Christo travels to Italy as Britain’s best chance of scooping Euro glory

Britain’s top junior Karter Riki Christodoulou this weekend approaches one of the biggest meetings of the season optimistic of an eye-catching result.

The 15 year old today travels to Corridonia, Italy, for the European Junior Championships to pit the skills that have seen him drop only 10 points from 400 in the British series all year against the rest of the hottest talent on the continent.

The Tony Kart backed driver has just returned fresh from holidays and is now pumped to prove that he is one of the emerging stars of the British motorsport scene.

In a hectic schedule for Team Christodoulou official practice gets underway tomorrow (Thursday) with further sessions, qualifying included, taking place on Friday and Saturday. The heats will then determine the entry numbers permitted for the Finals on Sunday and the opportunity to become European Champion.

‘Christo’ placed 10th in the regional qualifier for the event that occurred at St Laurent de Mure, France in the first week of July and should have been higher were it not for a DNF in one of the heats that left him 19th on the grid and a lot of traffic to work his through come the finals.

The youngster was testing at the fast and challenging circuit in Corridonia one month ago and was already setting some impressive lap-times.

This will be Christo’s second attempt at the Euros. Last year he was tipped as an outsider for the podium and grabbed a couple of top five results. He was given the ‘Driver of the Day’ award by Motorsport news.

“We did not have the best of luck in France for the qualifiers but we got through and that was the point of the meeting,” commented mentor and former Karting ace Riki’s father Rick Christodoulou. “Four weeks ago we were testing at the track in Italy; it took around 50 laps before he was down to times that were pretty quick and give us a lot of confidence.

I think there will probably be at least ten really fast drivers who could win this weekend. We do not want to count our chickens before they’ve hatched but I believe Riki will be one of the main contenders and on speed and technique alone he is very capable of taking the Championship.

He’s had three weeks off and now he is raring to go; he cannot wait to get back in the Kart.”

In what will be a vital few weeks for Christodoulou he has the chance to secure his first National title the following weekend at Shenington. He flies home directly after the race on Sunday and has a day testing midweek before heading to the next round of the ELF-Hill House Hammond MSA series.

Category: News