The Curtain Raises on Angerville for the European Championship

Angerville has been chosen for the debut of 2008 international season of CIK-FIA races. This prestigious French racetrack will host the European Championship on 2, 3, and 4 May 2008 on Gabriel Thirouin circuit.

The track and the infrastructure of this area have already hosted important karting events, in particular 2006 World Championship. ASK Angerville staff has a lot of experienced in organising this type of events and the arrival of WSK in early April will certainly not catch RKO and club staff unprepared.

The European Championship in Angerville will be the first international meeting for high-level karting. The 3 categories competing in this event will bring together 185 pilots from 21 different countries, sometimes very far from Europe like the United States or Japan. The excellent level of this event is testified by the presence, among racing pilots, of 5 World Champions, 3 World Cup Winners and 10 European Champions.

Already a top category in the past, KF1 has become the leading category for the best professional pilots in international karting. It is a very challenging testing ground for the most important teams, which use all their experience and every technical means at their disposal to fight for victory. Among the favourites there are well known names like Forè, Ardigo, Cesetti, Kozlinski, but also young talents like Catt, Abbasse, Bressan, Parrott, Picioni, Convers, Ryall, Stevens, Te Braak, De Brabander or Iglesias. There are nine French pilots racing in KF1.

For 125 gearbox karts, KZ1 is the equivalent of KF1 for karts without gearbox, that is the elite category. Pilots are limited in number (37) but very high in quality. In addition to Thonon, in KZ1 there are several karting stars, often from Italy: Manetti, Toninelli, Piccini, Laudato, Cozzaglio, Gaggianesi, Benedetti,... As well as pilots from northern countries, like Lammers, Dreezen, Allemann, Puhakka and French pilots like Mich, Nato, Renaudie,...

From a technical point of view, KZ2 resembles very much its gearbox «elder sister» i.e. KZ1. However, the number of racing pilots is much higher (more than 100) and the fight is going to be very intense from the very first heats, in order to conquer one of the 34 places for the final.

The French account for about one quarter of all entered pilots. Let’s not forget, however, that during the year 2 out of 3 European rounds are held in France and that the third one takes place very near, in Belgium: this is enough to stimulate gearbox fans, who are very numerous in France. Tony Lavanant, Emilien Grosso, Enzo Zéfirini, Morgan Weber, Pierre Krypciak, Pierre-Etienne Chaumat, Joffrey Demanse, Paul Louveau, Cédric Goudant are certainly the most promising French pilots in this competition. However, they will have to compete against high level pilots like Joey Hanssen, Tomasso Cerquetti, Felice Tiene, Yard Pex, Simon Solgat, Yuri Lucati, Kevin Lüdi, Kevin Jansen,...

Provisional programme:
Friday 2 May : free practice
Saturday 3 May : timed practice and qualifying heats
Sunday 4 May : qualifying heats, pre-finals and finals

ORGANIZER:
Circuit Gabriel Thirouin - ASK Angerville
22 rue de la Chapelle, Villeneuve
91670 ANGERVILLE - France
Tel : +33 1 6495 2110
Fax : +33 1 6995 0582
Web : www.askangerville.org
E-mail : info@askangerville.org

RKO :
22 rue de la Chapelle, Villeneuve
91670 ANGERVILLE - France
Tel : +33 1 6995 0000
Fax : +33 1 6995 1258
Web : www.rko.fr
E-mail : contact@rko.fr

Angerville is in the French department of Essonne, near Etampes, 80 km south of Paris on road N 20. Paris Orly is the nearest airport.

Fuente: KARTcom