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chibrary · 1 year ago

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ARTICLE: AS A ROOKIE IN THE SHIFTER CLASS (AT 15 YEARS OF AGE) HE WON THE WINTER CUP… WITH A FEVER! (2022)

source: mattia livraghi, tkart series: karting, 2013

Among the classes of international karting there is one that represents the arrival point in the career of a professional kart driver: KZ. First it was called Formula C, then KZ1, but the name matters little, the essence is that we are talking about the top class, in which super experts race, even at 20-30 years of age. People who have practically nothing more to learn and who by profession demolish the new recruits, the rookies, until these, based on many overtakings and after a lot of competitions, cut their teeth and enter by right, in turn, in this small circle of drivers who are referred to as "the senators". But every now and then, to tell the truth, very rarely, particular rookies appear on the karting scene capable of overturning this practice. As in 2013, when in the opening round of the season, the Winter Cup at the South Garda Karting in Lonato, a teenager from Monte carlo showed up who, despite being physically KO, decided that certain habits ... were not his cup of tea.

It is 17 February 2013 and it is cold, as it should be on a winter Sunday when you are near Brescia, precisely at South Garda Karting in Lonato, for the Winter Cup. KZ was not scheduled for that weekend, so all the top drivers of the premier class poured into KZ2, which had something like 70 entrants. Among these, names that have marked or would go on to mark the history of karting: Davide Forè, Marco Ardigò, Paolo De Conto, Arnaud Kozlinski, Bas Lammers, Anthony Abbasse, Ben Hanley, Patrik Hajek, Roberto Toninelli, Fabian Federer, Yannick de Brabander, Flavio Camponeschi and Rick Dreezen, just to name a few in no particular order. However, there was also a boy from Monte Carlo born in 1997. His name is Charles Leclerc and he had already made himself known globally for his excellent results (above all by winning the 2011 CIK-FIA World Cup in KF3, the junior class of single speed karts at that time) in the other classes in which he competed. After a 2012 in KF2 (the year in which the now famous long-distance bickering with Max Verstappen occured, which we talk about in the article "Editorial - Leclerc vs Verstappen: the true story of the first clash in the days of karting"), his manager and Charles's team manager decided that the time had come for him to gain experience with "the seniors", in KZ and KZ2.

Charles did not hold back. To the contrary: "He was very motivated and eager to start his journey in shifter karts - Marco Lombardi told us, his mechanic in ART Grand Prix, the brand and the team for which Leclerc was racing at the time, also because he always wanted a more performing vehicle. He was thrilled to have the sensation of feeling closer to racing cars”. Leclerc had his first race ever in a shifter kart two weeks before the Winter Cup, in Muro Leccese, on the occasion of the first round of the WSK Master Series, where he finished in sixth position. His team manager Armando Filini, a historical face in karting, as well as one of the best chassis builders in the sector, was not that surprised by the disarming naturalness with which the young driver form Monte Carlo took his first steps in the new class: "I have known him since he was little, because Jules (Bianchi, editor's note) was his mechanic in France in the MINI class and brought him to me in Maranello Kart for his debut in the Junior class. Charles was very smart: he quickly adapted to everything. At any race he participated in, with any type of tyre, there was no need to spend a lot of time studying the track or anything else: he was already racing strongly at 90%, so it was much easier to get good results with him."But it's the difficulties that make certain stories worth telling.

Charles Leclerc heads to the track together with his mechanic Marco Lombardi.

Leclerc talks to Lombardi and Piergiorgio Ballarini, another mechanic who was working with him at the time, while he is leaning on his kart (ART GP - TM Racing), just outside the ART Grand Prix team tent.

Do you think that the Winter Cup, in the rookie class, could represent a fairly intense and arduous challenge? You would be wrong. In fact, another factor complicates things for Leclerc, the absolute co-protagonist of this story: a fever. That's right, Charles Leclerc showed up at the Winter Cup with a 39°C fever. "From the first days it was clear that he was not in great shape and from Friday he was not at all well", admits Lombardi. “He had flu and was physically weak. At the end of the day, after having raced, he was completely down and out”. A physical condition for which most mere mortals would stay in bed to rest, the most daring, perhaps, on the sofa watching TV. Instead, the fifteen-year-old from Monte Carlo was on the bends of a kart track taming a vehicle with a weight/power ratio comparable to that of the best road supercars. But on one condition: "I told him, Lombardi remembers, 'Look, if you have a high fever, at least skip the last free practice session', but he replied with an endless series of 'No'. He wanted to get on the kart and race to the last, regardless of everything". In the end, a short trip to the pharmacy, accompanied by the engineer of the ART Grand Prix, to buy some medicines was a must. But the real therapy for Charles seems to be another, as Lombardi explains: "When driving adrenaline kicked in, it was so intense that it gave the impression that his fever had passed". This allowed the young driver form Monte Carlo to work at it and improve during free practices: “His driving was quite clean. The problem arose when the track was a bit more slippery, like in the early rounds and he, despite this, wanted to see the time, even if the track was 'slow'. He complained if they gave him two tenths, not considering that there were more experienced drivers who knew how to adapt better to those conditions".

