F1: Misery for Luca – Gulf Digital News

F1: Misery for Luca – Gulf Digital News

TEENAGED karting star, Luca Kane Houghton’s bid to win the second round of the 2022 FIA Karting Academy Trophy came to a shuddering halt yesterday in Cremona, Italy when his kart’s engine seized suddenly on the fourth lap of the 19-lap final.

Luca, 13, had already been plagued by misfortune in the qualifying sessions on Saturday when a collision in the first heat, and being forced off the track in the second, relegated him to P15 heading into the final qualifying heat and the race yesterday.

But the teenager, who was born in the kingdom to a Dutch mother and Australian father and has raced for Bahrain since taking up karting five years ago, fared quite well in the last qualifying heat before the race.

“I was quite fast,” Luca told the GDN by phone from Cremona. “I made up a lot of ground after a few mistakes in the first two laps and eventually finished that heat in P11. But I started the race in P24 – because of all the mishaps that occurred in the first two heats – and, again, I was going really fast in the first two laps.”

But, then, the engine started acting up, he added. “On lap