The international season begins for the new official IPK Team

Relying on its new structure, the IPK Official Racing Team starts 2022 on the right foot. With a different organisation compared to the previous years, the team shows the first fruits of its work in Lonato at the WSK Champions Cup, the first race of the season.

IPK has officially started with its new project: to entrust Juri Serafini with the management of the official factory team and unify all its four brands, Praga, Formula K, OK1 and RS, into a single team. The goal is to focus on the development of the technical package with an integrated strategy, which sees the historic IPK team manager Cash van Belle in the role of vice president for racing. The technician will work closely with Serafini as well as with Petr Ulbert, who will lead the satellite team SUMAKO IPK Racing Team, and will collaborate with teams that will also race at a national level such as FG Racing and Mercury Karting Team. The same philosophy will be adopted in America, where IPK will be represented by Greg Bell’s Leading Edge Motorsports. Thanks to his experience, van Belle will provide them with all the necessary support to find the most suitable technical solutions for every condition and, additionally, will deal with the choice of drivers as well as with supporting them in their growth within the team.

The new structure of IPK’s racing team is characterised by a long-term vision and the first signals are more than promising. The newly homologated IPK technical package, powered by TM Racing engines, immediately demonstrates its competitiveness on the South Garda Karting circuit in Lonato both in the single-speed classes, MINI and OKJ, and in the shifter category, KZ2. Emanuele Olivieri especially excels, as he is second in qualifying, on his absolute debut in OKJ, and fights for the podium in the final before being forced to retire. The performances of the Italian driver, who signs the fastest lap in three of his five races of the weekend, prove his skills as well as the ease of use of the IPK chassis.

Juri Serafini, IPK Official Racing Team team manager: “Managing the IPK Official Racing Team is very gratifying. The goal is to show the huge potential of our technical package in all the categories. In addition to having top-level technicians with us at the races, we boast a highly-specialised team for the construction and the development of our go-karts. Furthermore, I’m very happy with the structure of our racing team, technically supported by Cash van Belle. The TM Racing engine divisions represent another strength and they’re entrusted to Galiffa Tuning for KZ2, to Machac Motors for the OK categories and to an internal “Monster power” team, formed by Gabrielle Bassetta and Tonino Faieta, for MINI. Lastly, interesting news regard the homologations of our chassis, which are identical for all the brands in all the categories from this year on, allowing us to welcome all our colours under a unique IPK racing structure. The outcome of the first seasonal weekend is positive and we’ve been very fast in all the categories: in KZ2, two young drivers have crossed the line inside the top ten, while bad luck kept as away from two possible podiums in OKJ and in MINI, but the performances have been truly remarkable”.

Cash van Belle, IPK Official Racing Team vice president: “I’m thrilled to be vice president of the new IPK racing team. I will be present at all the most prestigious races to provide my technical support to the team and develop the new technical package in collaboration with Juri Serafini. We’re very satisfied with the first feedback on the chassis with the 2022 homologation, as they proved themselves very competitive in challenging conditions, which weren’t easy at all. We’ll hit the track with our OK drivers too and we’re very confident. The new organisation of the racing team represents an excellent opportunity to develop the technical package in the best way possible and produce winning chassis for all the categories, with a different strategy compared to the traditional ones”.