Parth Ghorpade, who was the 2008 JK Tyre Rotax Max Challenge, Junior champion, commenced his European karting season with a strong 4th place finish in Rotax Jr in the Central European Zone championships held at the PANNONIARING circuit in Hungary between 9th and 10th May 2009.

Racing with the Intrepid Force Rotax team based in Salzburg, Austria, the Kolhapur driver qualified 5th, and then had a 5th and 4th in the prefinal and final race. Competing against drivers from Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland, it was a creditable performance considering the strong European championship records of some of the drivers and the fact that it was his first competitive outing after the World Finals held in Italy in November. Pannoniaring is a technically challenging circuit, and a race pace consistently within a tenth of the drivers ahead of him was a pleasant surprise considering that this was his first European karting experience amongst race winners in the demanding Euro Max Karting Challenge.

Along with the JK Tyre Indian National Rotax Max Championship, Parth will be driving in selected races in the Central European Zone and National Rotax series for the year 2009.

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