Press release

Mich Saves His Honour in KZ1

Mich Saves His Honour in KZ1 The much awaited weekend in Auvergne brought indeed some disappointment to Equipe de France FFSA Karting. First of all, the relativ...

Mich Saves His Honour in KZ1
The much awaited weekend in Auvergne brought indeed some disappointment to Equipe de France FFSA Karting. First of all, the relative counter-performance by Brandon Maïsano in KF3, where he was expected – perhaps a bit too hastily – to achieve great results. Moreover, KZ1 drivers had probably not all the right weapons to win at world level. Thomas Mich showed a very good performance and came very close to a podium of the highest order.

The new clutch controls for KF engines, implemented at Varennes for the very first time by CIK, worked well and eliminated an important source of disparity. By anticipating the problem, the Maïsano Team could immediately verify the compliance of its equipment, from the beginning of the competition. Qualifying heats could have been more fruitful for Brandon, who missed the first session and had to content himself with a 28th position in the second. The Intrepid France driver was already condemned to make up for lost ground in the qualifying heats and was forced to try and avoid even the slightest collision, something hard in this type of competitions. Indeed, more than half of all the drivers are eliminated in the heats that precede the final phases. Brandon did his best in the races but, as feared, he wasted time after a few accidents caused by the nervousness of other drivers. Maïsano also made a mistake of this kind when he had almost reached the lead. Anyway, he conquered more then ten positions and gained access to the prefinal in 16th position. He did a good job and finished in 6th position. At that point, he still had some winning chances. His hopes were wiped away in the final, after the first bend, when Brandon ended up in a giant accident followed by “slow” procedure, a sort of Safety Car with yellow flags that went on for several laps. Brandon started at the end of the group, then posted the best lap time in race but in the end was force to withdraw from the competition.

Drivers competing in KZ1 – the top category of 125-gearbox karts where the best karting drivers compete – faced changing racetrack conditions throughout the weekend and were at the mercy of crazy weather in Auvergne. It was therefore hard to use a specific setup to gain a lasting advantage. For example, Sodikart drivers Anthony Abbasse and Alban Varutti had a marked preference for the wet track. After a timed qualifying in dry racetrack conditions, where they were 35th and 38th respectively, a heat in the rain allowed them to reach 11th and 7th position. The sunny finals saw them resist their opponents, rather than face them.

Norman Nato shared this same feeling of powerlessness in the final, when he concluded in 11th position, but he fought once again at the same level as the best drivers and gained an advantage over their older opponents, with a nice victory in the qualifying heat. 6th time in qualifying, 5th in the provisional ranking, Norman had one of the most rewarding season of all the French drivers. Thomas Mich was also very competitive and remained in the leading pack for a while: 4th in the prefinal, after being second for some laps, 5th in the final behind the four best drivers in the world, all of them very experienced. Thomas has improved again this season and has found himself constantly at the top of the ranking, showing that he is the leading driver of his team. Maybe next year he will be ready to conquer an international title.

Publié le 10/09/2008