The 4th and final round of the FIA Karting European Championship - OK & Junior will take place from 1st to 4th of August on the Kristianstad circuit, in Sweden. For Gabriel Gomez, the title race will be an almost fool's errand, with 71 points to recover from his direct opponent Joe Turney, currently leader of the Championship with 234 points. But karting has already given us surprises in recent races and even if the game seems over, the Brazilian driver will be able to race with the serenity of not having to make calculations and the awareness of a very competitive technical package (CRG - Iame) on the Swedish track. Unfortunately, Gomez's bid for the title was compromised by some unfortunate episodes in the previous Round in Slovakia, which in any case takes little away from a season and a Championship always played at very high levels.
Louis Iglesias also has many expectations from the Swedish race and aims to further climb the overall Championship standings, where he is actually in P4 with 138 points. The Frenchman, as well as the Italian Davide Bottaro, were together with Gomez the most competitive drivers of the CRG team in the Champions of the Future on the same Kristianstad track 15 days ago and can openly aim for the podium.
Overall, the CRG team in the top direct drive class will be made up of 13 drivers, among whom Ethan-Jeff Hall will make his debut, who will look for the feeling with the team and the technical material in view of the next appointment with the FIA World Championship in England. In the Junior category, however, the CRG official team will line up 4 drivers: Asher Ochstein, François Kerdal, Manu Miguez and Mats Van Rooijen. The Junior drivers also did a good job 15 days ago in the preparation race and are aiming for a place among the top ten in the category.
The event program will respect the usual FIA format with Qualifying Practices on Friday, followed by the Eliminatory Heats which will end on Saturday afternoon and, finally, the Super Heats on Sunday morning and the Finals in the afternoon, with the Junior one scheduled for 2: 35 PM and the OK one at 3.40 PM (local time).
To follow the event it is possible to connect to the FIA Karting website for Live Timing and Live Streaming, while updates, videos and driver comments will be available on CRG's social media channels.
CRG drivers' expectations:
Gabriel Gomez (OK): “It's a pity to make it to the eve of this decisive race 71 points behind Turney, because this standings does not reflect our value and the potential expressed during the three previous races. Unfortunately, some unlucky episodes have affected our results and therefore we will face this weekend with little chance of the title, but many of competing for the top step of the podium and, obviously, maintaining 2nd position in the standings. The Champions of the Future race 15 days ago confirmed our potential and I am sure that we will have everything available to do excellent teamwork”.
Asher Ochstein (OKJ): “At the moment we have collected less than what we deserved in this season. We have had the speed of the best several times, but due to some mistakes and some unfortunate technical episodes, we have achieved little. I would like to do very well in this race, also because the pace and the performance, in general, we had 15 days ago in the Champions of the Future race give us a lot of confidence and a positive result before the FIA World Championship would be really important for the team’s mood”.