3rd November 2011

Suspenseful season end - World U/18 & Academy preview from the CIK-FIA

U/18 Series leader before the final round in Italy Pyry Ovaska. Pic: CIK

The CIK-FIA U18 World Championship and Academy Trophy will bring in their verdicts this first November weekend on the circuit of Sarno, near Naples. At the foot of the Vesuvius volcano there is full suspense in both categories and the debates are likely to be… explosive!

As participants will have identical engines – supplied on a free basis further to a lottery by the FIM company – the U18 World Championship guarantees that they all have the same winning opportunities. And as a matter of fact it is not pure hazard that several of them can still claim the world crown of Drivers under 18 years old on the Sarno circuit in a final scheduled for 4 to 6 November. Unless there is an incredible reversal of situation, three Drivers should fight for this highly coveted title.

On the smallest step of the podium at Ortona’s opening event, the Finn Pyry Ovaska (Maranello) also shone in the French stage of Essay where he finished the Final in second place. Although he has not yet won, he will therefore start the last round of this exciting season as leader. 16 year-old Pyry is determined to show to his opponents that he also belongs to the “Flying Finns” lineage, a qualifier initially given to Finnish rallymen but that Kimi Räikkönen and others also “exported” to circuits.

Against Maranello Team’s Finish Driver we shall logically find the winners of the first two meetings. Laureate in Italy, young Matthew Graham (Zanardi) also demonstrated how fast he was. Thanks to his third place in Normandy this 15 year-old Briton retains every chances of eventually prevailing. He will however have to prove fast right from the beginning of the weekend because it was in the Qualifying Heats (in which Championship points are already allocated) that he lost ground to the competition leader.

Finally, the third man in this title chase should be France’s Anthoine Hubert. Having celebrated his 15th birthday last September, the works Sodikart’s protégé is the youngest candidate to the crown. Runner-up last year in the CIK-FIA Academy Trophy where he represented his country, Anthoine wants to repeat his Essay victory and thus chance his luck until the end. However, with a personal tally of 95 points (compared to 136 for Ovaska and 107 for Graham), he is aware that he will not be the sole master of his fate.

As there is still a maximum of 75 points to be allocated (25 after the Qualifying Heats and 50 in the Final) every top 10 Driver is mathematically in for the title fight. The Dutchman Dave Blom (Intrepid, 88 points), the Briton Henry G. Easthope (Sodi, 86), Finland’s Tomi Katajamäki (Maranello, 77), Austria’s Stephan Riener (Intrepid, 75), the German Lucas Speck (Mach 1, 71), the Spaniard Toni Alarcón (Righetti Ridolfi, 68) and the very fast – but so far also very unlucky – Italian Antonio Maria Giovinazzi (PCR, 67) can therefore still dream of succeeding Jake Dennis, champion in 2010, should the leading Drivers have a catastrophic weekend.

Faithful to the Championship, the Australian Aidan Wright (Zanardi) will again travel across the world to participate in this last race. Winner of the last round of the Australian KF1 Championship a few days ago, Aidan is still hoping to reach the aim he has set for himself, namely finishing his maiden World Championship in the top 10.

It is also worth noting that this U18 World Championship formula is appealing to more and more Drivers and, in fact, three further new-comers will try their hand at that world competition in Sarno: the Frenchman Julien Carpentier (Sodi), the Italian Vincenzo Soriano (Parolin) and Switzerland’s Vincenzo Alvaro (Swiss-Hutless), recently crowned in his country’s “Sport 125” category.

Academy Trophy: A Driver from Monaco, from Great Britain or from…

With its format comprising at each weekend two races where points are allocated, the CIK-FIA Academy Trophy proposes a different schedule from that of the U18 World Championship which shares the bill with it as, officially representing the colours of their countries, these young Drivers between 13 and 15 years old are fighting one another at the wheel of perfectly identical Parolin-FIM units. With four different winners in the four races already held, the Trophy has totally demonstrated its level of competitivity, and the Sarno final of 4 to 6 November looks very promising.

Both race winners in Essay, Monaco’s Charles Leclerc and the Brit Benjamin Barnicoat seized this opportunity to take their distances in the Championship. These two Drivers will therefore start as favourites, more especially as Charles Leclerc has since landed the World Cup for KF3 (13-15 year-old Juniors) held at… Sarno!

But other competitors are determined to play their cards until the end. Such is the case of the Spaniard Mikel Azcona, of the Greek repeater Fillipos Kalesis (3rd last year), of the two Finns Juho Valtanen and Aatu Moilanen, as well as of the Frenchman Dorian Boccolacci. Had the latter not been excluded from the second race in Essay because he was weighed under the regulatory weight limit, he is the one who would have arrived at Sarno in the lead of the competition. Being 47 points behind whereas 100 are still to be allocated, Dorian knows that his chances are indeed limited. But this young talent who has just had his 13^th birthday is adamant that he will fight until the last metre so as to confirm that he is part of Karting’s up-and-coming generation!

At the foot of the Vesuvius, one will also keep an eye on the other Drivers who have already been on the podium this year and in particular Albany’s Aleksander Ndrio, winner of one race at Ortona, and the Russian Vsevolod Gagen. Finally, having been brilliant at the beginning of the Ortona weekend, the French girl Lucile Cypriano (winner of the selection carried out by the FIA “Women in Motor Sport” Commission) also wishes to illustrate herself at the end of this season. There will obviously be high competition at Sarno and the spectacle promises to be total.