World Karting Championships

The CIK-FIA Karting World Championships are underway at La Conca, Italy. Results of qualifying, heat races etc (and live timing) are being posted on the CIK-FIA site HERE.

CIK-FIA press release

QUALIFYING HEATS: MORE UNDECIDED THAN EVER.

The Karting World Championship is a competition without equal in the sport. As the hours tick by, after each qualifying race, one can feel the pressure mounting up a notch on the drivers in contention for the crown. To win that crown you need to complete the event without making a mistake. First you must qualify well from timed practice, then gain good results in the qualifying races.

Indeed it is the overall classification after the qualifying races that determines the 34 drivers that go forward to the final stages, and the starting positions in the pre-final. It all culminates in one unique final challenge over 24 laps at the end of which drivers hope to have achieved their goal, the supreme honour in World Karting.

This Saturday, the competitors were divided into 4 groups, and thus competed in 3 qualifying heats. With two wins and a second place, Nikolaj Bolingtoft (Kosmic-Vortex) made sure of pole position for the pre-final. Third in the 2007 world championship, the Dane made a strong impression and gave a good enough account of himself to suggest he can climb those two extra places by the end of the Final.

But it’s far from being a case of absolute domination. Arnaud Kozlinski (CRG-Maxter) and Gary Catt (Tony Kart-Vortex) both won two races. They occupy 2nd and 3rd places in the intermediate classification, in front of two other Tony Kart drivers, Honda F1 protege, young Will Stevens and Marco Ardigo. Polesitter Ardigo was troubled by the change in track conditions which had overnight rain and a little technical problem. Nevertheless on the basis of his 5th place classification, he remains a strong candidate to retain his crown, just like Davide Fore (Maranello-Maxter), 6th in the intermediate classification. Briton Mark Litchfield (Maranello-Maxter), Frenchman Manuel Renaudie (Gillard-Parilla), Briton Jason Parrott (Birel-Parilla) and Frenchman Armand Convers (PCR-TM) all feature in the top ten.

On the other hand, several drivers in with an outsode chance of the title do not even appear amongst the 34 finalists: Alessandro Bressan (Kosmic-Vortex), Jean-Philippe Guignet (CRG-Maxter) and Alessandro Manetti (CRG-Maxter) can already bid farewell to their 2008 world title ambitions and instead dream of a 2009 world crown.

KF2: Camponeschi impresses
Crowned European Champion in KF2 at Braga (P), Flavio Camponeschi (Tony Kart-Vortex) hopes now to also win the KF2 World Cup. The Italian is bidding for a perfect weekend. Following 2nd place in yesterday’s timed practice, he won his four qualifying races run so far. If that is completed when the last qualifying race is run on Sunday morning, he will have secured pole position for the pre-final.

Amongst other race winners to catch the eye were the Italian Andrea Dale (two victories in his CRGMaxter), the Finn Petri Suvanto (Tony Kart-Vortex), British drivers, James Thorpe (Maranello-Maxter) and Oliver Rowland (Tony Kart-Vortex), the Czech Zdenek Groman (Maranello-Parilla), the Italian Felice Tiene (CRG-Maxter) and the Belgian Robin Frijns (Birel-TM).

Home