Lyon: Roar of Pleasure

The superb circuit of Saint Laurent de Mûre, near Lyon, which hosted the final round of the GPO Series 2009, probably marked a decisive turning point in the race to the French Champion titles for KZ2 and KF3. Both members of the Sodi Team, Anthony Abbasse and Pierre Gasly, widened even more the gap between them and their direct opponents. The situation remains much more uncertain in KF2, where the current leader is the double winner of the day, Enzo Guibbert.

The weather was nice and sunny on Saturday, but changed to stormy but dry on Sunday… Drivers experienced the typical seasonal weather conditions in the Lyon region. Classification standings changed frequently, so the public had the opportunity to enjoy some intense and hard-fought races, with frequent changes in leadership. In KZ2, for example, the start of Saturday’s pre-final caused two victims, Anthony Abbasse (Sodi/TM) and Emilien Grosso (Intrepid/TM), both starting from the first row. Waiting in ambush, Pierre Ragues (Sodi/TM) did not miss the chance to regain his leadership, which he maintained until the end of the final. “Even if I have the opportunity to drive a Lola-Aston Martin LMP1 from Signature team at endurance and 24H races, I always enjoy karting very much, especially when I win”, the winner commented. On Sunday, Abbasse set the record straight by riding alone towards victory and increased even more his winning chances in the championship. Italian Yuri Lucati (BRM/TM) came to discover the GPO series and had the satisfaction to conquer the second’s cup twice. On Saturday, he preceded William Benedetti (Sodi/TM) and the following day Yan Pesce (Energy/TM), who got the upper hand on Ragues in extremis.

After some bad luck at Angerville, in June, this time Enzo Guibbert had a very positive weekend in KF2, constantly at the top. This driver from Equipe de France largely dominated the two pre-finals as well as the two finals. “The timing was perfect, because I needed quite a few points in the championship; I would like to thank the Braun Racing team for preparing such high-performance equipment for me”, the talented and promising Guibbert confessed. Monotony was definitely out of the picture in the suburbia of Lyon thanks to very intense confrontation for the places of honour. On Saturday, Loïc Reguillon honoured his new team (VDK-CRG Junior Team-Maxter) by conquering the second place, just ahead of Belgian Denis Dupont (Tony/Vortex). Dupont treated himself to the pole position on Sunday ahead of Guibbert, before securing a second place in the final. Penalised the day before for technical non compliance, Pierre-Henri Nanot took his revenge by climbing on the podium for real, this time. Cyril Raymond (Kosmic/Vortex) finished 4th in the two races.

Six races and six victories for Sodi in KF3 since the beginning of the season! Following hot on the heels of this first success in June at Angerville, Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc (Sodi/Parilla) did it again, despite feeling the pressure of Pierre Gasly, who recognized the superiority of his team mate during the last few laps of the final. After securing some important points for the championship, Gasly shifted to higher gear on Sunday and triumphed, this time crossing the finish line all alone. Another candidate to the title, Anthoine Hubert (Tony/Vortex) showed a very bold attitude in Lyon, where he achieved a winning series with a third place on Saturday, a victory in the pre-final and then a second place on Sunday. “I have a small regret, though, because I was pushed at the start of the final when I was in pole position. It was then that I lost contact with Pierre Gasly”, Hubert declared. Sunday’s race was market by the growth in effectiveness shown by Florian Latorre (DR/Parilla), who realised his ambitions by completing the podium, at the expenses of Leclerc. Nolan Mantione (Intrepid/TM) and Pierre-Louis Loubet (CRG/Maxter) – the son of the talented Corsican rallyman – are also worth mentioning for their performances.