Abbasse and Sainz jr prevail at Monaco 21.10.2009: After several years of absence, the return of KZ2 (former ICC) gearbox karts in the Monaco Kart Cup has offered a show appreciated by the many spectators present around the track.

After several years of absence, the return of KZ2 (former ICC) gearbox karts in the Monaco Kart Cup has offered a show appreciated by the many spectators present around the track.

KZ2 karts flew over the circuit, managing to iron out the speed breaks generated by the chicanes of the course thanks to their gearbox and to their accelerating as well as braking power. Not forgetting that at the wheel of these high-performance machines were some of the best specialists of the discipline. All the front runners of the major CIK-FIA Championships present indeed made a clean sweep of the top places, the only “intruder” being the Austrian Lukas Trettenbrein, who succeeded in edging his way to the leading field in the prefinal and even in the final before being excluded for failing to respect a technical black flag enjoining him to stop because of a loose rear bumper.

Like often this season, the Intrepid team drivers made a strong impression, Norman Nato emerging as leader after the qualifying series and Bas Lammers achieving the fastest practice time before landing the prefinal. Although he got surprised at the start of the final by Anthony Abbasse, the Dutchman Lammers put on a spurt at the exit of the Rascasse and worked his way to the lead on the very first lap.

His overtaking of Abbasse caused the latter to swerve and let through Alessandro Piccini, Thomas Mich, Lukas Trettenbrein and Ken Allemann. While Abbasse already devoted himself to catching up with the leaders, Lammers saw his hope of a Monaco win vanish as early as in the fourth lap due to a broken water pump. Thomas Mich then inherited the leadership but was unable to match the speed of the Sodi team’s spearhead, Anthony Abbasse, who was back with a vengeance; once he recovered the first place on the ninth lap, he irresistibly pulled away and completed the 28th and last lap with a lead of more than five seconds over Mich and Switzerland’s Ken Allemann. Starting from the back of the grid because they had retired in the prefinal, the Frenchmen Norman Nato and Hugo Valente both distinguished themselves in the final by spectacular recoveries that led them to fourth and fifth places!

In KF3, Carlos Sainz Jr made a clean sweep of the event: having achieved the fastest practice time, the Spaniard comfortably won the prefinal and final to finish ahead of Pascal Belmaaziz and Rémy Deguffroy. Whereas the race was straight-forward at the front, it was very lively in mid-field. The third place was long the stake of a close fight between the Russian Dmitry Suranovich, the Italian Damiano Fioravanti and the Swiss Levin Amweg, before they got pipped close to the post by France’s Deguffroy, who snatched third place in the final lap, and by two drivers who came back from the bottom of the classification after their misfortunes in the prefinal, the Dutchman Nick de Vries (who recovered from 30th to 4th place, with the lap record into the bargain) and the Finn Niklas Tiihonen (5th although he started only 26th).

As a support to the CIK-FIA races, Monaco also hosted a 6-hour endurance race. For this long-term event which gathered on the track some drivers who were either experienced or amateur, the karts used were homologated in “KF4” configuration, rather conceptually close to the karts to be entered within the framework of the forthcoming 2010 CIK-FIA World Championship for drivers under 18.

While providing an appreciable level of performance, these KF4 karts proved remarkably reliable as there were very few engine problems despite the treatment that was sometimes imposed on them and the approximately 8 hours of racing (adding free and timed practice to the race distance) that they had to face.

 
- Vincent Caro, CIK-FIA also photo