There are many attributes that must come together and work in harmony if a driver wants to achieve success in their given profession. Skill, discipline, lightning quick reactions and a tactical awareness are just a few. Another very important attribute required is a slice of luck.

Unfortunately, the only attribute that the Alpinestars backed drivers lacked on Sunday 22nd February 2009 was luck. The field assembled for the traditional Winter Cup series with high hopes of another classic showdown after the scintillating opening round of the WSK in La Conca a couple of weeks prior.

Aaro Vainio had been in impressive form at La Conca, until a mechanical issue saw him struggle home in 17th place, but he was keen to maintain his good run of form entering into the weekend’s race meeting. The team would also be boosted by the addition of former driver and GP2 star Ben Hanley who would be making a wildcard appearance in the event. Ben has had an illustrious career featuring highly in the World Series by Renault and GP2 championships. His addition to the paddock certainly added a height of expectation and an additional competitive edge for the young drivers.

Saturday featured a number of heats where the drivers progressed steadily, running consistently at the front of the pack making minor adjustments to their machinery and adapted their driving style to suit the track. Robert Foster-Jones of the FA team and Antonio Piccioni riding for the RK kart team were also making good progress and things were shaping up nicely for a competitive battle the following day.

On Sunday the heats were out of the way and it was down to the serious business. In the Super KF class four Alpinestars drivers battled it out to qualify for the 32 places in the afternoon’s final race.

Antonio Piccioni of the Robert Kubica kart team qualified in 22nd position and would have plenty of work to do. Ahead of him in 10th place was Aaro Vainio, the young Finnish driver had been extremely quick all weekend and was hopefully of a good result in the final, as was Robert Foster-Jones, who had placed himself on the fourth row of the grid in seventh place. Leading the field round would be Tony karts, Gary Catt and Maranello karts, Ben Hanley who had been in the top three positions all weekend and was extremely impressive on his return missing out on pole by the narrowest of margins.

The final would be contested over the course of 28 laps of the 1010 metre South Garda Karting circuit for the prestigious honour of winning the Winter Cup. Everything started well enough with Aaro and Ben charging to the front of the pack contesting for the lead with Gary Catt. Unfortunately for the Maranello team drivers this is exactly the point when lady luck stopped smiling down on them. After just fourteen laps of the final with Aaro challenging for the lead the young driver’s engine seized, causing him to retire from the race and moments later Ben was forced out of fourth place with engine trouble. Things were even worse for Antonio as he only managed to complete five laps of the final before retiring. That meant that it was left to Robert Foster-Jones to fight it out. After battling valiantly the British Champion managed to bring the kart home in a very respectable 8th place.

It may not have been the result that everyone had been hoping to obtain, but when you looked beyond the statistics everyone left the track with a great deal of optimism and promise for the season ahead.