The last meeting of 2008 for Equipe de France FFSA Karting will be held next weekend. It will be an important meeting, too, because the international La Conca circuit, in the far south of Italy, will host the two most prestigious races of the year. There will be the World KF1 Championship, with all the best drivers in this category, and the World Cup for KF2, which gathers the most promising drivers in karting, and maybe in car racing as well.
For the occasion, the French team will be able to count on two of its KF1 drivers and on its four young drivers from KF2. The only driver not attending the competition will be promising Norman Nato, whose team has decided not to enter the competition in KF1, thereby depriving this driver from the south of France of a supplementary chance to prove his talent.
Anthony Abbasse and Alban Varutti will therefore be the only representatives from Equipe de France in KF1, a very hard category where good results can only be achieved when equipment is at the top, just like in F1. Suffice it to mention Abbasse’s outstanding performance at Mariembourg last year, with an extraordinary recovery in the final that propelled him to 4th place. Although such superb
performances are always possible, it is better to adjust expectations
to fit the situation. Likewise, the nice 6th place conquered by Alban Varutti thanks to his regularity might not repeat itself today. The Sodikart Team has radically changed its race approach in order to win some international titles, but its work might not be fruitful in La Conca yet. The objective remains, rather, to achieve significant
results starting from 2009.
The KF2 team will reach Italy in full force, after the return of Julien Deschamps, who did not qualify for the European Championship
at Braga, but will race in the World Cup thanks to its wonderful result in 2007, when he finished 5th. This driver’s determination
in Italy will be tentimes stronger, fuelled by his desire for revenge.
The three other members of Equipe de France have learned their lessons from the recent European Championship.
They will be able to benefit from improved sport fairness after new checks recently adopted by the CIK for clutches, an area where experiments had maybe betrayed the spirit of regulations so far.
Charles Lacaze, an intrinsically fast driver, has worked on his strategy throughout very hard races, so as not to be caught by surprise by the aggressiveness of his opponents. If he manages to face this challenge, he will have the means to achieve a very good result.
Loïc Réguillon is a driver capable of overcoming his own limits to reach the top of the ranking, while William Benedetti has shown remarkable progression throughout the season and could play his cards well in Italy. Overall, Equipe de France could come back from La Conca
with some convincing results, especially in KF2, but nothing can be taken for granted at this level, and surprises (both nice and bad) are just the order of the day in this type of competitions, where you can lose o win everything in just one race. Regardless of results, this is exactly what renders karting competitions unique sport events, both intense and fascinating. |
