This weekend, from September 12th to 15th, the PF International circuit in England will host the most important event of the year for the direct-drive classes: the FIA World Championship OK & OK Junior. For drivers with ambitions in motor racing, this event will be among the most important of their experience in karting and the talents who will compete for the two titles will be truly many: 262 drivers from 59 different countries. This week’s event in England will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Karting World Championship, in fact, the first edition took place in Italy in 1964 and for this occasion there will be an event on Saturday and Sunday with historic karts manufactured from 1960 until 1980.
From a sporting point of view, this FIA meeting will be an incredible show, which can be followed in Live Timing and Live Streaming on the Federation’s official website (fiakarting.com) by every karting enthusiast. The CRG team has worked hard for this race, both in the tests in August and last week in the Champions of the Future preparation race. Expectations are very high, even if in the top class, due to a concurrent commitment in F4, the team will not be able to field Gabriel Gomez and Louis Iglesias, two drivers who would certainly have been protagonists. Among the most prominent drivers wearing CRG colours will certainly be the Brazilian Olin Galli in OK and Asher Ochstein in OK Junior, both with potential to be on the podium in their respective categories and among the fastest last weekend in the Champions of the Future race. The CRG team will be very large, lining up a total of 19 drivers and many will have the potential to play a leading role. All CRG drivers will be competing with KT2 chassis and Iame engines managed on track by BM Motors.
The event program will include qualifying practice on Friday 13th, when the first qualifying heats will also take place and will continue throughout Saturday. On Sunday, after the intermediate classification of penalties, the best 72 drivers for each category will take part in the Super Heat which will define the 36 finalists, who will compete for the title in the finals on Sunday afternoon.
The expectations of CRG drivers
Olin Galli (OK): “Last week’s race was really useful because it allowed us to work on the set up, both for the dry track and for the wet track. For us it was a very constructive test and in which we also had excellent speed. Our technical package is very competitive and versatile, allowing us to quickly adapt to changing track conditions. This factor with the variable weather typical of England will be important and then, obviously, no mistakes must be made in any qualifying phase. Starting from the front will be fundamental and a single race event with more than 120 participating drivers requires a perfect path to enter the top 36 and play our chances.”
Asher Ochstein (OK Junior): “We have prepared this event in the best way with the team and we are aware of being very competitive. The results of last weekend in the tests and qualifying races are very encouraging, even if we made some mistakes in the final which did not allow us to fight for the podium. Everyone knows that the wet track and dry track could alternate again and the positive thing for us is that we have defined effective set-ups in both conditions. The track is very technical and I really like it. We will do our best to bring home the best possible result.”