Leclerc laughs with Lombardi before entering the track.

Leclerc celebrates, together with Lombardi, the success he achieved, with a fever, at the 2013 Winter Cup.

It goes without saying that when Charles sets the 11th best time in the qualifiers, with his TM Racing powered ART GP, he was anything but satisfied: "He had suffered at the beginning because the track was was not rubberizing quickly and he loved grip", explains Marco. "He was a driver who tended to always keep his foot down, so in the first races in KZ he found himself in difficulty in slippery track conditions: he forced too much and wore the tyres a lot". But Charles does not lose heart: “he was demoralized, continues Lombardi, but he motivated himself as soon as he got back on the kart the following morning. When he was unable to do something, he was even more motivated and in any case it was enough to explain things to him once: he immediately took everything literally and put it into practice". In fact, Charles performed very well in the various heats, winning a second place as the best result and climbing up to eighth place in the general rankings. Thanks to his driving style, more and more effective with an increasingly rubberized track, and to excellent teamwork, Leclerc continued to progress and, as the weekend continued, managed to take fifth position in the pre-final. Marco Lombardi recalls that he “always earned at least one or two positions at the start. It helped to have the driver in front as a reference point, which always pushed him to say: 'I have to go and get him, I have to overtake him". While the performances on the track improved, the same cannot be said of Leclerc’s physical conditions, still with flu and feverish.

In fact, on the day of the final, looking at his face, which was pale and suffering during the parade of the drivers, anything could be predicted except what would actually happen. Charles still managed to stay calm on the starting grid: "I always told him, Marco says, 'You already have a heavy foot, but in the race you have to use your head, especially when overtaking: study your opponent, identify the right moment to pass and be firm. Don't pretend, because if they take advantage of the driver behind and, with him, the group following him, five of them will take you". In short, a fifteen-year-old in a cage of lions: Leclerc dashed from the third row, while the first was occupied by his teammate Ben Hanley and the Birel De Conto standard bearer. “We had more of a chance with Hanley, admits Armando Filini. “With Charles we still didn't have the certainty of the final, we didn't know how he could behave over the duration”. Only a phenomenon can surprise even a long-time karting figure such as Filini, who had already seen it all… But he could not have imagined what he was to witness that day. Ready, go and already the first surprise: the driver from Monte Carlo darted off and, overtaking the entire row in front of him, moved into third position. The spectators were almost stunned seeing that cat-like leap and Armando reveals that it was not only Charles' skill that allows him to do certain things, but also his attitude: "When he had his teammate in front of him, he had to go and get him, even at the cost of trampling over others".

Ever since the traffic lights went out, the race was of an incredible sporting intensity. However, after an excellent start, Leclerc seemed to be in trouble: in fact, he was overtaken first by Ardigò and then by Forè. However, the driver form Monte Carlo maintained an impressive coolness and was not intimidated, even when he happened to miss a gear and risk being "devoured" by those behind him. "It was difficult to give him advice", Armando specifies. "He was very instinctive, so we also let him do his thing a little bit. Especially because he was a youngster and you couldn't think that he already had the mentality of a 30-year-old professional". Charles still asserted himself in the midst of more experienced and titled drivers, so much so that he took back third position towards the middle of the race, thanks to two masterpiece manoeuvers: the first against Forè, the second against Ardigò (two multiple world champions). Leclerc thus found himself in the wake of his teammate, who in turn was staying very close to the leader De Conto, but a few laps from the end Forè tried another attack on the driver from Monte Carlo and went far forwards, hitting Charles. Ardigò took the opportunity to overtake and the young driver of the ART Grand Prix team returned to fourth position, also losing some ground against his rivals in the lead. When the chequered flag was just around the corner, in a situation like this and in a class like KZ, most people would naturally throw in the towel and accept that the gap with the podium was now unbridgeable, especially if they then suffer a "blow" like this as a fifteen year old, in his second experience in the highest class of karting, with a 39°C fever.

The helmet that Leclerc used at the 2013 KZ world championship and with which he became vice world champion. Charles gave it to Lombardi, autographing it and referring to the nickname that Marco gave him: “Sgrintela”, which means “lizard”. The driver for Monte Carlo made a small mistake and wrote "Sgrintera".

