After several Free Practice sessions, the 33rd edition of the 24 Hours Karting got under way on Friday afternoon with four Qualifying sessions. The Italian team No. 2 CRG SpA progressively increased their dominance to take a superb pole position while their main opponent had to throw in the towel. In GP2, an X30 engine enabled the No. 41 RSD Karting to set the fastest time. As interesting as these qualifications are, they are just the prelude to a battle of a different scale that will begin on Saturday, September 29th at 3:00 PM: 24 hours of a relentless race during which anything can happen.
Free Practice started on Thursday at the Le Mans Karting International Circuit but did not necessarily reveal an exact hierarchy between the 32 teams of the 2018 24 Hours Karting. However, the clash between the Sodikart and CRG factories was already taking shape. confirmed a little later during the 30 minutes of official practice early afternoon on Friday. Meanwhile, other struggles were brewing between the 13 GP1 and 18 GP2, not to mention the great challenge of the only GP3 team, the youngsters of Wintec-Kartagene.
A special feature of this event, the Qualifying phases include four successive sessions during which the slowest are gradually eliminated. The No. 3 CRG SpA (CRG / TM) in the hands of Paolo De Conto (ITA), Pedro Hiltbrand (ESP), Callum Bradshaw (GBR) and Andrea Rosso (ITA) each managed to be the fastest to finish to take pole position with 54''674. Faced with mechanical problems, the No. 3 Sodikart (Sodi / TM) gave up at the start of Q3, as well as No. 36 Cormeilles KMD (Sodi / Vortex). The places of honour were disputed until the end of Q1. The 16 CMCR Charente MMA (Tony Kart / Vortex) of Lilian and Rémy Fidèle, Romain Bonetto and William Bertrand took 2nd position, 0.454'' from pole, closely followed by the No. 10 of Wintec Chambord (Tony Kart / Vortex) with Ulysse De Pauw, Victor Compere, Bastien Leguay and Charles Tesnière. No. 95 JFJ Performance (Sodi / Vortex) took 4th place in front of No. 9 London Kookeli (Tony Kart / TM). The engine duel also started between TM Racing and Vortex. Note that only seven of the 13 GP1 entries reached Q1.
An X30 engine in pole position of GP2.
The result of the qualifications in the GP2 category also had some surprises. Thus the No. 41 RSD Karting (Kosmic / Parilla) finished in 8th place overall and took 1st place in GP2 in front of the Master Team No. 14 Team LGB (Tony Kart / Rotax), followed by another X30, No. 40 RSD-CG (Sodi / Parilla). The No. 24 Wintec Kartagene youth crew (Tony Kart / Vortex) placed their GP3 in 14th position in front of the women's team of No. 67 RM Ladies (FA Kart / Rotax).
The Saturday morning will be dedicated in priority to the 24 Minutes Cadet whose Final will take place at 10:50 AM and the historic karts of "20000 rpm" at 1:20 PM. Then the 24 Hours Karting will commence with a detailed team presentation on the grid starting from 2:00 PM. At 3:00 PM sharp, Mrs. Christelle Morançais, President of the Regional Council of the Pays de la Loire, will give the start of the 24 hours at the same time as the 24 H Trucks not far away on the Bugatti Circuit.