Italian driver Marco Ardigo (TonyKart/Vortex/B’stone) has been crowned the 2008 CIK-FIA Karting World Champion. This makes it two in a row for the Italian, and three in a row for TonyKart and Vortex. The last time a driver has won two Karting World Championships in a row was Mike Wilson in the late ’80s!
Marco Ardigo, 2008 World Champion
Held at the La Conca International Karting Circuit in Italy, the Karting World Championships attracted 48 entries this year. Qualifying showed just how close the competition was with the top 6 drivers qualifying within a tenth of eachother.Marco Ardigo signalled his intentions early on by qualifying on pole ahead of Zanardi driver Jack Te Braak and Gary Catt.
The weekend however was a lot more of a battle for Ardigo compared to 2007 when TonyKart/Vortex had an obvious advantage over the others. Ardigo was only 5th after the heats as he didn’t win a single heat, with Nikolaj Bollingtoft (Kosmic/Vortex/B’stone) starting the pre-final on pole ahead of Arnaud Kozlinski (CRG/Maxter/B’stone). Ardigo’s teammates Gary Catt and Will Stevens were in 3rd and 4th respectively on the pre-final grid.
Arnaud Kozlinski took the lead at the start of the pre-final from Bollingtoft, and held it all the way to the finish to take a comfortable win 1.5 seconds ahead of Gary Catt, who had battled it out with Stevens (3rd) and Ardigo (4th). Davide Fore and Jason Parrot rounded up the top 6.
Gary Catt followed by Ardigo
Kozlinski suffered an engine failure very early in the race ruining his hopes of championship glory leaving Ardigo to take the lead despite starting in 4th. Ardigo first had to fend off a challenge from Gary Catt who took the lead and held it for 4 laps before being overtaken again. Meanwhile Libor Toman (Birel/Parilla/B’stone) was making steady progress from his 9th grid starting position and soon after Catt was overtaken by Ardigo, Toman also got past him to mount a challenge for the World Championship. Toman got close but not close enough ending in a satisfying 2nd place, finishing within 9 tenths of Ardigo. Gary Catt dropped back a full 4 seconds behind with Bollingtoft and Davide Fore (Maranello/Maxter/B’stone) finishing further back in 4th and 5th.
- Download: KF1 World Championchip Results 2008
Podium
Libor Toman
The other back-to-back world champions are: Mike Wilson with the earlier mentioned 2 in a row in the late 80’s, and he also managed 3 in a row from 81-83. Felice Rovelli had two in a row in 76-77. François Goldstein is the only driver that has managed 4 in a row, from 69 to 72. Guido Sala was the first winning two in a row in 64 and 65. That makes Marco Ardigo the 5th driver ever to win back-to-back Karting World Championships.
All pictures courtesy cik-fia.com.