Final confrontation at Le Mans for the Superkarts

The third and final Competition of the CIK-FIA Superkart European Championship will take place on 28th and 29th October 2017 at Le Mans. Traditionally, the famous Bugatti Circuit hosts the French Competition every second year, the suspense continues until the final rounds and every season. This should be the case again, even though in theory a Driver has already taken a slight lead.

The Le Mans field promises to be at least equivalent to that of Assen in early August with 38 participants expected. This may be the highest participation of the year in a Superkart event, despite a more select entry in the CIK-FIA Superkart Single Cylinder Cup.

Before the Donington event, we were able to predict a duel between the two eternal rivals: the Czech Adam Kout (MS Kart / DEA), the reigning double Champion, and the German Peter Elkmann (Anderson / VM), possibly mediated by the revelation of 2016, the Belgian Yannick de Brabander (MS Kart / VM). Unusually, the two continual rivals had to retire during the first Race, leaving the door temporarily open to outsiders. The title will be awarded by counting the top five results out of six. In their case, all points scored at Le Mans should count, placing them as logical favourites.

Having just won a fourth consecutive title of French Champion and motivated by the performances he has achieved throughout the season, this time Elkmann will start with the predictions in his favour. With three wins under his belt, he is 24 points ahead of Kout. The latter, however, has not given up. Counting on exemplary preparation whenever he contests the continental races, he has optimised his equipment to benefit from renewed performance.

That said, these two favourites will mainly be wary of Liam Morley (Anderson / DEA), currently 2nd in the provisional ranking, and Andreas Jost (Anderson / VM), who has been on excellent form this year. The Briton has often shone at Le Mans, 3rd during the 2015 Championship and 4th last year, and he remains in contention for the final podium. The German, after two podiums at Assen, confirmed his current form by beating the two favourites at a French race in Dijon, on this occasion posting successive fastest laps. He could redistribute the cards.

In ambush, Yannick De Brabander will be keen to return to the front after his catastrophic weekend at Assen (double retirement), while Daniel Clark (Anderson / VM) will seek to pull away from the pack in the absence of Marcel Maasmann.

At his home event, Alexandre Sebastia (Anderson / DEA) will be the spearhead of the French delegation along with Julien Goullancourt (Anderson / DEA) who is gradually returning to his best. Etienne Aebischer (MS Kart / VM), Leo Kurstjens (MS Kart / VM) and Carl Hulme (Anderson / VM) are among the drivers likely to score significant points, but they will have to watch out for the surprising young rookie Ricardo Van Dijk (MS Kart / VM).

The 2nd CIK-FIA Superkart Single Cylinder Cup will be decided between the experienced Australian Jordan Ford (Anderson / DEA) and the winner of the 1st edition, Gavin Bennett (Anderson / DEA). Ford has proved to be very fast, regularly getting a few overall points. In his category, he starts with the benefit of three victories from the four Races.

Info CIK-FIA / © Photo KSP