Published on Thursday, April 18, 2019

The official CRG season starts this weekend with the 1st round of the OK-OKJ European Championship

The first round of the FIA Karting OK and OKJ European Championship in Angerville, France, from 19^th to 21^st of April. The CRG Racing Team ready to live a season as protagonist with its drivers.

The FIA Karting OK and OK-Junior European Championship kicks off in Angerville, and after a long winter preparation, the CRG Racing Team will line up 6 drivers in the first French meeting: Pedro Hiltbrand, Gabriel Bortoleto and Ayrton Fontecha in OK, Lucas Pons, Enzo Trulli and Théophile Naël in OKJ. Also, Kas Haverkort (Keijzer Racing) in OK and Cherine Bröer (CRG Holland) in OK-Junior will be racing with the CRG colours.

The FIA Karting European Championship starts in France with good participation, 73 drivers in OK and 90 in OK Junior. The path will be quite long and hard, with 4 rounds of the OK and OKJ European Championship to be added to the 2 rounds of the KZ and KZ2 European Championship, besides the two final events of the World Championship for both direct drive and shifter classes.

In OK there a great expectations on Pedro Hiltbrand, already European Champion in 2016 in this category and 3^rd last year, and on Gabriel Bortoleto, at his first season in OK after last year’s third place in the OK Junior European Championship and in the World Championship as well, besides the possibility of the Spanish Ayrton Fontecha to make good results. In the Junior class, the eyes will be on Enzo Trulli, more and more competitive, and on the French Théophile Naël at his debut with the CRG Racing Team, besides the Spanish Lucas Pons that is performing at a good level.

The race format will be the following: qualifying practice on Friday afternoon, qualifying heats on Saturday and Sunday morning, OK Junior Final on Sunday at 1.20 pm and OK Final at 2.20 pm in live streaming on www.cik-fia.com.

The drivers’ comments:

Pedro Hiltbrand (OK): “We worked hard during winter races to be ready for the FIA season and this first round of the European Championship will be an excellent benchmark to measure our ambitions. For what concerns the chassis, we have the guarantee of tested material and that we know very well with these tyres; the track, instead, will tell us from the engine's point of view where we should place in relation to our main competitors. But we are confident we’ll make an excellent race.”

Enzo Trulli (OKJ): “Winter work, including the national race we did here in Angerville 15 days ago, gave us a lot of useful data and excellent feedback both regarding the chassis and the engines. I feel much more secure of my potential and I trust I can be competitive in this second season of international races.”