The 3rd Round of the season of the FIA European Championship OK and OK Junior will take place from 2nd to 5th June at the Kristianstad track in Sweden. Two weeks ago the same track hosted the two direct drive categories for the Champions of the Future event, which was a great test, just in view of this important meeting this weekend. In the first two rounds of the European Championship which took place in Portugal and Spain, the CRG drivers collected less than what the team deserved and the goal of this round in Sweden is to reverse the trend with a convincing performance. The technical potential is all there and the value of the drivers lined up by the official CRG Team is also one of the highest level.
In OK, the best performing category, the team will line up 4 drivers: the expert Viktor Gustafsson who will race at his home track, the Spaniard Adrián Malheiro and the all-Brazilian couple made up of Olin Galli and Gabriel Gomez. In the OK Junior category, on the other hand, there will be 2 official drivers lined up by CRG: the rookie in an FIA meeting, Scott Lindblom and the South African Nikolas Roos.
The chassis that will be used in the race will be the KT2 model for both categories, which guarantee excellent balance and versatility, both with the Vega tires of the Junior class and with the MG ones used in the OK. The chassis will be a fixed point for the CRG Team, while the engines will be different: TM will be the partner of the Junior drivers and of the one made of Gustafsson and Malheiro in OK; while the Brazilians Galli and Gomez will use the Iame engines as in their National Championships.
The event program will be organized into 4 days with the first free practice scheduled for Thursday. Qualifying practice and the first qualifying heats will take place on Friday, then a full day of Heat will be held on Saturday and the event will close on Sunday with the Super Heat and the Finals in the afternoon. Live timing will be active from Friday morning and Live streaming from Saturday on.
CRG drivers expectations
Scott Lindblom (OKJ): “I am thrilled for my debut in an FIA race and above all I will try not to make mistakes. My goal is to gain experience and to this end it will also help me the fact that I know many people from the CRG technical staff with whom I had worked with in the Mini category. I immediately felt comfortable on this track in the Champions of the Future race 15 days ago and I think I have the speed to aim for a place among the 36 finalists. I hope that the fact of racing at home and knowing the track well will help me to reach this goal, even though I am aware I will have to learn a lot and it will not be easy to have the pace of the most experienced drivers in this category”.
Adrián Malheiro (OK): “We had a very positive weekend in the Spanish Championship and this gives me a special charge to tackle this appointment as well. We have a competitive technical package and we will be able to play our best shot on equal terms with the best on this track. Qualifying practice are certainly one of the key moments in these races and we will try to get ready for them in the best way possible to start ahead in the qualifying heats. Last but not least, we do hope not to have any surprises from the weather because it would complicate our plans a lot”.