Instead, Leclerc still managed to amaze. A few metres to make sure there was no damage and the driver from Monte Carlo went back to pushing himself, without being discouraged: "I had five or six drivers like Leclerc, including Bianchi, Barnicoat, Harvey and Hanley, but in my opinion Charles was the one who was hungrier, he wanted to achieve results as soon as possible”, Armando reveals. "The others had a little patience: they knew they had to learn and were aware that sometimes someone else could simply be faster and therefore there was little to do. On the contrary, he refused this possibility. Even when he knew that drivers from other teams were more incisive on a certain circuit, he had to find something to stay ahead. With this goal, therefore, he tormented everyone: me for the chassis, Franco Drudi of TM Racing for the engines and the telemetry operator. He was obsessed”. And Leclerc proved this determination precisely in the last rounds of that Winter Cup. In fact, the driver from Monte Carlo firstly got back into third position, taking advantage of a spin by Ardigò, caused by a rear-end collision by De Conto. Then, following a contact between De Conto and Hanley for the leadership of the race, he managed to overtake his teammate thanks to an extremely shrewd manoeuver: after receiving a body blow, Hanley was forced to widen and Charles dived right into that space: “It was a crucial moment of the race, he managed to take advantage of it (taking second place behind De Conto, editor's note) without coming into contact with anyone.

However, he then began to have some fears," admits Marco. The driver born in 1997 was one step away from completing an unthinkable feat and it was natural that even he would be a bit insecure: "He kept looking back, watching who was chasing him and I kept signalling him to look forwards" . But in the end Leclerc kept up the pressure and crossed the finish line in second position. The young driver from Monte Carlo let loose his joy, while the spectators started rubbing their eyes to understand if what they had seen was true: "I knew he could do well right from the start, but I honestly wasn't expecting a podium and it surprised me" Lombardi confides. “He didn't expect it either, considering the fever problem too. But he never gave up, he gave 100% to the last. He had gained confidence in seeing himself improve constantly over the course of the weekend and in the final he drove with a knife between his teeth”. A great effort that deserved a great prize. If, in fact, Charles was already enthusiastic about the silver medal and having kept his expert teammate behind him, the icing on the cake came when, after the award ceremony, he learned that De Conto had been given a penalty of five seconds for his manoeuver on Ardigò.

Leclerc thus inherited the victory and was over the moon: "he was really happy and didn't even seem sick anymore" remembers Marco. "It was his first really important race in shifter karts and there were all the drivers participating in the world championship. That Sunday evening, he had so much adrenaline in his body that he wanted to stay and eat with us, but at a certain point his father told him that it was time to go home". As a winner.

#series:karting #format:article #year:2013 #charles leclerc

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sargeantposting · 1 year ago

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Source: TKart

When Williams Racing announced his name as official driver for the 2023 season, many reacted with a spontaneous, “And who is he?”. Not us at TKART, who turned to the person in karting who probably knew him best and is going to tell us us about him today: Ricky Flynn, the founder and owner of the Ricky Flynn Motorsport team. In fact, he won a World Championship with the young American, bringing the title back to the United States after 37 years. Here is his memory of that race.

It is the 27th of September 2015 and, on a hot Sunday reminiscent of the summer that just ended, the La Conca kart track hosts the most anticipated event of the season as far as Direct Drive categories are concerned: the CIK-FIA World Championship. The finals of the KFJ (the 125 cc Junior class, later replaced by the current OKJ) sees a young American from the Ricky Flynn Motorsport team in the pole position. His name is Logan Sargeant and everyone’s eyes are on him: “He was definitely among the five favorites to win, even before we got to the race”, Ricky Flynn, his team manager at the time, tells us. “Two weeks before that event, along with One Engines, our Danish engine specialist, we had carried out a three-day testing session to best prepare ourselves and deliver to him, as well as to all of our other drivers, an excellent package. Logan too, however, was as good as us. He had physically prepared himself and was also in an excellent mental condition, precisely because he knew he had been provided with a excellent package that could enable him to compete at the very top”. Sergeant shows a particular predisposition for the Italian track: “That year – says Lynn – Logan had been very fast everywhere, yet on that track he was able to provide multiple incredible performances, ever since he made his debut there in the MINI category. This, combined with his exceptional condition, allowed him to approach that World Championship with an even greater awareness”.

Hence, in Muro Leccese (the city where the circuit is located),the teenager born in 2000, proves to be decisive and effective right away. The competitiveness shown in the practice sessions is confirmed in Friday’s qualifying, with the pole position in his group and the second best time overall. But this is only the appetizer of a rich menu, because Sargeant’s performance in the following heats is even more convincing. Four wins and a fourth place in the five heats competed allow the young American to take the reins of the standings. “The other drivers just couldn’t keep up with him”, recalls Flynn. “Logan was so fast that once he was in the lead, he just had to focus on managing the race. In fact, as soon as we saw that the margin from the pursuer was sufficiently considerable, we gave him a signal to tell him to stop jumping on the rumble strip at the characteristic La Conca chicane (Editor’s note: which subjects chassis, engine and transmission to a considerable and potentially damaging mechanical stresses)”. Yet, it is precisely in these situations that Logan proves he can handle the role of favorite extremely well, thanks to his particular character traits. “He remained rather calm throughout the weekend and we did not have to take any action in this regard”, Flynn reveals. “This extreme balance was part of his character anyways, so he didn’t have to do anything different for the World Championship and he was simply the normal Logan we always saw”.

