Young French kart driver from the Mayenne, Arthur Rogeon, made a promising start to his European Championship attack in Spain two weeks ago. But in Italy he only had time to show his speed before running into problems that were as insurmountable as they were unexpected.
After qualifying it was all sunshine and roses in the Exprit Racing Team camp as their driver had clinched fourth place in his group and 15th out of the 66 drivers in the overall classification: once again he was the leader of his team.
It was a great performance, but the Sarno circuit hasn’t been his happy hunting ground this season. In Saturday morning’s warm-up he felt a violent pain in his neck following a muscular contraction, which he had to cope with throughout the first heat. He felt a bit better physically in the second, but this time it was the mechanical side that played up. “During the formation lap we have our own little ritual to prevent the engine from being flooded and the plug drowned,” was how the karting ace described the situation. “Generally everything then works perfectly at the start; the engine revs shoot up and the race can begin. But this time after the first right-hand corner, which we take flat out, the engine cut out and I immediately lost several places.”
Arthur took the chequered flag in 11th place, which was far from his original objective. But what was most bizarre was that the phenomenon re-occurred at the start of the next three heats, which all ended in disappointment. “I decided to change methods in the last heat and this time everything went off without a hitch. I was heading for a top-5 finish when I had to retire following a collision.” Top 5 or not his hopes of competing in the final had already been dashed.
Arthur took it all in his stride as he’s not the kind of guy to indulge in self-pity. He’s already looking ahead to the third and last European round in Wackersdorf. At present he’s in Germany to prepare for this event with the whole of the OK-Junior category field. They will all be at it hammer and tongs in Eastern Bavaria a stone’s throw from the Czech Republic’s border from 11th to 13th September.