The Genk World Championship has shown that karting, if well organized, is still able to phattract a huge audience

TEXT: A.GIUSTINI FOTO: CUNAPHOTO.IT

THE FOLKLORE OF GENK

The KZ World Championship, to which the KZ2 Super Cup and the Academy Trophy, were the “contours”, has left a clear mark on the 2018 international karting scene.

A painting without a frame is an incomplete picture; in the same way, a competition, spectacular and compelling as it may be, without support from the fans remains a melancholy event, deprived of warmth and folklore. In Genk, instead, the good old times seemed to have returned, a time when champions such as Alessandro Piccini and Gianluca Beggio competed on tracks surrounded by crowded grandstands. And in Genk, the races won by Patrik Hájek, Matteo Viganò and Kobe Pauwels were rightly valued by the many spectators who filled the grandstand, the paddock, and the grounds, proving that karting has not lost its charm, but that the way ahead is via promotion which, in Genk, the organizer proved formidable!

FOUR THOUSAND PEOPLE ONLY ON SUNDAY

Speaking with Dave Ritzen, head of the event’s organization, we learned that on Sunday there were a total of 4,000 people on the track. A result that in the era of TV streaming and internet, is truly noteworthy. But a large-scale promotional campaign was needed, and carried out, one which involved not only the web but also print and …buses.