Compétition

Uncertain porecasts

The showcase event of any Karting season, the CIK-FIA World Championship, will take place on 19-21 September 2008 on the La Conca track, in Muro Leccese, located in the heel of the boot of Italy. It will be the 45th edition of this World Karting event. Organised for the first time in 1964, it is the oldest FIA World Championship after the Formula 1 Championship, which was launched in 1950. Among the 144 participants expected in Italy, 26 countries and four out of the five continents will be represented.

A total of 49 drivers are entered in the World Championship. Crowned European Champion in 2008 for the fourth consecutive year and reigning World Champion, the Italian Marco Ardigo (Tony Kart-Vortex) is the logical favourite, even though the specialists admit that the 2008 edition of the World Championship is very open. He has become the leader of this generation of drivers who are more or less Karting professionals; it still includes the quadruple World Champion Davide Fore (Maranello-Maxter), Sauro Cesetti (Birel-TM), Gary Catt (Tony Kart-Vortex), Jonathan Thonon (CRG-Maxter), Arnaud Kozlinski (CRG-Maxter), Jean-Philippe Guignet (CRG-Maxter), Alessandro Manetti (CRG-Maxter), Nikolaj Bollingtoft (Kosmic-Vortex) and Armand Convers (PCR-TM). Challenging them, the up-and-coming generation should be led by Libor Toman (Birel-Parilla), Will Stevens (Tony Kart-Vortex), Jack Te Braak (Zanardi-Maxter), Yannick de Brabander (Intrepid-TM) and Jesper Wernersson (Tony Kart-Vortex). Experienced but neither “sly old foxes” nor “young go-getters”, Matias Laine (Tony Kart-Vortex), Michael Ryall (Birel-TM), Anthony Abbasse (Sodi-Parilla), Alessandro Bressan (Kosmic-Vortex) and Jason Parrott (Birel-Parilla) are drivers capable of claiming a place on the podium. 46 out of the 49 drivers entered have opted for Bridgestone tyres; two will be equipped with Dunlop compounds and only one with Vega. As a supplement to the Drivers’ World Championship, the race will also will be the setting of the awarding of a World Cup to the team which will prove the most homogeneous and the most successful with the two drivers nominated by each one. Birel, CRG, Maranello, Kosmic, Tony Kart and Sodi are entered in this team battle.

The programme of the World Championship meeting includes another prestigious event: the World Cup for KF2, which is to Karting what GP2 is to F1. 95 drivers are entered this Cup, which represents a 50% increase compared with 2007. These 95 drivers have obtained the right to participate thanks to selection criteria based on their results in CIK-FIA continental Championships or on their classification in national Championships. Among the most prominent of the 95 entered drivers will be the 2008 European Champion Flavio Camponeschi (Tony Kart-Vortex) and his runner-ups Robert Foster-Jones (FA Kart-Vortex) and Robin Frijns (Birel-TM), the 2008 Asia-Pacific Champion Jack Harvey (Birel-Parilla) and the winner of the 2008 Viking Trophy, Joel Johansson (Energy-TM).