A world championship final like the one we’ve just seen at the Franciacorta Karting Track will surely go down in history: out of 36 in the starting grid, only 14 made it to the finish line, and 18 of the 22 that did not finish were out before the 10th lap. Of these, 5 drivers didn’t even finish the first lap. It was a bloodbath of DNFs and almost all of them were due to collisions. Then Joe Turney put the cherry on the cake when he caused a collision with Gabriel Gomez, CRG’s “colour bearer” – the fastest in that particular circumstance and certainly eligible for the championship title. A world championship with a compromised result that will be remembered for everything that happened between the first two, and less for Kutskov who won the race in the end, keeping his lead on Lammers e Nakamura for 13 laps
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The FIA Karting World Championship, which awards the most important recognition in sport and especially in karting, is an easy competition to read, because it is a single race. If instead it were held over multiple races – as almost everyone hopes it will be in the near future – this analysis would obviously not have anything to be based on. Paradoxically the European Championship, carried out over four races, has more value than the World Championship which, being based on just one race, turns into a lottery and is therefore less credible. How much does an accident like the one between Turney and Gomez, in a competition to win the title, impact the collective imagination? In ten years will we remember this frame more than Kutskov’s victory? I’m pretty sure we will. However, the victory claimed by the frontman of DPK is worthy of that kind of recognition, because he knew how to use the situation to his advantage – which doesn’t happen often in line – staying in front of none less than the current European champion, Lammers, considered the best karting driver at the moment, and Nakamura Berta, the 2021 OKJ world champion and last season’s OK European champion. That’s why, even if the Goddess of Fate did help, the Russian driver definitely earned the championship title. It’s common knowledge that winning is the goal of every driver lined up at the beginning of the world championship race, and Kutskov played it well when he found himself in front of Lammers and Nakamura, transforming himself into the hero that represents all the kart drivers who hardly dare to even dream of such an opportunity. What’s more, the colours of his kart resemble Superman’s cape and not even “number ones” like Lammers e Nakamura, who had run out of kryptonite in this case, were able to break the spell. Bravo Kutskov.