World Victory Within Reach For AVG

AVG Racing, PCR, and Arnaud Kozlinski showed some great performances at the World Cup for KZ1! The kart driver wearing yellow, gold and black colours was one of the best performers of the weekend, fighting in top positions throughout the three racing days. The French driver from the AVG Team won one heat, was second in the pre-final, and led the final, though a small problem affected his kart and Koko crossed the finish line 4th.

A candidate to the podium in each race it entered, the AVG Racing Team lived up to expectations also at Sarno (Italy), where the World Cups meetings for KZ1 and KZ2 were held on 31 August and 1 and 2 September. As usual, Anton Van Grunsven’s team had prepared well for this very important meeting. They were all ready to give their utmost and Arnaud Kozlinski’s performance was proof of that.
During the qualifying session, Koko won a heat with the fastest lap time and was 2nd and 3rd in the other two heats. “My goal was to have a place in the first line of the pre-final. The team and I did a good job and we reached this first goal”, Arnaud commented.
He repeated his good performances by taking the second place in the pre-final, behind Ben Hanley, after successfully holding off Bas Lammers’ attack. “I have been working all year with AVG to win at the World Cup, and indeed this is what we did. Our goal was to conquer the final. Considering that it was 30 km long, I decided to change a setting on the kart, but that caused a loss of grip and I could not hold off my rivals at the start of the race. I kept pushing hard to conquer a podium, but I could not close the gap that separated me from the leaders, so I finished 4th”.
“It is true, we believed we could make it. It was very exciting to see Arnaud Kozlinski in the lead at the start of the final behind the wheel of a PCR-TM from our team. We failed when we were very close to the podium, but I am satisfied with what we have done and I am sure that there will be other occasions for AVG”, Anton Van Grunsven declared.
As for the Finn Simo Puhakka, he made some good progress during the weekend and moved up from 19th to 15th place in the pre-final, and then up to 10th in the final. In KZ2, AVG was joined by the Dutch drivers Dylan Davies and Roy Geerts. Davies was second in one of the heats and did a lot of overtaking during the final phase on a circuit where these manoeuvres are rather difficult. He concluded with a 15th place.

AVG and Kozlinski Win in Germany

Aside from its performances on the international scene, the AVG Racing Team was one of the protagonists of the German KZ2 Championship. Behind the wheel of their PCR-TM, Arnaud Kozlinski and Simo Puhakka showed some excellent performances during the last two meetings held at Ampfing and then at Hahn-Hunsrück. After a brilliant second place in June, Puhakka won Race 1 in August, and with Kozlinski came the second success. Koko shifted to higher gear in Race 2 and climbed onto the top step of the podium. Despite his absence from the first meeting of 2012, he will aim for the Vice Champion title at Genk in October.