Archive for 2004
‘SHIFT’ clothing back Team Christodoulou
8th Apr 2004
Riki Christodoulou’s status as one of Britain’s brightest Karting talents continues to be confirmed. Last weekend the 15 year won his first ICA British Championship final and this week can reveal that he has the backing of the SHIFT clothing company.
The 2003 JICA British number one has linked up with the firm who support athletes at the highest level in motocross and other off-road disciplines and will wear SHIFT racing gear as well as the company’s line of causal clothing at meetings throughout the remainder of this season.
“This is a great deal for us and we are happy to be with someone like SHIFT,” remarked a Team Christodoulou spokesperson. “Riki received a lot of attention when he wore the new clothing at the last round of the British Championship and we hope this relationship will be as beneficial for SHIFT as it will be for us.”
SHIFT will be represented not only by Riki’s attire but also with decals on the Kart and logos on the driver’s website.
The SHIFT brand is owned by the world-renowned Fox label. MD of Fox Europe, Ian Calvesbert, commented on the deal: “We are proud to be associated with Riki as we have learned of his achievements and seen his potential and believe he is one of the best young Karters around. At SHIFT we only want to be affiliated with the top athletes and professionals. We principally had our interests in Motocross and the US scene but now we are branching out to other motorsports such as KART, NASCAR and of course Karting. We see Riki as an important part of our plans in Europe and have started a relationship that we hope will run for years to come; we like to look long-term with our deals.”
Team Christodoulou’s next meeting takes place the weekend after Easter with the third round of the Italian Open Championship, Riki finished second the last time he participated in the series several weeks ago at Lonato.
Reigning JICA British Champion Riki Christodoulou clinched his first victory in the ’04 National BTE Lawline/Renault MSA ICA Super One series on Sunday at the PF International circuit for round two of the Championship.
‘Christo’ grabbed two podium placements after winning the first of the two finals in wet conditions and gained 3rd position in the second race. The subsequent points haul was vital in terms of his push for successive titles.
After qualifying with the 5th quickest time the driver then earned a 3rd place swiftly followed by a 2nd in the two heats. A damp circuit gave the youngster the perfect platform to display his wet-weather driving skills and he beat rival Jon Lancaster by two seconds and was a mammoth seventeen ahead of third place.
The second final saw ‘Christo’ engage some cunning racecraft by changing his line on the drying circuit and charging to the front of the field before being relegated to third by the finish.
This has been the second set of excellent results inside the space of a week for the 15 year old. Seven days ago he stormed the second round of the Italian Open Championship at Lonato gaining the runner-up position after qualifying on pole, and clearly carried the confidence gained from his southern European travels into the British competition on Saturday and Sunday. The overdue success was the perfect tonic to the disappointment of a DNF at the season-opener several weeks ago at Wigan.
“It was a very good weekend and it’s nice to finally kick off the Super One campaign,” commented Team Manager Rick Christodoulou. “After the disaster in Wigan it was something of a relief to get some serious points in the bag, we cant really complain about a 1st and 3rd. Riki drove the wheels of the Kart today and I was very pleased to see that he spotted the faster line on the circuit in the second final; the problem was that everybody quickly started to copy him!”
The third round of six takes place at Lydd on 8th and 9th of May. Team Christodoulou’s next meeting again sees the squad jet out to Italy on the 17th and 18th of this month.
Christo Wigan hopes dented with 2nd final prang
7th Mar 2004
Reigning JICA British Champion Riki Christodoulou got his National BTE Lawline/Renault MSA ICA campaign off to a quiet start this afternoon at the Three Sisters circuit in Wigan. The 15 year old, competing in his first senior national event, scored 5th position from the first final and then a collision with another driver forced a non-score in the second race.
At one of the fastest circuits in the country ‘Christo’ qualified in a respectable third position only two hundredths of a second away from the top time before going on to notch 4th followed by a 3rd in the two heats.
Starting the first final from 5th place Christodoulou suffered from a lack of top speed. Although continually bumped down the order negotiating the long straight, he managed to head the bustling front-running group and force his way to second spot a number of times throughout the rest of the lap.
The second final was written off after the youngster pushed for a gap fighting within the top four and clashed with the driver he was trying to overtake. Christo will now almost certainly have to drop the result from his end of season tally under the Championship rules that allows drivers to scrub their two worst finishes from the 6 round and 12 race series.
The team tried out a new Birel engine during Friday and Saturday practice alongside their more customary Tony Kart kit and elected for the latter during the races.
“We simply were not fast enough today and we had a lot of work to do with the kart, “commented father and team manager Rick Christodoulou. “The result is disappointing in terms of the Championship but at least we proved that we are fast enough to be at the front and we will only get quicker.”
