Karting Photography

We have just received the calendar of the 2011 CIK races. Two important dates for Asian drivers:

• end of May in Suzuka, the KF2 Asia Pacific Championship and the first leg of the new KF1 World Karting Championship (five rounds, reserved to ex-KF2 drivers, next year the stars of Super KF will race in the KZ classes)
• beginning of December in Coloane the KF1 and KF3 Asia Pacific Championships.

And the dates of the three rounds of the U18 and Academy Trophy in which several Asian drivers will race.

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Vroom published our report on the Bangkok round of AKOC in their December issue. But as we were the last to submit before the deadline (blame it on the Angkor book) VROOM could only devote 3 pages to the event. As a result less pictures could be shown. To apologize to our fans we offer you a slideshow with the pictures which were not published. See inside... 

Note: With the Christmas season approaching the deadline for the January issue of VROOM is on Thursday. So be patient, we have to do the VROOM articles before we can tell you more about the Macau event.

Apart from the weather which was not kind to photographers (terrible light, it looked like Macau was hosting the Asian Winter Cup) we had a fantastic meeting. The last event of the season in Macau is unique as it brings together the Asian family of karting and the European elite of the sport. Where else can minirokers and other young racers share the track with Davide Fore (the 5 times World champion), Marco Ardigo (the 2 times World champion and 4 times European champion), Arnaud Kozlinski (the 2009 World champion) and Armand Convers (the 2010 WSK champion). So thank you to the AAMC for organizing a superb meeting, to AKOC whose efforts are rewarded (the level of professionalism and the number of participants, a record here, are up) and to all drivers who race with a smile, be it mini roker or veteran, be it at the beginning of a promising career or at the top of their art.

We will bring you our full report and plenty of pictures this week, it is a promise, our Angkor guidebook will have to wait. The pressure from Presley, Andersen or Russell is too strong, we do not want to lose their support.

Well guys, writing a book and adjusting everything before printing is like climbing a mountain. After a few hours you are exhausted but you suddenly feel better, the summit looks only 10 minutes away. And then one hour later you are still climbing and the summit looks... 15 minutes away. This is exactly how I feel. I stopped working on the book one hour ago, having proof read page 192. A milestone! The only problem is that the book has 384 pages. I am therefore 192 laps away from the finish line... So the book will be published in January or February, not in December but as you will agrreed it is beter becose it is very anoying when there are many mistake ot typos /left in a boock #...

I have a few hours today before flying to Macau tomorrow morning so find inside news about the excellent performance of Andrew Tang in Europe last month...

A few hours for karting but the rest of the month we will still be very busy on the other project, we will tell you more tomorrow.

For today a 3 stories article on various subjects...

LATEST CIK FIA BULLETIN/SANDY AND TIN AT THE TOP OF FORMULA RENAULT ASIA/ SENTUL IN VROOM

Already two months without an article on KartingPhotography. The culprit? Our Angkor guidebook to the left. It will be 384 pages, will have 750 pictures and more than 100 graphics and drawings. To make these white pages ready for the printer before December we are working day and night on this project.

We are so focused that we missed the most important piece of news of the 2010 karting season.

Tanart Sathienthirakul won the final of the CIK Under18 race in France at the beginning of the month. This is a fantastic result and we are so happy for him and his family. He becomes the first Thai driver in history to win an official CIK race! Congratulations.

6th after the qualifying heats Tanart won pre final 1 and finished 4th in pre final 2. This gave him pole position for the final which he won with a 4 second margin over Matias Koykka, the vice-champion of the U18 2010 championship. The champion of the 3-event championship is Jake Dennis of England. Tanart finished 6th overall in the championship. Congratulations to Khun Tanart for a wonderful European season.

Our articles on the Sentul meeting are postponed to next week as we have to concentrate on sending the report to Vroom this week. In the meantime we give you the standings after the Indonesian round.

 StandingsafterSentul

The race reports for the first two rounds of AKOC were published in their August issue...

Before we publish our articles on the Sentul meeting we present you with a slideshow of the juniors taken from the top

01/20 

   

Just received! Yasuo Senna has taken an 18 point lead in the junior category but in mini rok and senior the leaders are very close to each other.

standingsaftermacau

33 participants in the senior races and a weekend full of action. As was the case in the junior category a weekend to forget for some racers. Richard Bradley and Ryan Mumford topped the senior final in Carmona, Macau was not kind to them. But a weekend to remember for Sean Gelael, Ron Tan and Silvano Christian. For his first participation Edward Cheever gave us a measure of his talent. From 30th position on lap 2 of the pre final he made his way up to 17th then to 4th in the final.

In Carmona the junior class was dominated by Yasuo Iriawan... until a few laps before the end of the final which was won by Franco Reyes, with Marino Sato in 3rd position. This time at Macau Yasuo managed to finish 3rd but for Franco and Marino it was definitely a weekend to forget. This turn of events delivered new faces on the top two steps of the podium, Andersen Martono for his first AKOC overall win and young Darmah who last year was still a mini roker. It also delivered a superb 1, 2, 3 for Indonesian drivers in the final...

We begin our report on the Macau meeting with the Mini Rok class and first and foremost with the good news we received from Stanley Iriawan: young Perdana Putra Minang is fine. And that is the most important. They were only 8 mini rokers in Macau but the races were exciting, here is our illustrated report...

Last weekend in Genk Nicolaj Moller Madsen (DK) became the KF2 CIK FIA European Champion and Alexander Albon (UK) won the KF3 European title. In a (political) time of boycotts it was pleasant to see 83 entrants in the KF2 competition and 80 in KF3.

And we are very happy to name Tanart Sathienthirakul the best South-East Asian driver of the season. You will see why...

Josh, winner of round 1 and 2, is the current leader in the SKT championship. But you will not see him this coming weekend at Bira defending his position in round 3.

His father, buddy, pal, mate Richard passed away last Sunday in Australia and words cannot describe the sadness we all feel.

Richard's approach to karting was the same as the one he applied to life in general. If it does not bring a smile on your face don't do it. And all smiles he was, making an impact even on people he only met once. Now we will have to do without his smile and we know it will not be easy.

Our love and thoughts go to Richard's wife Kathy, his daughter Georgia and to dear Josh.

We have prepared some pictures of Richard so that you can keep a memory of a beloved friend.