From 5th to 8th June, FIA Karting visited the Viterbo circuit, which had never before been used for the Championships. The sun, the heat and the grip were there, as was the performance of the KR-IAME packages, so the results followed. In the OK-Junior class, the VictoryLane team celebrated the victory of Frenchman Samuel Hugon, who was joined on the podium by Dean Hoogendoorn. The Dutchman leads the Championship ahead of his Prema Racing team-mate Noah Baglin. The KR chassis has won in all the Finals at Campillos, Portimao and Viterbo! In OK, Jacob Micallef (KR Motorsport) moved up to 3rd place, while James Anagnostiadis is still in a position to fight for the title. The teams' standings were also very favourable for the Kart Republic factory.
OK-Junior: Hugon wins, Hoogendoorn leads
Pole-sitter Noah Baglin was clearly a candidate for victory before a collision at the start of the Super Heat set him back. 7th in the Final and 2nd in the Championship standings before the final round in Denmark at the beginning of August, the Briton is still in with a chance of being crowned champion. Samuel Hugon (VictoryLane) proved that a private driver from a satellite team could lead the KR chassis to victory by applying the right recipes when he emerged victorious in the Final after a solid race and the fastest lap of the race. Kart Republic's slogan, "We are one", was once again confirmed.
Three weeks after his victory in Portugal, Dean Hoogendoorn (Prema Racing) was consistently in the leading group on the Leopard circuit. The Dutchman's 3rd place points enabled him to move up to 1st place in the standings. With Luka Scelles (VictoryLane) in 5th place, there were three KR-IAMEs in the top five in an extremely competitive field.
OK: nine KR-IAMEs in the top 13!
The track temperature and grip rose continually during the event. Always very effective in these conditions, the KR chassis took many top-20 places with various teams. It was on the very last lap of the Final that the definitive podium order was decided. Jacob Micallef (KR Motorsport) edged out Louis Cochet (VictoryLane) and James Anagnostiadis (Prema Racing) for 3rd place. It was Lewis Francis (KR Motorsport) who started from the front row, but a collision put an end to his hopes on the first lap.
Daniel Kelleher, who had finished a brilliant 2nd in the Qualifying Heats, had intended to fight for victory, but a technical incident saw him crash out in the Super Heat. He then came home 10th behind two other KR-IAMEs, those of Thibaut Ramaekers and Peter Stiller from the VDK Racing team.
A comment from Dino Chiesa, head of the KR Global Motorsport Company:
"Winning the two European Championship titles remains our objective, and we'll be going to Denmark this summer with that ambition. Of course, we are in the best position in OK-Junior with Dean Hoogendoorn and Noah Baglin. We've appealed against a decision on Baglin and we're waiting to see how things develop. In KR, the situation is more difficult, but we'll be backing James Anagnostiadis all the way. He's the only one who can beat the current leader. No champion has yet been crowned, so it's perfect for suspense. Prema Racing leads the team standings in OK-Junior, and also in OK ahead of KR Motorsport."
"In addition, we can be pleased to see that many drivers were competitive at Viterbo. On this difficult track with lots of grip, Samuel Hugon won in OK-Junior, Dean Hoogendoorn and Jacob Micallef finished on the podium, while a significant number of KR-IAME machines finished in the top 10 in each category. Conditions will undoubtedly be different at Rodby in Denmark, so we'll be stepping up our work in preparation for that event.”