Reguillon a step away from glory

Loïc Réguillon, the young driver from Normandy, showed some superb performances throughout the round of the World Cup for KF2 at La Conca. From free practice to the final, Loïc made no mistakes and was always in the pack of the best world drivers of this category. Despite efforts to take full advantage of his equipment, however, he had to content himself with 4th place, just a step away from the podium.

Julien Deschamps staged a superb recovery and finished 14th. In the top category of KF1, Sodikart drivers were finally able to show some of their talents: Anthony Abbasse was 9th and Alban Varutti finished 12th, a good omen for the future. Thanks to their new chassis, the Sodi boys did a good job at the World KF1 Championship.

It was not all that easy at the start of timed qualifying: Alban finished 21st and Anthony was 34th due to a mechanical problem. Therefore, they had to recover 5-6 tenths to bridge the gap between them and the best drivers. After the qualifying heats, they climbed to 14th and 15th place respectively. Confidence grew stronger when performances improved. Alban Varutti retired at the very start of the pre-final, the same race during which Anthony Abbasse finished 14th.

In the final, the situation improved even more after Abbasse’s 9th place and a 19-place recovery staged by Varutti. At that point, the gap separating them from the leaders was only 2 tenths a lap. Next season these two drivers will definitely achieve other excellent results.

The World Cup for KF2 is a difficult competition because only 34 out of 90 entered drivers gain access to the final phases. Given that stake, certain drivers tend to be very aggressive. The French group maintained a good level of performance on Saturday, but poor results during Sunday’s heats, in the morning, spoiled some drivers’ hopes.

This is what happened, for example, to Charles Lacaze, who paid the price of a poor start in his last heat. After a bad start in timed practice, William Benedetti managed to recover some places in the qualifying phase, but lost precious points when he was forced to abandon during his last heat. He qualified in 29th place. William fought very hard to conquer 12 places in the pre-final, before retiring again in the final.

Julien Deschamps’ weekend started under the worst auspices, after a poor 65th place in timed qualifying condemned him to start in the bad half of the pack at each heat. Spe- cialised in good starts, he tried to take as much advantage as he could of that talent to regain some ground and climb to the top of the ranking. Against all odds, he reached the qualifying phase for the finals with an incredible 23rd place! Always very motivated in extreme conditions, Julien seemed to be ready to repeat the performance he showed at last year’s World Cup, where he provided plenty of evidence of his huge talent.

Deschamps continued to make sparks fly in the final, where he was aiming at 8th place. On his way to a possible exploit, he lost ground when his chassis lost effectiveness. He crossed the finishing line in 14th place.

Finally, Loïc Réguillon was the French hero of the World Cup because he never gave up, even against the best pilots, and did not make the slightest mistake. Best absolute time in free practice, 4th in timed qualifying, 3rd at the end of the qualifying heats, 5th in pre-final and 4th in the final: results speak for themselves. The fact that Loïc races for a private team and does not have all the means that official teams can provide to their drivers gives a clear idea of the greatness of his talent. At La Conca, Réguillon showed a real international stature, just waiting to fully express itself next season.

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