Good Debut in 2009 for Julie Tonelli

The international competition season has started at Angerville, in France, with the launch of the GPOs, on 28 & 29 March 2009. The “Fondation Julie Tonelli pour l’Enfance” has renewed its partnership with the FFSA in the French Championship. Thanks to the dynamism of series promoter Thierry Germanovitch, the Fondation Julie Tonelli pour l’Enfance enjoyed great visibility on the tracks, in particular with the wonderful giant pink butterflies scattered over the green areas at the centre of the Angerville track. Drivers registered for the GPOs made their part, since almost half of the participants had Julie Tonelli’s stickers.

In the Mini category, Dorian Boccolacci and Anthony Coudert valiantly fought against the competitors. Dorian was second in Saturday’s pre-final after a third time in timed qualifying. He confirmed his excellent shape with a third place in Sunday’s final. Anthony was constantly around the 3rd and 4th place on Sunday and narrowly missed the podium. The Cadet category was dominated by Anthoine Hubert, who left almost nothing to his opponents. And naturally he won the Trophée de France. Enzo Marchetti also put in a noteworthy performance on the first day, by reaching the third position twice in the pre-final and final.

In KF3, Spaniards Carlos Gil and Victor Colomé spared no efforts. The former was already well known, but it was the latter that showed a remarkable performance at Angerville. Victor won the pre-final and Saturday’s final, then conquered two second places at the end of a fierce fight. Carlos was not so lucky: his results were negatively affected by a series of problems. Swiss Michael Heche often achieved brilliant performances in the leading pack, but also suffered problems. He might be a difficult opponent for the rest of the season. French Tanguy Carel showed his ability to duel with the best drivers and will most likely confirm his potential soon.

In KF2, there were several favourites, especially Brandon Maïsano, Loïc Réguillon, David Da Luz and Guillaume De Ridder. The first two had their moment of glory already on Saturday, after an exciting duel. Brandon arrived ahead of Loïc and won the final. Portuguese Da Luz showed his ease at combining speed and reliability. On Sunday, British Sam Snell conquered the final after an overtake that heavily penalised Maïsano and Réguillon at the start. Loïc managed to reach the 6th position, while Brandon was only 10th. Da Luz scored some important points by climbing once again on the podium. Guillaume De Ridder proved that he now feels perfectly at ease in KF2 and is already knocking on the top 3 doors.

Fight was very intense in KZ2, a category where coups de theatre were not rare. There could have been an interesting fight between French Champion Thomas Mich, his dolphin Anthony Abbasse and talented Norman Nato during races, but Thomas could not be there: a chassis not suitable to conditions, then a collision on Saturday, so despite his wonderful performances, he had to quit during the warm-up lap in Sunday’s final. Nasty weekend! But there was indeed a duel, between Abbasse and Nato. Norman won the pre-final while Anthony conquered Saturday’s final. The following day was even more favourable to young Nato, who finally gained a long awaited victory after 15 laps shoulder-to-shoulder with Abbasse. An appreciated car driver (3rd in LMP2 at 24 hours of Le Mans 2008), Pierre Ragues has never forgotten karting. He found again his way to the podium with a 3rd place in Sunday’s final. Finally, there was a noteworthy performance by Mathias Gallepe in his new team: podium on Saturday and important recovery in Sunday’s final.