Expected duel between Damien Payart and Gavin Bennett

After its opening last April on the Silverstone circuit and its second round on the TT-Circuit d’Assen, the CIK-FIA European Superkart Championship will end on 23 and 24 October on another prestigious track, the Bugatti Circuit at Le Mans. Some 49 Drivers representing 12 nationalities have entered this final, which will be decisive for the awarding of the 2010 European Champion title.

Although there are still six Drivers who can mathematically claim the title, the German Peter Elkmann (MS Kart-VM), currently 5th, and the Briton Carl Hulme (Anderson-FPE), 6th, already know that landing the final victory would almost be a miracle as they would have to take advantage of a complete failure of the other favourites. Even though they are classified relatively far from the two leaders, Britain’s Trevor Roberts (Anderson-BRC) and Robert Chilcott (Anderson-FPE) still have a few hopes. At this time of the year, the weather conditions can prove uncertain and upset the hierarchy. Winner at Silverstone, Roberts has already demonstrated that he can be as fast as the two main protagonists. If he managed to win both races at Le Mans and if in addition none of the two leaders reached the podium, he could emerge as the Champion. But at the end of the day the two real dominators of the season are France’s Damien Payart (PVP-FPE) and the Briton Gavin Bennett (Anderson-DEA). In the provisional classification of the championship the Frenchman has a 6 points lead, but unlike his rival he has scored 4 times out of 4 and knows that the championship regulations stipulate that only 5 of the 6 possible results are retained to draw up the final classification. If this discount was carried out now, his score would place him 5 points behind Gavin Bennett. The latter, reigning Champion, can therefore appear to have an advantage but on the other hand he is also aware that he no longer has his joker to play since it was discarded at Silverstone further to an unfortunate tyre choice.

As Le Mans is the last race in the season, a few other Drivers will try to finish the year on the best possible note, either to compensate for some past disillusions or to prepare the next campaign as well as they can. Excellent recruit from the KZ2 category (he landed the 2009 CIK-FIA Viking Trophy and distinguished himself with the third fastest lap time in practice for the very competitive World Cup for KZ2), the young Dane Andreas Fasberg (PVP-PVP) will make at Le Mans his maiden apparition in the European Superkart Championship, and it could be followed by a more intensive programme in the discipline in 2011. He will be one of the ambitious young Drivers to watch closely, as will be the Frenchman Emmanuel Vinualès (Anderson-DEA), the Czech Adam Kout (MS Kart-VM) and Holland’s Arjan Kievitsbosch (MS Kart-VM).

The Le Mans event will be focused on two days, with practice on Saturday 23 October and the two races scheduled for Sunday 24 October (at 10h05 and 14h05). The Drivers’ evolutions and results can be followed in real time on www.cikfia.com

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