Logan Sargeant, aboard his FA Kart chassis powered by Vortex by One Engines, as he talks with his Ricky Flynn Motorsport team mechanic on the starting grid for the KFJ finals of the 2015 CIK-FIA World Championship.

Thanks to these assumptions, Sargeant proves himself as a lightening-speed driver in the Sunday morning prefinals too, winning it and ensuring that he would start from the pole position for the final race, the test that could have given him the most important title of his career up to that point. As much as he may believe in his own abilities and as much as he may feel the confidence of the entire team, however, even Sargeant finds himself dealing with some external pressure. Logan still has a bitter taste in his mouth for a disappointing European Championship, affected by some setbacks in a season that could have seen him as a star even in the contest for that title. Additionally, just before the green flag, the on-track speaker repeats the statistic that accompanied the Florida native throughout the weekend: “The last American driver to graduate as the World Karting Champion was Lake Speed in 1978. Will it be the super-favorite Logan Sargeant who will break the United States “fast”?”. And if that were not enough, alongside Sargeant on the starting grid is his teammate Sebastian Fernandez, who just like him has a kart on his hands that, in those days, demonstrates absolute superiority over the competition. In addition to having to focus on his performance, Logan also has to follow some recommendations from Ricky Flynn. “I told them to use their heads and recommended: ‘Let’s not crash on the first lap. Let’s give each other mutual respect and the proper space to race.

Logan jumps on the rumble strips of the Senna chicane of the Muro Leccese circuit.

Sargeant crosses the finish line of the KFJ finals.

Then the competition will run its course and whoever is faster, will win’”. But Flynn is well aware that at that moment it is Sergeant who has the wind in his sails, so just before the final he takes him aside and tells him: “Don’t change anything, because what you have done so far has allowed you to basically win all the heats. Just take it as any other race and I’m sure that, if everything goes according to plan, you’ll come out as the World Champion”. Prophetic words, as when the race lights go out, the bearer of Ricky Flynn Motorsport team number 127, gets off to an exemplary start and after a couple of laps he already gained a half-second lead over his immediate pursuer. The race continues and Sargeant seems to dance amongst the rumble strips of the La Conca track. The distance gap quickly goes from half a second to seven tenths, then rises to more than a second and finally reaches almost two seconds. Logan is uncatchable and flying around the track. After that performance, Logan is now the World Champion. “Every time you win a World Championship, the excitement is immense”, Flynn confesses. “The entire team was ecstatic and it was special for Logan to hear his national anthem from the top step of the podium, knowing that he was the first American to win a karting World Championship after so many years. His father was also present and it was a great moment for both of them”.

Sargeant on the top step of the podium of Muro Leccese at the end of the KFJ finals. From left to right: Ricky Flynn, Clément Novalak (second place), Logan Sargeant and Caio Collet (third place).

Sargeant speaks at the press conference after the victory of the world title.

The manager of the Ricky Flynn Motorsport Team is overjoyed with the success attained and proud of his protégé, but not as surprised by his performance: “It was his last year in the Junior series, he was one of the most mature drivers in his category and it didn’t surprise me because we obviously knew how good he was. He didn’t do anything wrong over the entire weekend, not a single mistake. It was simply a flawless performance from start to finish”. Ricky knows Sargeant’s potential and there are several elements that convince him to believe so strongly in the young Florida-native: “He was very committed and hard working. Obviously, he had talent and was supported by the necessary budget – there were all the perfect conditions in place to allow him to have a great season and an excellent career in motorsports. Logan was an exceptional driver and I understood that he would have gone very far in motorsports because he had great qualities, so dealing with him was very easy on and off the track”. There is one ingredient in Sargeant’s recipe that seems to especially delight Ricky more than all the others.

youtube

The video of the KFJ finals at the 2015 CIK-FIA World Championship in Muro Leccese.

It is probably one of those pure gifts that differentiate champions from good drivers: “His absolute, incredible speed. I can’t talk about his performance in the car, although you can see that he is very fast there too, but in karting he was really fast. And, if you are fast, you can win important races and titles. He has always had this gift, therefore I am not surprised that he made it to Formula 1. It was his dream, which he fulfilled, just as it was a dream of his to become World Champion in karting and he succeeded. That World Championship in La Conca undoubtedly remains the fondest memory I have with Logan (Editor’s note: he chuckles), although he has won many other races”.

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TKART interview with Sargeant at the end of the finals.

#year:2015 #logan sargeant #Youtube

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