The Bruno Grana Trophy

Onboard camera from Bruno Grana Trophy, 13:50 minutes of racing, X30 engine - CLICK HERE 

press release

This event was dedicated to a man who made history with IAME and helped the growth in popularity of karting as a whole. This Trophy was the idea of IAME in the memory of Mr.Bruno Grana, who is rightfully considered the father of Karting.

Mr.Grana, who founded IAME Spa in 1968 and reunited four historical karting makes: Parilla , Komet, BM, Sirio, was CEO and President of IAME up until 2005, the year in which he passed away.

The Trophy was entirely dedicated to karts with X30 IAME engines and chassis of any make, provided it was homologated.

The X30 engine, defined by many at an International level as the little brother of the KF engines and which is present in many countries (in Europe: in France, Spain, Belgium, Portugal and overseas in Brazil, Australia, Japan) as a single make series, is well known for it's extreme reliability and it's low cost of maintenance.

The objective of the organisers of the competition, which is already recognised in the FIA International calendar, is to turn the event into a complete European X30 Championship as quickly as possible.

There are two categories: the X30 and the X30 "Gentlemen" for drivers over 32 years of age or weighing in at more than 80 kg.

The Pays d'Olmes-Mirepoix karting club who THE FIRST BRUNO GRANA TROPHY organised the event together with IAME, were faultless in every aspect.

All participants praised the severe but impartial technical checks, supervised by the ever present Mr. Jacquemin and his staff, the quality of the race management and the organisation, the technical assistance offered to all drivers and guaranteed by IAME personnel, and last but not least the excellent quality of the cuisine offered by the track restaurant. The cherry on the cake was the excellent weather enjoyed at the location for the entire event.

X30
The battle for first place in the X30 category started right from qualifying on the Saturday. Kenny Vermeylen (Tecno) immediately showed his intentions and finished first with just 4 penalties. Right behind him, with 5 penalties, was Nathanael Berthon (FA); followed by Maxime Bornert (FA), Jeoffrey Rouchy (Mirage) and Nicolas Budrino (Intrepid). That's how they lined up for the start of the pre-final (38 qualified), but at the finish it was Berthon who preceded Vermeylen followed by Lorenzo Donniacuo (DR) and Benjamin Bie (Energy).

It was a shame that several potential protagonists such as Bornet, Rouchy and Budrino were out of contention by the first corner (Rouchy eventually finished 28th in the pre-final and climbed through the field to 8th place in the final; Budrino managed to climb back from 36th to 13th place in the fi nal).

The competition in the final were basically the same group: this time it was the Belgian Vermeylen who took the win ahead of his compatriot Donniacuo who piped Berthon and Andréa Suau (Tony Kart). They were followed home by Julien Fourcade (V-Max) and Bie.

X30 GENTLEMEN (+32 or 80kg)
21 drivers took the start. Frédéric Ostier (Mirage) dominated the qualifying heats but didn't manage to confirm his form in the pre-final and finished third: he will be more successful in the future. Cyril Lefevre (Energy) won the pre-final ahead of Jérémie Delsol (BRM). Frenchman Ostier returned to dominance in the final winning with a considerable margin (more than six seconds..) over his compatriots Guillaume Desjours (BRM), who started ninth and therefore enjoyed an exciting race, and Delsol.

CONCLUSION
More than 110 participants from many countries, including France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Greece and also USA (six different nations were represented) took part and more than 5000 spectators came along to cheer along the drivers during the 3 day event.

These numbers tell the success story of this special weekend: it is true, the weekend was a true International karting event.

But above all it was an entertaining weekend of sport dedicated to a man who made history with IAME and helped the growth in popularity of karting as a whole.

Eng.Paolo Condé, Mr. Grana's personal collaborator for more than 25 years made the following comments about the event:

"It was a splendid race where we saw the reemergence of true karting values of times past: friendship, collaboration between teams, the pleasure of a "hi" and a smile in the morning and getting together in the evening to talk about the days events without the wickedness of modern times. This is the karting world that Bruno loved and it reminded me of the legendary Champions Cup that used to be held at Jesolo".

Above: Remo Luciani pictured  with the late Sir Bruno Grana at the IAME factory many years ago.

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