The first round of the Kart Academy took place in Essay France, a place around 150km west of Paris. The Kart Academy Trophy is a three round event by the CIK-FIA and goes along with the WSK. The Academy drivers are selected by the motorsport associations of the different countries. Titus was selected by the ASS of Switzerland together with another Swiss driver Elliott Shaw. All the drivers are between 13 and 15 years old and have to use identical race gear. This year they use the Exprit Junior Chassis of Exprit (OTK) and the Vortex OKJ engine. Only one set of dry tyres is allowed for one race weekend.
Titus entered the final race and ranked 21st out of 50 drivers from 39 nations. The weather was continuously changing between dry and wet and the luck was not always on our side. Although very quick in the practice sessions Titus could not do well in the qualification session. Nevertheless he scored position 12 in the first heat but was taken out in the warm up lap of the second and final heat. The gas throttle wire hooked on to his shoe and he crashed full speed into his front man. He could not even start at this heat as his front fairing was crashed. He then had to start in the second chance heat but ranked only position 7. Normally he would be out of the race at this point but one of the front runners obtained a penalty and Titus inherited the last position for the final! In the prefinal he really did well and leaped from position 34 to position 20 whilst keeping out of trouble most of the time. In the final race he again won a few positions at the beginning of the race. At this point he was on position 14 but then had to fight with his tyres. Finally he crossed the finish line on 21st position and is proud to represent Switzerland at the Academy Trophy. Elliott also finished the final only a few positions behind Titus.
Really a first round at the Academy with big up and downs. We know we can do better but need to work hard on it in the next few weeks until the second round in Portimao end of June. Great thanks goes to Ramon who hopefully finally is happy.
We want to dedicate this race to Peter Hannen of the Oakland Race Track. Peter just passed away. Peter supported us and gave Titus the unique opportunity to race in the US five years ago. This was and still is one of our greatest Karting experience! Watch the start of the final race and some impressions.
Kart Academy Trophy Essay April 2016
Good job!!!