Registrations open for the CRG Rental Kart World Contest
Registrations open for the CRG Rental Kart World Contest

Registrations open for the CRG Rental...

Registrations open for the CRG Rental Kart World Contest

Registrations open for the CRG Rental Kart World Contest

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Registration now open for  30th annual Xtream Rock Island Grand Prix
Registration now open for  30th annual Xtream Rock Island Grand Prix

Registration now open for 30th annual...

Registration now open for 30th annual Xtream Rock Island Grand Prix

Registration now open for 30th annual Xtream Rock Island Grand Prix

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ROK Cup Italy, Round 5 – The race report
ROK Cup Italy, Round 5 – The race report

ROK Cup Italy, Round 5 – The race report

ROK Cup Italy, Round 5 – The race report

ROK Cup Italy, Round 5 – The race report

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A brilliant start to the International season for Modena Kart

A brilliant start to the International...

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Carr drives towards glory as KZ King equals record

Carr drives towards glory as KZ King...

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A helmet for Gabin – Team WRT’S ‘ACO Challenge 2025’ initiative

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A helmet for Gabin – Team WRT’S ‘ACO Challenge 2025’ initiative

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Preston and Burke win at Australian Kart...

Preston and Burke win at Australian Kart Championship round two

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Race Report: The ROK Cup Italy with Round 2 held at the 7 Laghi Kart in Castelletto di Branduzzo

Race Report: The ROK Cup Italy with...

Race Report: The ROK Cup Italy with Round 2 held at the 7 Laghi Kart in Castelletto di Branduzzo

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Breakthrough win for Cooper Folley as Italian flies in Melbourne

Breakthrough win for Cooper Folley as...

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Kalì Kart on top in the Margutti Trophy

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Italian Champion to line up in...

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Stars of Karting take centre stage in Melbourne

Stars of Karting take centre stage in...

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Melbourne’s Grand Prix week started off with a bang with the Stars of Karting Event at Port Melbourne’s Todd Road facility on Monday. The short and sharp format saw qualifying followed up...
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Prokart Challenge opens 2025 with double round weekend at K1 Circuit

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Kennedy and Campbell announced for 2025 FIA Karting Academy Trophy

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Karting Australia is proud to announce that Annabel Kennedy (Brisbane, QLD) and Hamish Campbell (Gold Coast, QLD) have been selected to represent the nation in the 2025 FIA Karting Academy Trophy...
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2025 Rotax National Cup heads to Albury Wodonga

2025 Rotax National Cup heads to Albury...

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Stars of Karting to kick off Formula 1 race week in Melbourne

Stars of Karting to kick off Formula 1...

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Rock Island Grand Prix: Come for the races, stay for the party!

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Karting Australia has confirmed Murray Bridge as the venue for the final round of the 2021 SP Tools Australian Kart Championship presented by Castrol EDGE. To be hosted by the Go-Kart Club of South Australia, the event will be contested at the Monarto Karting Complex. It will be the sixth time the venue has hosted a round of Australia’s elite Championship.

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Throughout this intense 2021 season, the Energy Corse team has been particularly competitive as recent prestigious international events can attest: a masterful victory in the Rok Cup Superfinal in Mini with the Canadian Jensen Burnett and a podium in OK-Junior during the Champions of the Future series with Tomass Stolcermanis. Stolcermanis also had the honour starting on the front row of the World Championship in his Energy Corse-TM Racing package.

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It is a common thought among professionals that practiced karting is increasingly becoming an exclusive sport for a few wealthy. This discipline is betraying its origins, a simple and ideal “racing” vehicle to offer the emotions of the track to a wide audience. Unfortunately, also thanks to the increasingly rapid path to motorsport that can be practiced at the age of 15, everything has become more competitive, extreme.

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The international show of the ROK Cup Superfinal is again protagonist at the South Garda Karting of Lonato for the 2021 edition. A lot of emotions at the track from Tuesday 12th October, the day of the first free practices, to Saturday 16th, the final appointment with the finals, for the 311 enties (coming from 43 countries) in the 7 categories.

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Rock Island, Illinois - Dates have been set for the 27th running of the Xtream Rock Island Grand Prix, the world’s largest karting street race, on Sept 3-4, 2022. The race lineup and rules are expected to be similar to 2021, with some changes under discussion. Organizers say, after hopefully moving out of the Covid era, racers can expect race details to be announced much earlier in 2022.  Racer organizers will once again be working with local partners to provide a full and fun weekend of activities for both racers and spectators.

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The 2021 season for the California ProKart Challenge is set to close out next weekend (October 2-3) at the CalSpeed Karting facility. The Fontana, California circuit outside the Auto Club Speedway is hosting the sixth and final round of the championship chase. The program contested a double-round weekend here back in June, with this single-round event set to battle around the ‘Classico’ layout in the counter-clockwise direction. Action in Fontana will be the final step of the 2021 championship program, with drivers taking the best five of six rounds toward the final standings.

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Get your entries in for the final round of the Rotax National Championships and the 11th Rotax African Open

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The California ProKart Challenge hosted the penultimate round of the 2021 season on the September 11-12 weekend at the Willow Springs International Raceway. The Rosamond, California facility has been the site of many Superkarts! USA regional program events in the past, including both the famed Streets of Willow course and the karting circuit. The two-day event for Round Five of the 2021 championship program was held on the nine-turn, 6/10-mile kart track in the counter-clockwise direction.

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The South African Rotax Max Karting Challenge is raring to race once again following its second lockdown laps in two seasons. Club racing already re-starts this coming weekend before the various regional series picks up again through August and then a revised national calendar will resume in September.

