The CIK-FIA World Cup for Super KF/KF1 and the CIK-FIA Asia-Pacifi c KF2 Championship resulted in great finals on the Suzuka circuit, which is always as favourable to action-packed races, and there was a
rather unexpected finish in the top category, Super KF. From the outset, the level of performance appeared very high and very close, so much so that after qualifying practice the first 9 drivers were within one tenth of a second!
Having already livened up the beginning of the CIK-FIA European Championship last month, the Belgian Yannick de Brabander (Intrepid-TM-Bridgestone) and the Frenchman Manuel Renaudie (Gillard-Parilla-B’stone) conquered the first two positions in the final despite competition from the works teams. Integrated in the small and almost family-size structure of EGP (Eyckmans Grand Prix), de Brabander displayed that determination which regular visitors to Karting paddocks are aware that he has. Winner of one heat but penalised in the other, he took the start of the pre-final only from the twelfth spot, which did not prevent him from working his way up to first place on the 6th lap and from staying there till the finish.
In pole-position for the final, the 18-year old Belgian showed again himself quite unrelenting in the decisive race and he had the nerve to withstand the pressure from drivers such as Gary Catt, the Japan Champion Sasaki and Arnaud Kozlinski. Having previously won several international races not counting towards any championships, de
Bradander achieved his first major success in a CIK-FIA event and therefore adds his name to the list of results of this prestigious World Cup.
Starting the final from the fifth row, Manuel Renaudie made a superb recovery, accompanied with the fastest lap time of the race, and threw Arnaud Kozlinski (CRG-Maxter-B’stone) from second place four
laps before the chequered fl ag. The final Top 10 was completed by Marco Ardigo, Jonathan Thonon, Aaro Vainio (the cadet of the category), Daiki Sasaki (fi rst classifi ed Japanese competitor), Jason Parrott, Oliver Rowland and Armand Convers. It is worth noting that the fi rst four places were landed by four different makes of chassis (Intrepid, Gillard, CRG, Tony Kart) and of engines (TM, Parilla, Maxter, Vortex)!
Supporting event of the CIK-FIA World Cup, the Asia-Pacific Championship of the KF2 category was also the framework of very close jousting in the final which was undecided until the finish between the leading drivers. The Italian drivers had a stranglehold on the podium, Felipe Tiene (Kosmic-Vortex-Dunlop) prevailing over Matteo Beretta (Tony Kart-Vortex-Dunlop) and Giacomo Patrono (Birel-Parilla-Dunlop).
Winner of the pre-final, the Briton Ben Cooper led the final for a long time before he had to give in to Tiene three laps from the end and then fell back to fifth place on the last lap. The reliability of KF2 engines was again brought to the fore as in particular 94% of the starters reached the finish in the prefinal. |