The team now have a fortnight break before heading to local circuit Shenington on 20th/21st of March for the last round of 2004 Formula Super Libre series. The next round of the British Championship takes place on the 3rd/4th April at PF International.
British Championship kicks off this weekend in Wigan
4th Mar 2004
2003 JICA British Champion Riki Christodoulou will be one of the main stars this weekend at the Three Sisters circuit in Wigan for the opening round of the premier National BTE Lawline/Renault MSA series.
‘Christo’ clinched the Junior ICA title last year and now moves up to the senior ICA class to begin his campaign for back-to back Championship success.
Testing has been positive during the winter months with the team clocking some impressive times at various venues and fronting the qualifiers during February at the Winter Garda Cup in Italy from a field of 114 entrants before an untimely accident curtailed hopes for the actual trophy.
The 15 year old is expected to be one of the front-runners this weekend and will be putting a new Birel engine through its paces before deciding whether or not to adopt the new equipment for the races, as the team experiment with various technical options to give the youngster the best chance of consistently making the podium throughout the year.
The 1500m track located in the North West of England is acknowledged as one of the widest and fastest in the UK with one of the longest straights on the calendar where the Karts reach speeds of 80mph. It is also the venue where ‘Christo’ secured victory 12 months earlier.
“This weekend will be our first proper ICA race of the season, we are looking forward to it and will obviously do the best we can,” commented father and mentor Rick Christodoulou. ”We don’t know what surprises will be in store but Riki is very familiar with the track after last season and our club racing efforts.”
“Three Sisters is a fast circuit with a lot of open and quick turns. The lap times will be in between the 41s and 42s and we’ll try to give Riki the fastest set-up possible so he can keep up a momentum. Riki is excited and cannot wait to get out there; this is what we have been working towards since the end of last year.”
Among an entry of 32 racers Christo will be up against old JICA rivals such as Jon Lancaster and ’03 runner-up Freddie Martin-Dye as well as established ICA stars like last year’s vice-Champ Danny Cruttenden. The Championship is being shaped as a direct feeder into the UK’s premier single seater series Formula Renault.
The weather is expected to be cold and cloudy over the testing days on Friday and Saturday with sunshine predicted for racing on Sunday.
Side note: Riki’s cousin Adam Christodoulou will be hoping to emulate his kinsman as he embarks on his first attempt in the JICA category at the same meeting.
BBC interview to air this evening
19th Feb 2004
Junior British Karting Champion Riki Christodoulou is scheduled to appear on primetime local television this evening after recording an interview and footage of his testing session at the Shenington race circuit this morning for BBC Midlands.
The Midlands Today show airs at 18.30 and ‘Christo’s slot will form part of the magazine/news style coverage of current events in the region.
The increased publicity and interest in his racing endeavours is testament to his growing popularity and status on the UK motorsport scene.
Garda Cup hopes wrecked by on-track incident
16th Feb 2004
Junior British Karting Champion Riki Christodoulou failed to make the final of the Winter Garda Cup held this weekend in Italy after being punted off the track in a nasty collision that ended the 15 year old’s otherwise impressive campaign at the annual International.
‘Christo’ was nursing a bruised arm and wrist after another Kart mounted the rear of his machine while holding fourth place in the Qualification semi-final.
From the 115 entries for this year’s meeting Christo was tenth fastest overall in only his first serious outing in the senior ICA category. He placed third quickest in his Qualifying practice group and ranked 3rd and 4th in the two subsequent heats which meant he started from the 3rd row for the Semi-final that determined the entry to the Cup showdown.
It was on lap nine of fourteen while holding a comfortable fourth place and gaining on the three drivers ahead that the youngster was shunted out of the race. Christo’s helmet and rear section of the Kart was damaged as well as the steering wheel bent out of shape.
“I’m furious to be honest,” commented father and mentor Rick Christodoulou. “It was a dangerous scenario and Riki was lucky not to have been badly hurt. We are disappointed that the weekend finished like this especially as Riki was one of lead drivers with our testing and qualification times. From over entrants drivers you could count the fast guys on both hands and we were among them. We could have made a good race of the final.”
Team Christodoulou now have further testing planned for this week as well as a feature to film for local BBC television on Thursday. They still have to confirm their participation in the forthcoming round of the Italian Championships in a fortnight’s time.
Junior British Karting Champion Riki Christodoulou kicks off his 2004 racing season in earnest this weekend by travelling to Brescia, Italy, to take part in the Garda Winter Cup.
The 15 year old, now competing in the senior ICA class often against much older and more experienced drivers, is looking for his second consecutive national crown this year as well as honours across the continent in Belgian, French, Italian and European Championships.
The first major outing for Team Christo will take place at South Garda at the end of this week for the prestigious Italian competition. Midlands born Christodoulou has been running his Kart through its paces for the last two days in southern Europe, an intense testing schedule that will continue through to qualification on Friday and the races over the weekend.
