European championship retourns to Wackersdorf

Ten years after having hosted its first and still only CIK-FIA European Championship, the “ProKart Raceland” circuit of Wackersdorf, in Germany, is getting ready to receive the elite of 125cc gearbox kart drivers on 25-28 June 2009. The event will crown two Champions as the top category, KZ1, will have its single European […]

International FIA Karting

European championship retourns to Wackersdorf

The event will crown two Champions as the top category, KZ1, will have its single European Championship event there whereas, for KZ2 drivers, Wackersdorf will be the second and last event of a short European tour. In the latter category, the Czech Patrick Hajek is generally tipped to win as he landed the two races of the Italian round of the Championship last April. Though comfortable, his points lead in the intermediary classification of the competition is nonetheless still not decisive, and drivers like the Italians Piccoli, Cane, De Conto, Ferri, or even the Briton Hawksworth have not yet relinquished their winning hopes.

In the top category, all the current upper crust of works drivers and of drivers who have a well-known predilection for gearbox karts will attend the German meeting. There are 41 entries, i.e. four more than in 2008. Twice winner of the World Cup for KZ1, the Belgian Jonathan Thonon is looked on as the favourite, but there could be even more competitors capable of matching him than the previous years. In particular Bas Lammers, Marco Ardigo, Davide Fore, Arnaud Kozlinski, Thomas Mich, Rick Dreezen (a Belgian for whom everything goes right in Germany since he was crowned German Champion in 2007 and 2008), Armand Convers, Norman Nato, Anthony Abbasse, Gary Catt and Manuel Renaudie, whose specific preparation for this event was marked by a win in the German Championship last month. As for Sauro Cesetti and Francesco Laudato, they will try to renew the victories they achieved some… 10 years ago in the 1999 European Championship on this very ProKart Raceland circuit! And there will be another participant with a huge experience, namely the quadruple World Formula C Champion, Alessandro Piccini (45 years old), who is still spurred on by an indestructible passion and will faithfully attend this sporting event.

While many of the Drivers entered in KZ1 have already competed in single-seaters (Thonon, Catt, Toninelli, Mich, Allemann, Knopper and Lammers to name but a few), none of them has gone as far up in the motor sport hierarchy as Britain’s Ben Hanley or Spain’s Jaime Alguersuari. They are both tasting again the joys of driving a competition kart, even though one (Hanley) made it to GP2 last year after a 2007 season which he finished as runner-up in the World Series by Renault, and the other (Alguersuari) is the reigning British F3 Champion and competes this season in these World Series by Renault.

Qualifying practice is scheduled for Friday 26 June from 14h25 to 17h15. The Saturday will be dedicated to the many (16!) qualifying heats. There will be another three qualifying heats on the Sunday morning, to be followed by 4 final phase races in the afternoon from 13h15.

Info CIK / © Photo KSP

Publié le 23/06/2009