The incredible 2024 World Championship held in Great Britain on the PFI circuit had two major highlights: firstly, the two Finals ended in unexpected last-lap upsets, and secondly, the KR-IAME teams put in a particularly impressive overall performance. Kenzo Craigie became OK-Junior World Champion, while James Anagnostiadis secured the Prema Racing team's one-two finish ahead of Rocco Coronel (VictoryLane). In OK, KR Motorsport took the team title after Joe Turney finished runner-up in the World Championship.
OK-Junior: Top five places in the Final for KR and IAME
OK and KZ World Champion in 2023, KR is now OK-Junior World Champion for the first time in its history. The coronation of Briton Kenzo Craigie comes on the back of a long list of positive results for KR: pole position for Noah Baglin (Prema Racing), 14 wins in the Qualifying Heats, the two Super Heats for Niklas Schaufler (DPK Racing) and Kit Belofsky (Fusion Motorsport) and finally the top five places in the Final, not forgetting Arjen Kraeling in 8th place.
Leading the Final from the second lap, Baglin was eventually caught by Craigie who came out on top in extremis after a very intense duel throughout the last lap. Baglin unfortunately finished off the track and Australian James Anagnostiadis took 2nd place on the podium. Rocco Coronel, who started 11th, worked his way up to 3rd place in the Final standings ahead of Belofsky, the race’s driving force, and Zac Green (Jamie Green Racing). In both dry and wet conditions, the KR-IAMEs dominated proceedings. As for the teams, KR Motorsport finished 3rd in the FIA Karting Championship.
OK: Joe Turney has almost won it all
After a splendid pole position, winning all five heats and then the Super Heat by more than four seconds, Joe Turney was clearly the driver to beat in the dry. In the rain of the Final, Joe was on top for a long time, before a small mistake pushed him back to 2nd position. European Champion, winner of the Champions of the Future Euro Series and runner-up in the World Championship, Joe Turney will remain the driver of the year in 2024.
10 of the 15 heats were won by KR-IAMEs. After Turney in the first Super Heat, Fionn McLaughlin won the second and seven of the Italian brand's chassis made the top 10, with 20 KRs among the 36 finalists. For VictoryLane, Jimmy Helias was P4, Joseph Smith P9 and Guillaume Bouzar P10, just ahead of Miguel Costa. Dmitry Matveev (KR Motorsport) had a fine World Championship in 5th place ahead of McLaughlin from the VDK Racing team, who also contributed to Thibaut Ramaekers' 13th place. David Cosma Cristofor, who started 8th in the Final, had no success in the Final, as did Noah Monteiro, despite being placed 2nd three times out of five in the heats.
In OK-N, Harrison Whitticome (Argenti Motorsport) took pole position and Hugo Herrouin (KBK Compétition) qualified on the front row for the Final, but changing conditions prevented them from achieving the results they had hoped for.
Comments from Dino Chiesa, Head of KR Global Motorsport Company
"In our previous press release, we predicted that the OK World Championship might not be a reflection of the season. This is what happened at PFI, as it has been the case several times since 2017. This observation confirms that some thought could be given to the way in which these World Championship titles are awarded. For Kart Republic, this will remain an excellent year if you look at all the results, in addition to Kenzo Craigie's OK-Junior crown and our OK team title. I'm pleased with the performances of our satellite teams. "We are Republic, we are one": our slogan is more valid than ever. We all work together, that's what makes us stronger. We are able to supply a lot of high-performance chassis and engines, which remains our objective, in order to make other drivers want to join us. One in three drivers used a KR chassis at this event. Of course, my first thought is for Joe Turney, who had an incredible World Championship, and my second is for Noah Baglin, who at the very least deserved to be on the podium. He's very young, took pole position and led the Final for a long time. No doubt we'll be talking about him again soon...".