Abbasse & Sainz Jnr Prevail At Monaco

press release

After several years of absence, the return of KZ2 (former ICC) gearbox karts in the Monaco
Kart Cup has offered a show appreciated by the many spectators present around the track.

KZ2 karts flew over the circuit, managing to iron out the speed breaks generated by the
chicanes of the course thanks to their gearbox and to their accelerating as well as braking
power. Not forgetting that at the wheel of these high-performance machines were some of the
best specialists of the discipline. All the front runners of the major CIK-FIA Championships
present indeed made a clean sweep of the top places, the only “intruder” being the Austrian
Lukas Trettenbrein, who succeeded in edging his way to the leading fi eld in the prefi nal and
even in the fi nal before being excluded for failing to respect a technical black fl ag enjoining
him to stop because of a loose rear bumper. Like often this season, the Intrepid team drivers
made a strong impression, Norman Nato emerging as leader after the qualifying series and
Bas Lammers achieving the fastest practice time before landing the prefi nal. Although he got
surprised at the start of the fi nal by Anthony Abbasse, the Dutchman Lammers put on a spurt
at the exit of the Rascasse and worked his way to the lead on the very fi rst lap. His overtaking
of Abbasse caused the latter to swerve and let through Alessandro Piccini, Thomas Mich,
Lukas Trettenbrein and Ken Allemann. While Abbasse already devoted himself to catching up
with the leaders, Lammers saw his hope of a Monaco win vanish as early as in the fourth lap
due to a broken water pump. Thomas Mich then inherited the leadership but was unable to
match the speed of the Sodi team’s spearhead, Anthony Abbasse, who was back with a vengeance; once he recovered the fi rst place on the ninth lap, he irresistibly pulled away and
completed the 28th and last lap with a lead of more than fi ve seconds over Mich and Switzerland’s Ken Allemann. Starting from the back of the grid because they had retired in the prefi - nal, the Frenchmen Norman Nato and Hugo Valente both distinguished themselves in the final by spectacular recoveries that led them to fourth and fi fth places!

In KF3, Carlos Sainz Jr made a clean sweep of the event: having achieved the fastest practice
time, the Spaniard comfortably won the prefi nal and fi nal to fi nish ahead of Pascal Belmaaziz
and Rémy Deguffroy. Whereas the race was straight-forward at the front, it was very lively
in mid-fi eld. The third place was long the stake of a close fi ght between the Russian Dmitry
Suranovich, the Italian Damiano Fioravanti and the Swiss Levin Amweg, before they got
pipped close to the post by France’s Deguffroy, who snatched third place in the fi nal lap, and
by two drivers who came back from the bottom of the classifi cation after their misfortunes in
the prefi nal, the Dutchman Nick de Vries (who recovered from 30th to 4th place, with the lap
record into the bargain) and the Finn Niklas Tiihonen (5th although he started only 26th).

As a support to the CIK-FIA races, Monaco also hosted a 6-hour endurance race. For this long-term event which gathered on the track some drivers who were either experienced or
amateur, the karts used were homologated in “KF4” confi guration, rather conceptually close
to the karts to be entered within the framework of the forthcoming 2010 CIK-FIA World
Championship for drivers under 18. While providing an appreciable level of performance,
these KF4 karts proved remarkably reliable as there were very few engine problems despite
the treatment that was sometimes imposed on them and the approximately 8 hours of racing
(adding free and timed practice to the race distance) that they had to face.

Photographs and classifications are available on http://www.cikfia.com/News2009/Monaco.htm

 

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