TOP TEN! LET’S GO!!

SKCC Round 1 Race Report

Excellent start to the 2022 campaign as our budding racing driver, Deven Grabko, led the charge for the team, capping off a really hard fought day with a top ten finish in the Final of the first round of the Southern Swedish Karting Championship Cup. 

Starting the SKCC Season where we ended it, the team was back in Helsingborg at the Väla Karting Circuit, under the expert administration of Helsingborg Karting Club. It’s a technical track with both long fast sweeping corners, quick directional changes and a narrowing radius turn 2 that can be tricky to get right.

Coming into the weekend, the team was in a confident mood coming off a good testing day here on Easter Monday, where Deven had shown competitive pace with the leaders, but which had ended prematurely after a right front stub axle failure caused the mechanics to pack up an hour from the end.

That little niggle was repaired the night before race day and the front end alignment lasered in to perfection with the help of Team Alehall Racing, as the pit area setup was being completed.

The weather decided to be agreeable on race day, and it was perfect for racing, cooler in the morning with clouds that prevented the track from getting too warm, conditions Deven enjoys.

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Free Practice 1 | P20
The session was planned as a throw away old tire session, focused on getting chassis and engine settings confirmed and dialed in, while most of the rest of the field was out on new tires, wearing them in for qualifying. Deven finished in P20 about 1.5s off the front running pace, as expected.

Free Practice 2 | P11
Now we went for it, turning the screws a little bit on everything and Deven showed a much more representative pace, within 0.3s of a top 3 time, slotting in 11th in the end and feeling he actually had left some time on the table, which the data confirmed as well.

Qualifying | P14
Now the first real test of the season for Deven The Kid, as he tried to get himself as high up the starting grid as possible for the heat races. He started out very well, and held a top 10 spot for the first half of the session, but in his excitement and eagerness to perform, succumbed to the temptation of the cardinal sin of racing - overdriving. He just was trying to carry a little bit too much speed into the corners, braking just a little bit too late to try to squeeze out those last tenths of a second, but unfortunately it had the opposite effect. Finished 14th, 0.7s off the front row but less than 0.1s from a top ten spot.

Still, the goal going into the weekend was the top half of the field, and with 29 entries on the grid, it was already looking positive going into the sprint heat races, and the feeling was still good ahead of the first proper race of the year.

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Heat Sprint 1 | P13
The first race in anger for the team saw an extra careful start from Deven, giving somewhat of a gift to those around him by playing it a bit too safe into the first corner sweeping to the right, and he lost 2 places immediately. Once through the first sector of the first lap, though, he turned on the pace and was able to take advantage of squabbling ahead to take back those two spots only 2 laps later, and completed another pass as well to come home in 13th after the 12 lap race. It was a positive start.

Heat Sprint 2 | P15
Now the weather had gotten slightly warmer and the track was getting grippier. Deven got a much better start through the first turn, but was forced out of shape on turn 2 and had to lift off to keep himself pointing in the right direction. This dropped him down a spot to 15th. He pressured to get through and was able to almost get alongside with better exits onto both the back and front straights, but ran out of gear to complete the moves as the team had lost out on track evolution. He was simply one gear too tall to take advantage of his pace.

Not being able to get through sucked in those behind as well, and suddenly it was a 4 way battle for 14th spot. This also caused the group to lose touch with the top ten ahead and in the end after some really good racing and battling, with Deven showing some impressive race craft, he ended up just losing out at the finish line and finished 15th.

Final | Starting P12
After all the results were calculated in, it would be a P12 starting grid position for Deven in the 16 lap Final, and a real chance at a top 10 finish materialized in front of the team. Now it was even warmer - chassis, tire, and gearing adjustments had been made to compensate, and the mechanics hoped it would be enough to power The Kid to a trophy earning position.

The start was the best of the day, Deven right on the bumper of the driver ahead, and dove down to the inside of turn 2, but was unable to make it stick on the exit and had to settle for holding 12th place. The two lead groups, with Deven hanging on well at the end of the second group, started to pull away from the trailing pack, and Deven put in consecutive personal best times, lap after lap, through the first half of the race, trading blows with the 11th placed #31 of Theodore Zackrisson, but not getting quite close enough to make an attack.

Very comfortable in 12th, with no pressure from behind, he was able to concentrate his efforts up the field, but unfortunately as the race developed, it became clear that the engine had not quite the gusto for the whole race distance. Maybe running slightly too lean and probably still one gear too tall for the evolving track conditions meant that he was ever so slowly left behind by the group ahead between laps 9-14, a couple of tenths of a second or so a lap.

However, just as the race seemed to be petering out, on the penultimate lap the kart seemed to come back to The Kid. His pace suddenly picked back up, and he found himself just 2 seconds off from 11th spot, with 2 laps to go.

Even so, it seemed a bit late on, and the team was  just becoming resigned to a 12th place finish, when all of the sudden it was disaster for Alve Strömberg, who was in a podium fight at the front and came out the worse, going off track at the quick turn 4 left hander.

With Strömberg struggling to get out of the grass, Deven swept by him just as he was getting back on track and narrowly avoided a crash himself. Now he was in 11th with a 1s gap down to Strömberg, a 2s gap up to Zackrisson, and  just half a lap to go. Deven dug out all he could from his racing machinery, and held position during a harrowing last few sectors for the team, biting their nails as they looked on, willing him across the line.

The team thought it had taken 11th, just a single spot off the hardware - all through technical inspection and back to the tent it was oddly downbeat given the already fine result.

But alas, a first lap race incident for Zackrisson meant a five second front fairing penalty for him which elevated Deven into 10th place!

It was a party in the pit area for Deven, who couldn’t understand what had happened. He had gone off to the tent in disappointment after being so close to his first SKCC trophy.

But at the prize ceremony, it was our man Deven Grabko who raised his prize high in the air, a very well earned trophy winning place, and the very best way to start the season after two years of fighting near the back of the grid and learning his trade the hard way.

A very proud day for him and for the whole team, who now have a great result to build on, which will definitely give both driver and team the self confidence to push on for more this year.

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It was so awesome - I drove so hard and the kart was amazing to drive today. I thought I had missed out by just a single spot and was in tears in the tent when we found out the result after penalties, and I am just so happy now! Thanks so much to Leo at LK Racing for the engine tuning and mechanical help, and Intrepid Kart for such a great chassis!
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​- Deven Grabko

Just really proud of him (Deven) today. He worked so hard to show he deserves to be here, and put himself in a position to capitalize on anything that could happen in the long Final, and it did! You always need a little bit of luck in motorsport, anyone that tells you differently hasn’t been around long enough, and Deven has not tasted a lot of that up to this point. It was a fully deserved top 10, he has been working non-stop over the Winter months, he showed his progress today and (I’m) just really happy he got his just rewards in the end.

​- Dan Grabko

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Very Special thanks to LK Racing and the Intrepid Driver Program Sweden for the chance to drive with a great chassis and a great set of teammates, not only drivers, but coaches, mechanics, parents, and siblings as well, and also Uddevalla Kartingklubb - a special club to be a part of.

Also a huge shout out to our sponsors and partners, The Techno Creatives, Improx Customs, Profil #461, Dumpling X, Freem Sweden, Minus 273, Intrepid Kart, and Zamp Helmets EU, - without you all we wouldn’t be out here chasing our dreams!