Dominant European Championship win for Stevens while Catt takes both KF1 races

The international circuit of Salbris, France, was the setting of the CIK-FIA European Championship finals for the KF1 and KF2 categories. In KF1, even before the opening of hostilities in Salbris, the title was already settled and under the belt of the Italian Marco Ardigo, with four wins in as many races before this, the third and last meeting of the European tour. The race for the Vice-Champion title was however still open and coveted by a handful of drivers.

Marco Ardigo’s team-mate, the Briton Gary Catt, who has won the 2007 Italian Championship, did not leave much suspense as he grasped both races of the final phase in Salbris. Not content with the top two places in the final classification of the European Championship, the Tony-Kart team also allowed itself the luxury of finishing Race 2 in Salbris with a monopoly of the podium, in the order Catt, Ardigo and Britain’s James Calado.

Out of all the candidates for the honorary title of Vice-Champion, the Englishman Jason Parrott was the unluckiest of all because his engine would not start for either of the two finals. The third place in the Championship went the way of the young Dane Michael Christensen, while the youngest KF1 driver, the Anglo-Pakistani Kazeem Manzur (who races with an Italian licence), distinguished himself in Salbris with a fine third place in Race 1.

In parallel with the final of the top category of Karting, Salbris also welcomed the 72 European KF2 Championship finalists selected further to the regional qualification events held in mid July in Belgium, France and the Czech Republic. The young Brit Will Stevens lived up to the role of favourite ascribed to him by many observers. After a very successful start of season (he is Asia-Pacific Champion, Italian Champion and winner of the Western Region Qualification to this European Championship), he was way ahead of the others in the Salbris event, with successive wins in qualifying practice, in every qualifying heat he entered, as well as in the pre-final and final!

Spain’s Miquel Monras and Javier Tarancon Sallo accompanied him on the podium. Whereas KF2 (the former ICA) is often the prerogative of French drivers, it was this time dominated by British and Spanish drivers; it was also arbitrated by Nordic drivers led by the Swede Joel Johansson and the Finn Valle Miilumäki, but this did not really come to anything in the final.

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