Christo rules the roost with 2-1 at Larkhall

Riki Christodoulou placed himself firmly in contention for the Renault B4 Group Formula A British Karting Championship with an excellent win and runner-up spot from the two finals contested today at Larkhall for round four of six in the premier national Karting competition.

The sixteen year old began the weekend in good form by setting pole position in timed practice. He adjusted a number of settings on the car and placed 3rd and 1st in the two qualifying heats in damp and then dry track conditions, giving him a slot of 2nd for the finals.

The 2003 JICA British Champion was not decisive enough in the first final and lost the chance to seize the lead after having slipped back to third place. Once he overtook Mark Litchfield to regain second he pressurised Jason Parrot just ahead but eventually crossed the finish line just 0.5 of a second behind.
Christo blasted away with intent in the second sprint and kept Parrot close at hand until the latter made a mistake and ran off the track. The teenager, competing in the senior Formula A category for the first time after moving up from the ICA competition last year, pushed onwards to win by three seconds and celebrate his second final success of the season. Christo also set the fastest lap-time in both races.

“I felt great right from the off and knew I had a chance of winning right away from time practice,” he said. “We changed the seat and a few other things on the kart but it was mostly fine. In the first final I was overtaken by Mark and really shouldn’t have let that happen. We were all running at more or less the same times and that let Jason get away while I concentrated on getting back into second place. It is a small track and you can’t afford to give the leader a moment to breathe. I started better in the second final and needed to. The back end was sliding around a lot but once I sorted that it became much easier to stick with Jason. He then went straight off the track past the pits, so I got my head down and pulled away.”

Christo has now registered two final wins, a second, a third, three sixths and one seventh place in four rounds.

The team head to Belgium this week for the second round of the European Championship that will occur at Mariembourg on June 26th with the third and final meeting taking place at La Conca in Italy on August 21st. Christo was 11th at Angerville, France for the opening race after experiencing mechanical problems.

2005 Formula A calendar

5th/6th March                         Three Sisters
16th/17th April                       PF International
30th April/1st May                 Clay Pigeon
18th/19th June                      Larkhall
30th/31st July                      Rowrah
10th/11th September            Shenington

Category: News