CRG colors experienced a top weekend during the 1st Round of the FIA European Championship – KZ & KZ2 that took place in Zuera, Spain, from 13th to 16th April. In the top KZ class, Jeremy Iglesias and his CRG Road Rebel dominated the Final from the 1st to the last lap, also setting the fastest lap of the race, ahead of Viganò and Van Walstijn on the finish line.
The French driver will get to the 2nd and final round of Sarno scheduled for July, with only two points separating him and the provisional leader of the Championship Senna Van Walstijn. As regards the Team classification, CRG leaves Spain with the 2nd place and great chances to also aspire to this prestigious title.
As for the reigning World Champion Viktor Gustafsson's weekend, it’s worth saying that some technical problems in the Heats forced him to start only P12 on the starting grid of the Final, where he then had to retire ending in a bitter way a weekend in which he could have easily finished in the top ten, earning important points. Similar fate for Arthur Carbonnel, who made his debut in KZ, and only finished P18, due to a penalty for the spoiler, after he had started from P16 on the grid.
The competitiveness of the made in CRG products was also confirmed with the brilliant 3rd place of Jorge Pescador in KZ2 with the Kalì Kart chassis. The Spanish driver was competitive in all stages of the weekend and thanks to the podium in Zuera he will go to Sarno finding himself P7 in the general standings and around 30 points to make up on the provisional Championship leader. In KZ2 we must also mention the excellent weekend done by Brandon Nilsson, who came close to the top ten, gaining important points for the Championship, while more unlucky were Paavo Tonteri and Adrian Malheiro, both fast but delayed by race contacts, even if as a partial consolation, the Spanish driver wrote his name on the statistics of the event, setting the fastest lap in the Final. As far as the CRG official drivers are concerned, it should be mentioned the excellent support on the engine front which, as usual, TM and Gianfranco Galiffa provided to the team. Finally, with regard to KZ2, also the excellent performances of Samuele Leopardi and Matteo Zanchi of the CM Racing Team, as well as Andrea Dalè, should be underlined, all of them qualified for the Final and protagonists of a solid weekend.
The FIAEuropean Championship for KZ & KZ2 will return with the final appointment in July on the Sarno track.
CRG drivers’ post-race reactions:
Jeremy Iglesias (KZ): “We had a very positive weekend working very well as a team, both on the setup of the Road Rebel chassis and on the TM engine with Gianfranco Galiffa. Our technical package is excellent and we can look forward to the upcoming international season with great optimism. The feeling I had with the chassis here in Zuera was really very good in all track conditions and to better prepare for the Final we only worked on the details, finding a truly exceptional race pace".
Jorge Pescador (Kalì Kart - KZ2): “I'm very happy with the performance we had throughout the weekend and without some contacts in the race, the overall balance, especially for the points in the standings, could have been even better. The chassis was balanced in all phases of the race and the TM engine also proved to be exceptional. I am also very happy because this result in an international event will give even greater impetus to the Kalì Kart project, which I manage for the Spanish market and for which we have a very ambitious development program".
Brandon Nilsson (KZ2): “We had great speed this weekend thanks to the outstanding work of everyone, from the technical staff to our engineer Gianfranco Galiffa. A mistake on my side meant that I only started from P25 in the Final, but finishing P12 was incredibly nice, as it meant returning to the points in an FIA meeting. Congratulations also to my teammates Jeremy and Jorge for their incredible performances.”