneath him to show what he can really do. We were having a dilemma with the wet tires going off through the Sprints and Super Heat, but when the sun came out we were hoping for something special, and boy, did Deven deliver! The only sense of disappointment now is that there aren't any races left this season!! We would love to keep racing now!

Huge thank you to our sponsors this season. We wouldn't even be out here racing without your support, it means so much. Now we look ahead and see what we can do to develop even further next season!"
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~ Dan Grabko, Principal

YEESSSS, BABY!!
That was awesome! I am so happy right now! I was so nervous before the start, but just kept thinking that I had to warm up my tires because I had already decided I was just going to go for it all at the start. I just put my foot down and refused to let off until braking for the first hairpin. I couldn't believe the speed I had! Leading the final for 2 laps was pretty special, I couldn't believe it was happening! But man, Strömberg had like a rocket booster on his kart, there was no holding him back, so big congrats to him on the deserved win. Also big thanks to Henrik (Bergström) for the clean racing and for his epic battle for 3rd that allowed me to not have to defend, and I could pull a gap. Awesome to share a podium with a good friend! LK Racing and Intrepid Driver Program Sweden have been epic this year helping us with our race setup and equipment, they have been really great this season. Can't really say enough nice things about them! Can't wait now to see what next year will bring us!
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~Deven Grabko, Race Driver

Such a beautiful way to end the season on a high, and give the team the confidence to come back and do it all over again next year! Grabko GP would like to thank everyone who has helped us this season with everything from helping to finance the racing endeavours to turning a screw, to loaning out equipment, time and expertise, or just a helping hand or kind words of support - YOU are the ones that make it all possible!

Especially our generous and amazing sponsors, the best we could hope to work with!!!

Improx Customs | Profil #461 | The Techno Creatives | Dumpling X Sweden | Elevate: Bespoke IoT Platforms | Weret: Surf Watches from Sweden

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