The 1st Round of the FIA European Championship for the KZ and KZ2 categories is scheduled for this weekend in Valencia, Spain. The 2025 championship will take place in 3 races, continuing after Valencia with the meetings scheduled in Sarno, Italy and Mülsen, Denmark. One of the most important titles for the commercial interests of chassis and engine manufacturers is up for grabs and therefore a championship that will see all the most important Factory Teams and their official drivers at work. CRG boasts a winning tradition with over 20 FIA titles won in the European Series and also in 2025 it aims for the title in both categories.
In KZ, Viktor Gustavsson will be the reference driver for the CRG Racing Team, once again with the support of TM and Gianfranco Galiffa for what concerns the engines. In KZ2, where the Entry List counts 70 registered drivers, the CRG Racing Team will have 3 official drivers: Paavo Tonteri, Alvar Siimesvaara and Menyhert Krozser. Also in KZ2 the engines will be the TM ones managed by Gianfranco Galiffa. The weekend program will start tomorrow morning with the first free practice and then on Friday the qualifying and the first heats will take place, which will then continue throughout the day on Saturday. On Sunday the Super Heats are scheduled in the morning and the Finals in the afternoon.
Last week on the same track in Valencia all the protagonists of the KZ and KZ2 classes have already competed in the COTF race, a preparatory event from which many indications have emerged. Especially in KZ2, where there are many contenders for the podium and the gaps are minimal, so it will be necessary not to make mistakes and to interpret the tyres and their functioning in the best possible way. The tyres themselves were at the centre of many considerations last week, especially in KZ, a category in which the drivers expressed many doubts about the performance guaranteed by the Dunlop compound. It seems that the Japanese company, in collaboration with the FIA technicians, is able to make some corrections to the supplies this week, at least for the top class. This factor could further prove to be a variable in the work that the team will have to face and it will therefore be interesting to follow the evolution of the weekend starting from free practice.
CRG Team Principal Jeremy Iglesias presents the Spanish meeting as follows: “The FIA European Championship for KZ categories is very important for commercial and marketing reasons for the manufacturers and we face it with great responsibility and attention. CRG boasts a very important winning history in these events and the goal, of course, will be to confirm our top competitiveness standards. Our structure regarding the chassis and the TM with the work of Gianfranco Galiffa, have prepared this event at their best and we will try to work also to adapt to the tyres as we did not have the chance to do it in a thorough and correct way during the winter tests. Everyone knows that the KZ drivers expressed many reservations about the performance of the tyres last weekend in the COTF race and, above all, we had to work on the set up in a very different way compared to what we had expected. Some of our competitors with more drivers entered were able to work faster than us last weekend, but in the end we got very close and now we know the direction we have to take. The experience of a driver like Viktor will help us a lot and the goal is to improve. of the weekend will be to fight for the podium and leave Spain with a good haul of points, both in KZ and KZ2, where all three of our drivers have proven to be very competitive.”
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