Iame X30 World Finals – Freddie Slater

After winning the British Open Championship and leading the LGM championship Freddie earned a ticket to compete in the Iame X30 World Finals held at Le Mans in France. Freddie was looking forward to the challenge in the new kart against new competition and most of all competing next to the famous Le Mans circuit. After completing a test a few weeks before, the team were confident to be successful in the new category. With support from KR karts and Merlin race engines, Freddie had the platform to challenge for the World Championship.

Practice started Monday with 2 short sessions in the afternoon. Freddie used these sessions to run in the race engines for the week. Tuesday and Wednesday practice went well as Freddie posted fastest laps in his sessions. Thursday afternoon Freddie got pole in the group in qualifying with a great time of a 1.03.3. The race format consisted of 3 heats, prefinal and the main final. There was 1 heat per day from Thursday to Saturday. Freddie started on the front row from each heat. Heat one went well as Freddie made a great start and battled with a French and Italian driver to finish 3rd over the line. Heat 2 on Friday, Freddie had the pace to drive away and win by nearly 4 seconds. Heat 3 was a tough, battling with the American Crews and although Freddie was leading on the last lap Crews forced his way past to take the win. Freddie would start P2 for the prefinal Sunday.

The prefinal was a 4 way battle over 9 laps. With the lead changing multiple times, it was a great race at the front. Freddie and his team mate Will crossed the line 1st and second making it a Fusion front row for the main final. The 11 lap grand final was a great battle and Freddie stamped his authority on the race early on. With great defensive driving Freddie controlled the race at the front until on the last lap he was pushed out of the way at the first corner. Despite this Freddie wasn’t finished and managed a great move on the last corner to retake the lead, however Crews out dragged him to the line and beat Freddie by 0.007 seconds over the line. Freddie becomes Vice World Champion 2018. Next year he will look to go to the next step!