Race weekend 7 of 7 in a row. 2nd furthest travel distance of the domestic race season. Two days of training at another new track for the team. Challenge accepted - and as it turned out, it would be a challenging weekend indeed.

The Skogstorps Karting Circuit in Kalmar, Sweden, would host Round 3 of the South Sweden Kart Champion Cup, and the premier karting series in the country brought with it the full compliment of international drivers it is known for. The circuit itself was essentially brand new. The entire track had been relaid with new asphalt, and a whole new layout for sector 3 had transformed the track into 1200m of one of the most technical challenges of the season for the drivers. It was now a 16 corner monster, with a long and fast banked corner at the left handed turn 14 that led right into an off-camber right handed hairpin at turn 15 leading to a final hairpin back to the left out onto the short start finish straight.

THURSDAY/FRIDAY FREE PRACTICE
The team traveled Wednesday night to a nice halfway point just outside of Moheda, Sweden to a cabin in the woods, on land owned by the family deep in Småland for several generations. It is a quiet peaceful place where we were able to charge our batteries before heading on to Kalmar on Thursday morning for the first of two free practice days.

The track had only been driven on once before, during the team’s inaugural season in 2020. Since then it has been redone, the third sector brand new with an added super tight and technical “s” section right before the start/finish straight. This would be the first time most drivers, besides the local entries, would be testing it out, and the team would need as many laps as possible to figure it out.

Day one saw the team using its training setup to put in laps and get a feel for the track layout. It was a productive day that saw massive track evolution even during the shorter Thursday practice. New asphalt with no rubber at the beginning of the day meant the team were doing everything to find more grip in the setup, whilst by the end, there was too much rubber laid down, and then it was all about doing everything to take grip back out of the chassis.

Friday was a more representative day, with full race equipment and setups zeroing in on optimal and the track settling into its race day condition as all groups and categories laid down their tire rubber on the track. The pace in the kart was good, but the Driver was having a conundrum about how to handle the final sector of track. Super fast up to that point, we were still ending up 3-4 tenths off the front by the end of the lap.

After the disappointment of our home race weekend in Uddevalla, Deven and the team were looking to bounce back right away as attention turned back to the South of Sweden for another triple series race event.

For the sixth of our septuple header of race weekends, Grabko GP would be joining up with the rest of the AD Motorsport team in Helsingborg, Sweden for the 2nd round of the South Sweden Kart Champion Cup, the 2nd round of the Swedish Kart League, and the 3rd round of the IAME Series Sweden.

It was another big international entry list, with 44 drivers from across Scandinavia (and the US) signing up to battle it out for top honors.

Host of this triple threat event would be Helsingborgs Karting Club, at their Väla Karting Circuit facilities. It is a track the team has gone well at in the past, so hopes were again high for a good result here at this quick and grippy race track.

FRIDAY FREE PRACTICE

It was another very useful, productive, and above all, fast Friday practice. After initial shakedowns, it was top 5-6 lap times as the track rubbered up and became extremely grippy, just the way our man Deven likes it.

Full program completed without issues, and just missing out on a couple of tenths to be right there with the top 3 or so drivers. It was yet another free practice where real pace was put on display, but the problem for the team has been translating this pace into results on race day.

Everyone was looking forward to trying to finally break the pattern of being fast on Friday but not converting it to results on race day.

Hopes and spirits were high as the team entered into its 5th race weekend in a row. The season had started out well above initial expectations, with our young energetic race driver, Deven showing his potential and talent already fighting for top ten results and podiums.

Now was time for the first round of the Kart Cup West, and it was our driver’s home club, Uddevalla Karting Club, who would be host to the initial round of this 2023 championship at the Glimminge Ring Karting Circuit on the west coast of Sweden. Being in his element, Deven was confident going into the weekend, he knew he would be quick, and it was a matter of executing to ensure a good result to get a jump start on the competition.

FRIDAY FREE PRACTICE
As has been the case in several race weekends this season already, Deven was quick on practice day.

Motor settings, tire sets, and front end adjustments were gone through without issue and Deven’s consistency allowed for the full testing program to be completed interruption free.

Data showed the young AD Motorsport pilot had a couple tenths margin to the nearest competitors after the full testing program was completed and a qualifying simulation was done.

In short, it was looking positive going into Race Day.

SUNDAY RACE DAY
The luck with the weather has been unbelievable thus far into the Swedish Spring season, and this weekend was no exception. It was still a very crispy couple of degrees above freezing in the morning, but as the days wore on and the Sun powered down, it became perfect conditions for racing, between 13-17 Celsius.

Warm Up Practice | 1x 5min, 1x 8min | P2, P2
The warm up sessions were a matter of confirming tire selection and engine settings. In the first short five minute warm up, old scrub tires were used, and the track was not quite as fast in the cold of the morning. Despite this P2 was a positive indication of the pace in kart and driver. For the second practice session a set of new tires was rubbed in and here there was only 0.04s in it for P1, with Deven showing his credentials. There was more to show in the kart for qualifying.

Coming into the weekend was the 4th of 7 race weekends in a row. After two straight weeks of fighting for top honors on the national scene, taking one podium and a 4th place result, it was time to take on another massive, nearly 50 strong, international field of some of Scandinavia’s best Mini 60 pilots, all gathered together in a massive race weekend that would award points in three separate national racing series.

Obviously a big occasion for team and driver, that saw them travel the long road down to Kristianstad, Sweden, where the Åsum International Karting Circuit awaited. It was a track that our man Deven enjoyed, and had everything - high speed corners, technical tight sections, and plenty of overtaking opportunities.

FRIDAY FREE PRACTICE
It was a glorious sunny morning that greeted the team as they rolled up into the paddock area and down towards the AD Motorsport facilities. Brisk still, only a few degrees above freezing, but blue skies as far as could be seen.

It was down to business immediately. It was a super crowded schedule, with both Saturday and Sunday race classes being fit into the Friday free practice sessions. There would be six 8min sessions to get everything prepared for Sunday and that was it.

Race motor was pre-broken in, so no track time would have to be wasted for that purpose at least. Deven got down to it right away. After a first session on scrubbed tires, it was push sessions the rest of the day, first gearing and then front end setup was on the testing program and with good consistency and no incidents on or off track, the full program was completed as planned.

The only trouble was we didn’t quite know where we were compared to the rest of this super competitive field. The track kept getting slower as the day wore on, so the fastest times were set during the second session in the morning, and it was hard to compare yourself to others given the conditions.

We knew where and how we were fastest, but it was a crapshoot trying to guess where we really were. Indications were good, but it would all have to wait until Sunday qualifying sessions to find out.