Another podium place for Kozlinski

The outcome of a German Grand Prix marred by rain was that in the end Arnaud Kozlinski raced to 3rd place on the podium in the European Formula A Championship standings.

The Intrepid team arrived in Germany fired up after fantastic success in the Open Masters meeting in Val Vibrata. At the end of July Alessandro Manetti became Champion of Italy in the 125/ICC class, while Scott Jenkins and Flavio Camponeschi made it a double win for Intrepid in the final standings in the Junior Championships.
At Ampfing, near Munich, Arnaud Kozlinski and the Intrepid team discovered an undulating and fairly twisty track, one that the best drivers devour in about 42 seconds. Fired up as ever, Arnaud Kozlinski made no secret of his ambitions. “Since I got on the podium in the first two grand prix races in Italy and France my aim was to do the same here, because a good position was up for grabs in the European Championships”.
The young Frenchman was somewhat disappointed with only coming 15th in the time trials, but he rolled up his sleeves for battle during qualifying. Right from first heat he provided the German public with an exciting spectacle as he fought his way up to 2nd place on a circuit where passing is never easy. More good performances saw him clocking lap times right up there with the best of them, enabling him to get on the 5th line of the starting grid for the first final. “From practice onwards we never stopped improving the kart. It’s great to drive a chassis that reacts so perfectly to changes in the set-up and that just keeps getting better as the laps go by”, commented Arnaud.
But everyone was in for a cold shower on the Sunday and in more ways that one ! It all started with a downpour that soaked the track for the first final. Knowing how well he’d performed in similar conditions back in May in the Italian Grand Prix, Kozlinski was convinced he had a trump card up his sleeve. But it was not to be. Jon Lancaster shunted him in the second lap and there was no way he could avoid spinning off the track in such slippery conditions. “It’s infuriating because I really thought I could pick up a lot of championship points here”. Despite starting way back in 21st position on the grid, Arnaud never gave up and produced a fantastic climb through the field in conditions which were still dodgy. “The track was still wet when we came out of the paddock so we decided to stick with wet weather tyres. But the track dried out fast which meant the tyres deteriorated quickly, not to mention the fact that the engine was working like blazes at up to 20,000 rpm. Despite everything I still managed to attack hard and cross the line in 4th place. So you can say that our chassis runs really well in all conditions!” With the 13 extra points in the bag the Intrepid driver managed to reach his objective, reaching 3rd place in the European Formula A championship standings. “This is another excellent result for us. It comes on the back of our World Cup victory in Suzuka so things are looking really good with the Formule A Word Championship coming up in a few weeks time”.
Intrepid has an important rendez-vous coming up in a few days with the 125cc World Cup race at Mariembourg in Belgium on the same day as the Europe Junior championships. Intrepid will be going for the title in both categories.