Champions of the Future: the trial run of the FIA World Championship OK & OKJ
The OK and OK-Junior categories will be the international karting’s protagonists for the next two weeks. All the teams and drivers of these preparatory motor-racing classes will in fact be in Spain at the Campillos racetrack, where the Champions of the Future will take place from 21st to 24th October and the FIA World Championship the following week, from 27th to 31st October.
The first race organized by RGMMC will be valid as Round 3 of the Champions of the Future and will be an event in which drivers and teams will be able to familiarize themselves with a track that, for some years, has not been part of the FIA calendars. For this reason, many of them will discover it for the first time, but even the track technicians' data are not current and therefore it will be very important to work on the event of the following week. Even if it will be a race aimed at preparing for the World Championship, all the drivers want to get the best possible result and the show on the track will undoubtedly be very entertaining. Altogether 192 drivers will attend the weekend, coming from 44 different countries. In this event, CRG will have the same lineup as the World Championship, which includes the Russian Gerasim Skulanov, the Italian Simone Bianco, the South African Nikolas Roos and the driver from Panama Sebastian NG in OK-Junior, while in the Senior class there will be the Brazilians Olin Galli and Gabriel Gomez, as well as Venezuelan Albany Del Valle. Needs to be said that the pressure made by the main manufacturers to bring the World Championship from Brazil to Europe has been very successful from the point of view of the drivers who entered the event.
The Champions of the Future program includes free practice on Thursday 21st October, while from Friday we will get to the heart of the competition with qualifying and the first eliminatory heats. To follow the event, Live Timing will be available on the official website of the Championship (www.championskarting.com) from Friday on, while the races on Saturday and Sunday can also be followed in Live Streaming.
CRG drivers’ expectations:
Simone Bianco (OK-Junior): "This week's race will be the equivalent of a maxi test for us, but before working with the set-up in free practice, I will have to learn the track and find the right feeling, since I have never raced and tested here. From a technical point of view, we have a competitive and versatile package, so I think it will fit well with the circuit layout. My season has been characterized by too many ups and downs and a few many mistakes, so my first goal here in Spain will be exactly not to make any and to take advantage of all the experience gained with the team to achieve a good result".
Olin Galli (OK): "This year I have only done 2 races in Europe with the official CRG Team, but I had excellent sensations about our potential. I know that the team has brought some technical innovations and also IAME, which will provide me with the engines in such important events, is always ready. This week's race will be a test to try everything we think is useful, so we won't be looking so much at the result, but rather at having all the helpful data to face the World Championship in the best possible way".