"U18" World Championship Continues This Weekend

press release

After a very convincing opening in Germany, the CIK-FIA “U18” World Championship and the CIK-FIA Academy Trophy will continue their tour on 27, 28 and 29 August in Spain.

Motorland Aragon at Alcaniz, the second of the three tracks to be visited this season, will plunge all the participants into a new universe: while the Wackersdorf layout was compact and winding, they will find the Alcaniz track to be fast and gigantic. At 1700 metres long, the Spanish track will probably enable the best drivers to exceed an average lap time of 100 kph and will confront them with the problem of slipstreaming. This phenomenon, which is particularly noticeable at Alcaniz, is a double-edged sword, in that while it is easy for the kart behind to take advantage, it is also very penalising for the driver in front, who is obliged to open up a corridor of air for all the karts behind him. So if nobody wants to start the final lap in the lead, the battle will in all probability be decided within sight of the finish line! Motorland Aragon therefore promises some action-packed racing, with a lot of overtaking, ultra-tight finishes and a real strategic dimension for the drivers in managing their race.

The winner in Germany, Britain’s Jake Dennis (Top Kart), will of course be looking to consolidate his lead over the runners-up in the first round, the “Flying Finns” Matias Köykkä and Teemu Suninen (both driving Maranellos).

Ireland’s John Norris and Tanart Sathientirakul from Thailand, the setters of the fastest two laps in the final at Wackersdorf and who are among the most brilliant representatives of the Intrepid make, will try to confirm their positions and remain in the race for the title before the final meeting in France in October.

Also to keep an eye on are the Finn Ville Mäntylä (Energy), the Wagner brothers (Mach 1), Italy’s Simone Favaro (Parolin), the Czech Jiri Forman (MS Kart), Frenchman Matthieu Jaminet (Sodi), and Spain’s Adrian Del Rio (PCR) who will be hoping to pull off a win in front of his home crowd.

As regards the Academy Trophy, everyone will be trying to prevent France’s Anthoine Hubert from running away with the Championship, after his double victory in Germany. His most serious rivals should be the Estonian Hans Villemi, Britain’s Roy Johnson, Charles Leclerc from Monaco, Finland’s Niklas Tiihonen and the Netherlands’ Max Koebolt.

Now that their discovery of Europe and of a new racing universe is behind them, the representatives of Asia, South America and South Africa could also show up among the top places. As a reminder, the Academy Trophy starts off with as many nationalities as there are drivers, and pits these juniors, aged 13 to 15, against each other in identical karts, supplied to them free of charge.

The educational aspect of the competition, called “EduKart”, which enjoyed a successful launch at Wackersdorf, will again consist of a brief theoretical test for the drivers on the Friday morning. After that educational session, the drivers will take to the track for practice on the Friday afternoon. Practice and the qualifying heats are on the menu for Saturday 28 August, while the Sunday will be reserved exclusively for the final phase of racing, with two pre-finals (of which one will have a reversed starting grid) and one long final of 30 km for the 34 drivers qualified in the “U18” World Championship category, and two 20-km races for the Academy drivers.

It should be noted that Sunday’s chedule respects local custom, with the activities coming to a close at the very beginning of the afternoon, thereby satisfying the spectators from the very arid region of Alcaniz as well as the Drivers who are unused to the scorching heat.

Results etc will be posted on the CIK-FIA website HERE.

Home

© kartsportnews.com