World Championship for Ardigo at last

Tipped to win, Marco Ardigo and the Tony-Kart team confirmed the forecast by markedly dominating the first Karting World Championship of the new “KF” engines era. On the Belgian circuit of Mariembourg invaded by a crowd estimated at 8,000 spectators the experienced Italian driver was never really challenged, except by his own team-mate, the Briton Gary Catt, who achieved the fastest practice time and was the provisional leader after the qualifying heats. When the pre-final and final came, however, Ardigo reminded everyone that he is the natural leader of his team, in particular because a few weeks ago he reeled off his third consecutive European Champion title and a win in the World Cup held in Japan.

But the supreme Karting title was still missing from his list of results, and Ardigo felt that all the elements for success were there so he did not let the opportunity pass him by and clinched it, leading the final from flag to flg. As well as achieving his best Inconnu-2personal result by finishing second, Gary Catt offered Tony-Kart a win in the World Cup for Teams which is awarded for the best overall performance of the teams entered. The podium was completed by the Dane Nikolaj Bollingtoft who asserted himself as a solid outsider throughout the weekend; after practice, the heats and the pre-final he had already ended up in third place, of which he made quite a habit in Mariembourg!

In the generation gap between drivers of the top category, the most experienced ones therefore got the upper hand. The best youngsters were France’s Anthony Abbasse and Belgium’s Benjamin Bailly who finished respectively fourth and fifth. Having suffered collisions in the qualifying heats and in the pre-final, the quadruple World Champion Davide Fore put up a good show in the final, coming up from 32nd to 7th place, with the fastest lap time of the race for good measure.

The programme of the World Championship also included another prestigious event: the World Cup for KF2, which is to Karting what GP2 is to F1. The Belgian-British driver Michael Ryall showed himself to be unbeatable when it came to the final phase by successively carrying off the pre-final and final with great ease. On the final podium, he was accompanied by the Briton Scott Jenkins and the Italian Flavio Camponeschi. Three chassis and three engines of different makes shared the top three places.

Followed by many spectators on Saturday and Sunday, this World Championship organised in Mariembourg also got a vast media coverage in the Belgian and foreign written press, as well as on television, in particular on Eurosport International and on the public Belgian TV channel, the RTBF.

World Championship (KF1)

1. Marco Ardigo (I) Tony Kart-Vortex-Bridgestone
2. Gary Catt (GB) Tony Kart-Vortex-B, +1’’368
3. Nikolaj Bollingtoft (DK) Kosmic-Vortex-B, 5’’880
4. Anthony Abbasse (F) Sodi-Parilla-B, +7’’462
5. Benjamin Bailly (B) Kosmic-Vortex-B, +8’’891
6. Alban Varutti (F) Sodi-Parilla-B, +9’’285
7. Davide Fore (I) Maranello-Parilla-B, +9’’479
8. Sauro Cesetti (I) Birel-Parilla-B, +9’’508
9. Alessandro Bressan (I) Kosmic Vortex-B, +11’’224
10. Jason Parrott (GB) Birel-Parilla-B, +11’’781
11. Antonio Piccioni (I) FA Kart-Vortex-B, +15’’615
12. Kévin Cuoco (F) Tony Kart-Vortex-B, +16’’334
13. Kazeem Manzur (GB) Zanardi-Parilla-B, +16’’427
14. Francesco Antonucci (I) Tony Kart-Vortex-B, +18’’013
15. Alessandro Bosca (I) FA Kart-Vortex-B, +19’’132
16. Jonathan Walker (GB) Gillard-Parilla-B, +19’’185
17. Christopher Rogers (GB) NJR-Vortex-B, +19’’665
18. Armand Convers (F) PCR-PCR-B, +19’’855
19. Jamie Croxford (GB) Birel-TM-B, +20’’343
20. Julius Nieminen (FIN) CRG-Parilla-B, +22’’967

Fastest lap : D. Fore, 54’’272 (90,61 km/h)

World Cup for KF2

1. Michael Ryall (B) Birel-TM-Dunlop
2. Scott Jenkins (GB) Intrepid-Parilla-D, +4’’434
3. Flavio Camponeschi (I) FA Kart-Vortex-D, +4’’972
4. Jesper Wernersson (S) Tony Kart-Vortex-D, +5’’223
5. Julien Deschamps (F) Tony Kart-Vortex-D, +8’’038
6. Gilles Debrauwere (B) CRG-Parilla-D, +10’’711
7. Robert Foster-Jones (GB) FA Kart-Vortex-D, +11’’511
8. Miika Kunranta (FIN) Birel-Parilla-D, +11’’876
9. Paolo De Conto (I) Birel-Parilla-D, +12’’028
10. Ramon Kuipers (NL) Gillard-Parilla-D, +12’’692
11. Zdenek Groman (CZ) Maranello-Parilla-D, +13’’283
12. Lucie Panackova (CZ) CRG-Parilla-D, +14’’377
13. Luka Sami (B) CRG-Parilla-D, +14’’457
14. Patrick Fontner (A) Kosmic-Vortex-D, +16’’080
15. Ronnie Latinne (B) Tony Kart-Vortex-D, +16’’987
16. Mario Mariovich Turchetto (I) Birel-Parilla-D, +17’’692
17. Ville Miilumäki (FIN) Maranello-Parilla-D, +19’’091
18. Norman Nato (F) Sodi-Parilla-D, +20’’001
19. Andrea Dalè (I) CRG-Parilla-D, +20’’255
20. Antonio Da Costa (P) Tony Kart-Vortex-D, +21’’443

Fastest lap : L. Sami, 55’’916 (87,94 km7h)

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