Electric Karts For Re-Born Bercy
Last year, former F1 driver Philippe Streiff announced he was working on re-establishing the famous Bercy Masters (France) kart meeting.
The event, which has a long history of famous Formula One drivers competing against each other in identical race karts, combined the high-profile celebrity races with organised competition for Junior class karters of the day.
Prevous winners include current F1 stars Button, Alonso, Hamilton, Kubica and Vettel - and it's this reason that Streiff believes the drivers have been so keen to support a Bercy revival for 2011.
The March issue of F1 Racing magazine reports that Streiff has developed a fleet of electric powered karts, with the help of his test driver, Alain Prost.
"The new kart is incredible and very quick" he told the publication.
Electric karts are gaining popularity at rental centres around the world due to noise and pollution issues (though, if you think about it, the electricity still has to be produced before it can charge the batteries - and most electricity in this country is made by burning brown coal...).
It wont be long before there will be competition electric karts. In fact, KartSportNews has spoken informally with a team of technicials who have built such devices - and they say their electric kart can blow a Rotax or Leopard into the weeds. But more on that another day...
The Bercy Masters 2011 will take place on December 10-11.
Above: The inaugural Bercy Masters in 1993, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost battle hard. There are plenty of other clips from other years if you search YouTube. The 2011 event will be for electric karts, so it wont sound as good as '93.