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The 2021 edition of the SWS International Finals was a great success from 15th to 17th July in Italy at the famous South Garda Karting track in Lonato. 295 participants and 34 nations competed in the Sprint Cup, Junior and Junior Kid Cups as well as the Endurance Cup in a 12-hour race. 

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Tuukka Taponen and Bruno Del Pino, official drivers of the Tony Kart Racing Team in the OK class, are the drivers they suggested to Ferrari Driver Academy who take part in the Scouting Camp organized by the FDA itself in partnership with ACI (Automobile Club d'Italia) with the aim of looking for the most promising young karters.

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Marcus Amand From Laval to Brazil by way of Kristianstad!
Bas Kaligis
/ Categories: CIKFIA

Marcus Amand From Laval to Brazil by way of Kristianstad!

Marcus Amand emerged victorious in the Rotax Grand Final Mini Max in Portugal last year. To take part in the 2018 event in Brazil, this time in the Junior category, he had to win the Rotax Max Challenge France. The 12-year-old Franco-Finn did so in style in Laval just before going to Sweden where the CIK/FIA Junior World Championship will take place at the end of this week.

Thirty-four drivers in the 12/16-year-old National category (French name of the 125 Junior Max) arrived in Laval for the last major national event of the season. This year Marcus has been totally occupied learning the ropes in the international OK Junior category, so he has more or less deserted the French scene on which he has forged a flattering reputation since his debut in 2013. Before arriving in the Mayenne capital he had already won the Rotax Max Challenge France in 2014 in Mini Kart and clinched victory last year in the “Cadet” category. He was delighted to be back in the ambiance of his team, PB Kart, and to meet up again with his faithful coach/mechanic, Bertrand Péchon.

In free practice Marcus showed that he had got to grips with his Junior Max kart. He knows the KR chassis like the back of his hand but the Rotax 125 Junior engine is rather different to his OK Junior Parilla. “I found that the Rotax’s acceleration was more brutal while the Parilla’s is smoother but quicker in the high rev band,” said Marcus. “As for the Bridgestone tyres in the National category they’re harder than the Vegas in OK Junior.”

Marcus was third-quickest in timed practice. “We had a bad set of tyres in free practice which meant that our setup choice wasn’t ideal. Luckily, we managed to rectify the situation.” In the four qualifying heats, he had a few wheel-to-wheel battles with other young guns super motivated by the perspective of a trip to Brazil. The future winner won the first and third heats. The start of the second was a bit chaotic and he fell back to fifth, but he managed to fight his way up to third at the chequered flag. Although he also had a torrid time in the fourth heat his fourth place finish was enough to seal pole position for the final.

“It was important to qualify on the inside of the front row to reduce the risks at the first corner of the final,” said Marcus. “I led from start to finish except when César Gazeau got past me at the end of the straight. I realised that I had to repass him immediately as he was quicker at that moment and I couldn’t let him open up a gap.” In the closing stages Guilhem Crespin got to within three-tenths-of-a-second but that didn’t change the outcome. So Marcus will discover Brazil and the Circuito Internacional Paladino de Conde-Paraíba between 24th November and 1st December, and he hopes to clinch his second Rotax Max Grand Final on the bounce.

“There were quite a few uncertainties because we had only a single event to nail our qualification without being able to prepare things to our usual standards due to a lack of time. But Marcus was really good!” said a delighted Bertrand Péchon. And the role played by MSR’s engine specialist Fabrice Minet, in this success should not be forgotten either.

Marcus and his international KR Motorsports team are now completely focused on the CIK/FIA Junior World Championship, which takes place this coming weekend (21-23 September) in Kristianstad in Sweden. It’s certainly the biggest challenge Marcus has ever tackled. It’s worth remembering that he’s a rookie this year! The event can be followed in live streaming on http://www.cikfia.tv/

 

Marcus Amand driver bio :

Franco-Finnish, born 5 February 2006 in Oulu (Finland). Marcus lives near Saint-Jean d’Angely and studies in Le Mans (France). He is Fluent in French, Finnish and English.

2013: Mini Kart class (France, Rotax Micro Max engine), 3rd in the Rotax Max Challenge France.

2014: Mini Kart class (France, Rotax Micro Max engine), Le Mans 24 Minutes winner. Rotax Challenge France Final winner.

2015 : Mini Kart class (France, Rotax Micro Max engine), FFSA French Champion (pole position). FFSA French Cup winner. Le Mans 24 Minutes winner (pole position). Kart mag Trophy winner (pole position). Minime class debut at the end of the season (France, Rotax Mini Max engine with restrictor), 8th in the FFSA French Championship.

2016: Minime class (France, Rotax Mini Max engine with restrictor), 7th in the FFSA French Cup. Stars of Karting series Champion (4 races, 4 podium finishes including 1 victory). Runner-up in the National Series Karting (3 races, 1 victory, 1 pole position). 2nd in the Rotax Max Challenge France (pole position). Mini Max class (UAE), 2nd in the Dubai O-Plate race. Youngest member of the French Federation of Motorsport’s 10-15 Programme (young driver detection and training).

2017: 60 Mini class (Italy), 8th out of 59 in the Andrea Margutti Trophy. Cadet class (France, Rotax Mini Max engine), 3rd in the FFSA French Championship. Stars of Karting series Champion (3 races, 3 wins, 2 pole positions). Rotax Max Challenge France winner (pole position). National Series Karting champion (3 races, 3 wins, 3 pole positions). Mini Max class (international), Rotax Grand Final winner (Portimao, Portugal).

2018: OK Junior class (International), 6th in the WSK Open Cup. CIK/FIA European Championship, personal best: 11th in Essay/Aunay-les-Bois. Junior Max class: Rotax Max Challenge France winner.

 

Blog in English and French: www.marcus-amand.com

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