​Proper spring weather welcomed the team to Uppsala and the Rörken Ring, home of Rasbo Motor Club, hosts of both the 2021 and the upcoming 2023 Swedish National Championship. A race that our young race driver hopes to compete in this season.

It is a brand new track for him, but not for AD Motorsport, who have a storied success rate at this track as a team, becoming Swedish Champions here in 2021 through Max Sjölander. They were confident of bringing Deven up to speed quickly. It is a high speed track, with a very long start/finish straight, and some of the lowest gearing of the season. It required extra smooth steering input to master the last sector’s tight and technical layout.

FRIDAY FREE PRACTICE
Deven and the Grabko GP contingent arrived early on Friday morning to help with the AD Motorsport tent setup. It was good to have the chance to be a part of what goes into making sure all the drivers and mechanics have what they need, when they need it during the race weekend.

Deven seemed up to the task on Friday for sure, as his times kept plummeting as the day wore on. By the time the 8th and final run was completed with the late evening sun angling its way over the track, he found himself fastest, noting the best time of the day during the last session.

It was an especially positive feeling, because he never felt that he had gotten in a really 100% clean lap where there hadn’t been a little niggle here or a wiggle there in the tight twisty last sector of the lap. He was still exploring his best way through there.

​The morning chills haven’t left the south of Sweden just yet as the team made the trip back down to Skåne for the 2023 Malmö Rookie Cup. Lockarps Karting Circuit was the venue for this race, which the team was using as a warmup for the SKCC series event to be held here after the Summer, so it was important to build confidence through the race weekend.

This was also the scene of one of the team’s stronger results last year, a solid top 10 in the 2022 SKCC Series championship coming across the line in 9th in the Feature Final.

The event format was different for this event as well, after the morning warm up sessions, only a 5 minute qualifying followed by three 5 lap heats and a 10 lap final. It meant that every lap was important, especially in qualifying, so both Deven and the team would have to be on their toes to maximize performance.

​It was a solid opening race weekend for Grabko GP as Deven Grabko showed his potential to his new boss.

Klippan Cup is the traditional season opener for the Swedish kart racing season, and over the years has become the unofficial Nordic Championship, attracting some of the best drivers from Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Its high status was especially reinforced in the mini 60 category, where nearly 50 drivers from all over Scandinavia came to fight for victory on Easter Weekend.

This is a track that has previously been somewhat of a bogey for the team, finding it difficult to zero in on the pace in previous seasons, and with strokes of bad luck sprinkled in the mix, the 4th round of the Southern Sweden Kart Champion Cup last year being a particular sore point, where failure to fuel the kart for qualifying had meant a last place starting position for the qualifying heats, and then after having worked our way up into the top ten in the final, crashing out at the end of the 1st lap, and limping home near the back of the field.

But this weekend was a new year, a new team, a new category, and a new opportunity, and Deven Grabko was determined to make the most of it.