If the 27th Winter Cup in Lonato does not break attendance records, it takes back its first place in the calendar a good month ahead of its usual date. It must be said that the beginning of the season is now very much in demand with the recent establishment of the WSK Promotion in January for a regrouping on the South Garda Karting circuit after the closure of the Adria Karting Raceway last year.
165 drivers are expected in Lonato from 20 to 22 January 2023 in the absence of factory teams such as Tony Kart Racing Team, Birel ART Racing, CRG Racing Team or Kart Republic Motorsport, but also of RFM among the privateers. This choice confirms the decision taken last year to slightly reduce the number of major international players. The Winter Cup has undeniably lost some of its prestige as we enter the 2020s, troubled by the pandemic, but also by internal events at the track: we are far from the 322 and 310 drivers of the 2018 and 2019 editions.
The international Mini category, characterised by the Gr.3 label in Italy to differentiate it from the single-make category, is divided for the first time into under 10 and over 10 years old. It remains to be seen if this is a good solution to valorise the youngest. On the French side, it’s not a big crowd with Léni Robillot Lagache (Tony Kart/TM) coming directly from the Minime and François Dario Kerdal (KR/Iame) at Team Driver Racing Kart, who has the double nationality Fr/Ita, runs under Swiss licence and is registered with the Italian flag.
Many new names among the 35 OK-Junior drivers, including three Frenchmen: Romain Kintzinger (Tony Kart/Vortex), Lisa Billard (Tony Kart/Vortex) and Louis Cochet (Sodi/TM) from the Italian Mini.
The top seeds can be counted on the fingers of one hand among the 27 OKs. Ean Eyckmans (Tony Kart/Vortex), Dmitry Matveev (KR/Iame), Joel Bergstrom (KR/Iame), Miguel Costa (KR/Iame) will have to watch out for the arrival of Jimmy Helias (Tony Kart/Vortex) in the OK category within the Ward Racing team, while Andrea Dupé (Sodi/TM) will be discovering the category with Sodikart.
KZ2 could turn into a duel between Maranello SRP and CPB Sport. Corentin Rousseau (Sodi/TM),
Mattéo Spirgel (Sodi/TM), Thomas Imbourg (Sodi/TM) and Jean Nomblot (Sodi/TM) are unsurprisingly maintaining their confidence in Paul Bizalion’s team and in French chassis. David Trefilov (Maranello/TM) will undoubtedly spearhead the German-Italian team. OK specialists Alex Powell and Kean Nakamura Berta will be joined by Luka Sammalisto on the KR/Iame of the King Racing team. Cristian Bertuca (Birel ART/TM) was unable to wait for the official team to arrive before taking to the track as a privateer. Craig Tanic (Birel ART/TM) was not afraid to face the cold on his usual machine. Finally, Davide Foré (Sodi/TM) will be leaving the pastas for once to taste the specialities of Nantes.
After two days of free practice, we will meet on Friday 20th in Lonato for the qualifying practice of the Winter Cup.
Info Kartcom