GEARBOX

PREVIEW OF CIK-FIA KZ/KZ2 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP

TEXT: A. GIUSTINI

Paolo De Conto current World Champion on Crg / Tm

Other changes are the reduced number of races, from last year’s four to this year’s two, with three for the KZ2, a change made to satisfy (in part) the movement’s request to reduce costs. The inevitable consequence: if making mistakes was previously forbidden, more so now, since a single negative weekend is sure to undermine any hope of glory. The tire supplier, as mentioned, changes to LeCont. The Italian company from Trentino, after fitting KZ2 in 2015, will supply both categories in the European. For the record, in 2015, the Swede Joel Johansson on Energy won followed by Pedro Hiltbrand on CRG and by Andreas Fasberg and Luca Corberi, both on Tony Kart.

As for organization and promotion, the expiry of the WSK Promotion mandate favored the establishment of James Geidel’s RGMMC. At a conference Vroom organized at the Offenbach fair, Geidel hinted 2018 would be a year of changes for karting. Said and done: in January, the new logo and the new name, FIA Karting European Championship, were officially presented. The greatest efforts, however, have been made in media and multimedia, with video coverage also extended to Saturday, often decisive for the fate of the race, with races broadcast and distributed more consistently among national television stations. All this, on paper, should increase the visibility of a niche discipline, karting, which must learn to make kart races jump from the screen, attract and appeal to audiences, new and old, if it wants to compete with other motorsport categories of which kart racing is, by its very nature, the starting point for many racers and teams. The hoped-for effect of increased TV coverage is that companies outside the sector increase their investments and sponsorship deals, vital now more than ever, to increase exposure and render race broadcasts appealing, attractive, exciting.