Team event: Great fun & hot duels in the kart

Markus Suttner, Patrick Pentz & Co swapped their football boots for helmets and the ball for racing karts on Thursday. At the ÖAMTC Fahrtechnik-Zentrum in Teesdorf, the violets engaged in hot duels on the asphalt and had a lot of fun. The victory was not decided until the last round.

While Manfred Schmid's team trained diligently in the morning, they were allowed to work off their energy in the afternoon on the kart. On the 520-meter-long outdoor kart track of the ÖAMTC, the violets accelerated up to 70 km/h and gave nothing away to each other. A total of eleven teams were formed, each with three drivers, who first competed for pole position in a half-hour qualifying session. In the end, the pole position was secured by the team around Niels Hahn, who set the fastest times on the day.

The 45-minute race with on-the-fly driver changes in the pit lane was almost unsurpassable in terms of drama, with victory decided only on the last lap. In the end, Lukas Mühl, Alex Grünwald and Anouar El Moukhantir prevailed by a razor-thin margin of 0.266 seconds ahead of Niels Hahn, Mirko Kos and reserve driver Ralph Schön, with Manfred Schmid, Cem Sekerlioglu and Reinhold Breu taking third place.

"Finally, I got the chance to face the team directly and overtake them. For me it was actually clear that I would be the fastest. At least it looked good for me and my team in between," laughed the head coach after the race.

Patrick Pentz, who finished fifth with his team, was also enthusiastic: "The right timing and a certain skill are important in karting if you want to be at the front. At the end, it became clear who still had reserves of strength – like in football on the pitch. Our team did well."

"We are delighted about the visit of FK Austria Wien to us in Teesdorf. The club is one of the most legendary and established Austrian soccer clubs, so this was of course an absolute highlight for us. The pros can not only kick, but also keep control in the kart - they showed that on the track," says Karl-Martin Studener, Managing Director of ÖAMTC Fahrtechnik.