Keen Zeen Kept Busy
press release
With 4 races in one month, in four different competitions, US driver Andrick Zeen kept himself busy on his 2010 return and thanks to even stronger motivation, he also managed to improve his results noticeably. It was a pleasure to see him duel against the best international drivers. Of course not everything went smoothly, like in Spain at the KF2 World Cup, but overall his results in the last few weeks have been largely positive, as proven by his 9th place in the final of the U18 World Championship in Val d'Argenton, the best result for Sodi drivers.
For the resumption of the season, in late August, Andrick had to choose between the U18 World Championship in Alcaniz and the 24 Hours of Le Mans Karting, both held on the same day. A size a bit too big for the U18 category, associated to the fact that the Alcaniz circuit requires quite a lot of power to compete at the highest level, led to the decision to attend the most famous of all endurance races, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It all started well for the Sarthe RTKF 2 crew, where Andrick joined Aurore Launay, Maxime Bidart and Jean-François Chaussis : no. 72 was in third place after two hours of racing, and then in second place at the end of the day. But a collision with a third of the race covered required a long stop at the stand for repairs. Overall, they lost 17 minutes. Despite all efforts made by the crew, recovery stopped at 11th place on the line of arrival.
Then Andrick went to his appointment with the international elite of karting at the World KF2 Championship in Spain (Zuera). After a bad start in timed qualifying on a track where grip conditions kept changing, the race proved to be a difficult one for the US driver, who started from the back of the grid and had to fight hard in very lively packs.
Things went differently the following week in the wet and cold climate of northern France, at the fourth round of the French Championship in Ostricourt. Andrick went to the offensive right away and there he was, 10th in Saturday's final, after a heated duel with Julien Poncelet, twice European champion in the past. The following day, Andrick worked twice as hard and was 6th in the final, after an exciting fight against a wild pack of French drivers. It was then that he achieved his best result at this level and strengthened his place in the French Championship's Top 10 before the last round, to be held in Laval at the end of October.
Finally, his long series of races has ended with the last round of the U18 World Championship, in France, on the famous circuit of Val d'Argenton where Lewis Hamilton triumphed in 2000 at a European Championship. Andrick immediately set things straight in timed qualifying and reached the top 10 in the heats, even going as high as third place against the best drivers in the world. Then he brilliantly overcame the difficult hurdle of the two pre-finals, in the second of which the starting order is reversed. He started 12th in the final and battled very hard to defend his place. Andrick was back in the top 10, but then slipped back to 15th after the attack launched by his competitors. But thanks to all his determination, this young Californian regained 9th place on the line of arrival, the best result for the Sodi team. 18th in the U18 World Championship, where he only entered two of the three meetings, Andrick did again better than his team mates, despite this handicap. A real accolade!
