Under 18s World Champ Test Day

Thirty-seven of the 70 drivers entered in the Under 18s World Championship participated in a test day at the Ostricourt circuit in France on the weekend. This was an official test day for competitors to try out their new machines and have a first run with the new WKE (World Kart Engine) engine - an identical power plant that everyone has to use.

under 18 test day
Above: UK's Jordan Chamberlian tries out the WKE motor at the Under 18s test day

The engine is really working well and quite amusing to drive”, rejoiced Jordan Chamberlain, European KF2 Champion in 2009. “I was even pleasantly surprised by its performance.” Lap times showed that the fastet drives at the test were faster than the fastest KF2s at the French Championship organised on the same circuit in 2009.

The new CIK-FIA “U18” World Karting Championship will officially begin on Friday 23 July with non-qualifying practice of the first event at the German circuit of Wackersdorf.

Beyond performance, the participants declared themselves very pleased with the concept. Frenchman Mathieu Jaminet, winner of both F4 Eurocup 1.6 races at the World Series by Renault event held in Hungary, made a come-back to karts for this Test Day.

I wanted to continue to run in Karting in parallel to my single-seater débuts”, he explained. “When I had the opportunity to participate in the ‘U18’ World Championship, I took it. On the one hand, this World Championship is very affordable financially, but it is also clear that if I could add a world title in Karting to my list of results. it would quite be a bonus!

Held jointly with the “U18” World Championship is the CIK-FIA Academy Trophy – a competition hosting 34 drivers all of different nationalities. Almost twenty participants had a run in their Parolin karts with FIM engines, all provided totally freely by the Italian maker. “This championship is fantastic”, said Switzerland’s Stefan Amweg, father of Levin and Severin, respectively entered in the “U18” World Championship and Academy Trophy. “Financially, there’s no question about it compared to other high-level competitions. And the fact that each competitor is on a strictly equal footing, with identical equipment, is really important in my opinion.

In addition to their equipment, the drivers also have a pit tent at their disposal, provided by the International Federation. Finally, an information Q&A session as well as a photo session were organised.

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