A Cosmopolitan Academy Trophy

Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland: the European ASNs (National Sporting Authorities) are playing the game of the CIK-FIA Academy Trophy, and have each nominated a young ambassador to bear the colours of his or her nation.

The Trophy will gather together as many nationalities as there are karts on the track, with almost one third of the field being made up of non-European drivers coming from Asia, Africa and South America.
The selection procedure differed from country to country, the ASNs being free to choose. Some placed the emphasis on performance by opting for a driver already known for his or her experience and top speed, while others preferred to give the chance to a driver who is highly skilled on the national scene but has no international experience through lack of opportunity or funding.

Although the selection period was short, some federations really put their candidates through the mill, with «against the clock» assessments in karts identical to those of the Academy (Poland, France), with interviews by sports experts and psychologists (France) or with observations by a jury at the scene of national championship races (Great Britain). In so doing, the ASNs of Poland, France and Great Britain thus selected Bartlomiej Mirecki, Anthoine Hubert and Roy Johnson respectively.

The other European «Academicians» will be Gabriela Jilkova (Czech Republic), Brad Brunner (Austria), Mathieu Di Giacomo (Belgium), Michael Waldherr (Germany), Magnus Ruud Kjaer (Denmark), German Villanueva (Spain), Hans Villemi (Estonia), Niklas Tiihonen (Finland), Fillipos Kalesis (Greece), Martin Kodric (Croatia), Conor Dunne (Ireland), Alessio Profeta (the Italian from Sicily), Oliver Thill (Luxemburg), Charles Leclerc (Monaco), Max Koebolt (Netherlands), Oystein Helgheim (Norway), Ricardo Antunes (Portugal), Ioan Stefan (Romania), Vsevolod Gagen (Russia), Sandor Jakab (Slovakia), and Hannes Nilsson (Sweden). As for Severin Amweg from Switzerland, he more than any of the others will be travelling in a family group, as his older brother is entered in the «U18» World Championship!

Info CIK