So far the Brit has been amongst the fastest four or five drivers from a massive entry list numbering over one hundred.
In warm and sunny conditions with newly laid asphalt and slight modifications to the Garda circuit, Christo has returned from a small holiday break keen to start his ’04 campaign on the right note and with a speed justifying his growing reputation as one of Britain’s brightest young motor racing stars.
“We’ve just come back from holiday and Riki said he was going to grab the bull by the horns, which he has done so far,” remarked father and team boss Rick Christodoulou. “We are pleased with the pace Riki is setting and with the amount of other drivers here is it great to see that we are one of the fastest. We still have one more day of testing to go and some people may not have yet shown their cards but we are pretty optimistic of a good result.”
“We are trying not to get too over-confident but he is driving well and we’re consistently working on the handling of the Kart to gain a few more tenths. The conditions in Italy have been good and now we are looking forward to Friday.”
2003 JICA British Champion Riki Christodoulou has decided to move up to the tough Formula ICA Karting division for the 2004 season.
The 15 year old from Sutton Coldfield juggled offers to switch from the Kart to a single-seater berth in both Formula Renault and the new Formula BMW series’ but has elected to continue his education by seeing out another small wheel campaign at the highest level of the discipline despite his relatively tender years.
“Different options kept popping up at a late stage and at one point I was looking into doing both racing series,” said the youngster. “However, after some thinking, we felt it might be a little too early to move to single-seater and I am more than happy to stay Karting for another year. There are still things for me to learn. The ICA level is faster and against a much older age range, making the racing more physical.”
“I am already feeling good with the quicker engine and we had a really positive test last week in the cold, lapping at the pace of the current British Champion, so early signs are encouraging.”
A busy season is now being mapped out for the hottest young talent on the UK motorsport scene. While the main aim will be to re-produce his triumphant 2003 term in the ’04 Super One ICA British series, Christo is also committed to the Belgian and Italian Open competitions as well as the annual European Championship.
“The decision to stay within Karting this year was a relatively simple one to make,” commented father and mentor Rick Christodoulou. “The Formula series’ offers were very tempting but we did not have time to get the financial backing to make a serious go of it. Another year Karting will certainly not do Riki any harm and we may still have the chance to do some single seater testing throughout the season.”
“We have been really happy with our tests in the last few weeks and I am confident that Riki can do a good job. He has already seriously stepped up his game and is brimming with confidence after 2003. He now has to get over the slight psychological barrier that he is racing at senior level against fully grown men, for this reason his first meeting might be a bit shaky but I think Riki will cause some real damage this year.”
Christodoulou is currently testing every other week as part of his preparations for the coming racing schedule. The first major meeting on the calendar takes place at South Garda for the Garda Winter Cup on February 14th and 15th in Italy near Brescia where he has hopes of a podium.
The enclosed photograph is of Christo picking up his JICA British Championship trophy at the Autosport show held at the NEC last weekend. A second image shows the line-up of the 2003 Karting Champions honoured at the same event.
Christo set for fortnight of prize awards
8th Jan 2004
2003 JICA British Karting Champion Riki Christodoulou will be reaping the spoils of his first national title success over the next two weeks with several public appearances and award ceremonies to mark his achievement.
From the 12 races as part of the ’03 JICA MSA Super One National series the 15 year old from Sutton Coldfield won 5, finished second in 2, third in 2, and crossed the line fourth in just one final and clinched the title after his two lowest results were dropped.
After attending the ‘Autosport’ Awards in London before Christmas ‘Christo’ will travel to the Birmingham NEC Autosport show this Saturday (10th) at 3pm to be officially presented with his Championship trophy by the Super One organisers. As part of proceedings on the National Motorsports stage Riki is set for an interview session prior to the prize-giving engagement that is set to occur at 1pm.
Another trek to the capital on Friday 16th will see Christodoulou awarded the same gong at the 2003 ‘Night of Champions’ dinner held at the Royal Automobile club.
At the end of the month Christo is also to be filmed testing by local BBC cameras as part of report into his rapidly growing status on the UK motorsport scene.
With offers for drives in several single-seater racing series on the table, the Christodoulou team will be officially announcing in the next few days their racing plans for 2004.
The enclosed photograph was taken at the Autosports Awards evening on December 7th and features Christodoulou (right) alongside McLaren boss Ron Dennis and his cousin Adam who also competes in the Karting world.Christo set for fortnight of prize awards
About Riki Christo
Riki Christodoulou has been racing as long as he can remember. In karts, Formula Renault and the British Formula 3 International series. Riki continues to compete in top flight motorsport as one of the UK’s most promising young racing car drivers.
Great Britain
