Gold medals for Thonon (KZ1), Knopper (KZ2) and Harvey (KF3)
Great races and great champions for a great circuit (1,700 m!). Within the space of a Sunday afternoon, the track of Sarno-Napoli crowned two European Champions and a World Cup winner.
Extra great victory for Jonathan Thonon in KZ1!
Belgium’s Jonathan Thonon, who was deprived of victory in 2006 within the framework of this World Cup for KZ1 further to a penalty for a jumped start, had a revenge to take: this gave him the determination of ten and drove him to dominate the event from flag to flag. Having achieved pole-position in practice, the Belgian carried off each of his qualifying heats, the pre-final and the final! Although he was lying in wait, the Italian Marco Ardigo was unable to launch any attack. The local star Francesco Laudato was encouraged by his public but he stayed in the lead for just one lap thanks to a storming start before he had to give in to Thonon and then to Ardigo. So three chassis and three engines of different makes shared the podium: Thonon’s binomial CRG-Maxter prevailed over Ardigo’s Tony Kart-Vortex and Laudato’s Birel-TM.
Finishing fourth in a race which marked his return on the international scene, the Dutchman Bas Lammers (Top Kart-TM) did not savour his achievement long as he was deemed too light at the weighing control after the end of the race. Fourth place was subsequently taken by the Italian Manuel Cozzaglio (Monza-TM).
Strong performance Thomas Knopper leads to European Championship!
The variety of equipment was also in season for the other two categories in contention at Sarno. In KZ2, the fight for the title remained indecisive until the end as the last four candidates for the laurels took the start of the final race of the season in the lead and in close formation!
The Dutchman Thomas Knopper (PCR-TM), who eventually won both races in Sarno, dons the crown, ahead of the Belgian Rick Dreezen (CRG-Maxter), the Italian Michele Santolini (BRM-TM) and another driver from the Netherlands, Danny Bleek (Energy-TM).
British attack on podium in KF3!
The KF3 Juniors category saw the undivided domination of the Briton Jack Harvey (Maranello-XTR) who won all his heats and the pre-final before brilliantly going it alone in the final. The other hero of the event was his compatriot Tom Grice (Gillard-XTR) who started last and finished second! And with the third placed James Thorp (Tony Kart-Vortex), the podium was 100% British. There were six chassis of different makes in the top six places, while five makes of engines equipped the top eleven classified Drivers (XTR, Vortex, VKR, TM and Comer). |
