Lorandi capitalizes on red flag in KZ Final

Leonardo Lorandi (Baby Race / Parolin) has just captured his first karting victory in the States, picking up the massive win in KZ. Lorandi, bouncing between karting and Italian F4 in 2018, had good pace throughout the week, but never had fought for the lead in any of the heats. However, when the pressure was on, the 18-year-old came up in spades.

Lorandi had set the fastest lap of the race at the halfway point, having moved from sixth to third at that point, trailing only Marijn Kremers and Noah Milell. Two laps later, the Baby Race driver made a slick move on Milell, demoting the Swede to third and now had his sights set on Kremers. The only problem was that the Dutchman had a 2-second advantage and lapping similar times. 

The Racing Gods were apparently on the side of Lorandi, however, as a race stoppage came on lap 18 of 25. Tyler Coffman had been involved in an accident in turn 9 that brought out the red flags, bringing the field to a stop on track. The 2-second lead had evaporated in an instance for Kremers, much to the delight of Lorandi.

On the restart, Kremers brought the field to the green flag at a snails pace. The Birel ART took off from there, leading the field as he had for the first 17 laps. Lorandi, fully aware he may not have another chance to be this close to Kremers, took advantage by passing for the lead on the second circuit after the stoppage.

Lorandi's pace was too much for Kremers at this point to overcome, only being able to close within a kart's length on a few occasions. It was a tale of two races as Lorandi picked up the win in a race Kremers was almost certainly supposed to win.

Noah Milell (Tony Kart) ran third for the majority of the race, but a missed shift with two to go opened the door for Max Paul (DR Kart) to jump into third. Paul and Milell ran together in third and fourth at the stripe, followed by Kyle Wick a half-second back for the final podium spot.

Early reports indicate that Paolo De Conto had done some work on his CRG during the red flag and was disqualified from the race at that point. De Conto was running just inside the top ten and had not shown the speed we were accustomed to seeing on SuperSunday to that point.