Riki Christodoulou has qualified as top British ICA driver for the European Championships due to occur at Mariembourg, Belgium on 5th September thanks to scoring 8th overall in the Qualifier for the Western region at Lavelanet, France.
Christo, the defending British JICA Champion, earned a brace of 13th positions in an eventful afternoon that begun with a strong 2nd place in the remaining qualifying heat. Starting from 7th spot on the grid for the pre-final Riki forced his way to 4th place before having to make an off-track excursion due to a rival’s Kart cutting out in front of him ending the fast lengthy straight. The 15 year old caught back up to 13th by the chequered flag. The second final was a tough affair and Christo started well but suffered with the speed and set-up of his Kart finally crossing the finish line with another 13th. The final ranking of 8th (well within the elimination bracket of 26 for Belgium) left the Sutton Coldfield resident as the best placed Brit and content with his work completed and objective achieved.
Proceedings got under way at the venue not far from the city of Toulouse and the Pyrenees in damp conditions and although the majority of the field took to the track with slick tyres the asphalt itself was a mix between dry and wet sections.
Christo, racing as part of the MGM team with whom he has been contesting rounds of the Italian Open series, was keen to get the day off on the right foot after clocking the 3rd fastest time in Qualifying practice on Saturday and then earning 8th, 3rd and 10th in the 11 lap heats with his Birel/TM kit.
“I would have liked to have won obviously,” he remarked. “But to finish top Brit was good and to have made sure of qualifying was the main goal. I enjoyed the first heat and was leading for five laps before being able to cruise for second. Things went OK with the team but I lacked some speed with the Kart because I was struggling coming out of the corners. Nevertheless it was a pretty good weekend.”
The next major race for Team Christodoulou will be in two weeks time for fifth round of the BTE Lawline/Renault AbkC MSA ICA Super one British Championship at Riki’s home track Shenington on 25th of July.
