Ardigò and Barrabeig won Asia-Pacific KF1-KF3 Championship

Ardigò and Barrabeig won CIK-FIA Asia-Pacific KF1-KF3 Championship held on 13-16 December in Macau (MO).
Although it’s only 28 square km, the Macau territory situated on the Coloane island, 12 km from the city centre includes a 1,200 m long permanent circuit dedicated to karting. In addition to the CIK-FIA Championships, this Asian event was an opportunity of seeing Indian drivers take part in a CIK-FIA competition for the very first time in the history of Karting.
More experienced and armed with their perfect knowledge of the new KF engines, European drivers dominated both Championships. In KF1, Italian driver Marco Ardigò added the fourth major title to his credit in 2007. He finished ahead of his new Finnish team-mate Matias Laine, who achieved the fastest lap time in the final at his first race with Tony Kart. Victims of mechanical problems in pre-final while in the lead, Gary Catt and Alessandro Bressan shone in the final by achieving fine recoveries, respectively to 3rd and 4th places. Second in the pre-final, the Dutch driver Jack Te Braak finished 5th, ahead of Norway’s Eidjord, Japan’s Sugiyama, Nara and Kobayashi.
In KF3, Spaniard Gerard Barrabeig showed himself quite unrelenting, successively taking practice, heats, pre-final and final, giving his team FA Kart the first CIK-FIA title. 2007 European KF3 Vice-Champion Tom Grice and Carlos Sainz Jr joined Barrabeig on the podium.
In addition, the region’s most talented drivers battled it out for the fifth round of the 2007 Asian Karting Open Championships. A line up of about 200 competitors from 20 countries and regions, including Denmark, United Kingdom, Finland, Holland, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Mainland China, Chinese Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau raced in several categories of the Asian Open. There were 14 drivers from Macau joining the competition, more than doubling the numbers of last year. Of the total 29 entries in the ROK Senior class, 13 were from Macau. Also, 3 females took on the grids: Michelle Gatting from Denmark in KF3, Clarissa Clio from Indonesia in Rotax Junior Max, and Diana Rosario from Macau in ROK Senior.

Results
KF1: 1. Marco Ardigo (I) Tony Kart-Vortex-BS; 2. Matias Laine (FIN) Tony Kart-Vortex-BS; 3. Gary Catt (GB) Tony Kart-Vortex-BS; 4.  Alessandro Bressan (I) Kosmic-Vortex-BS; 5. Jack Te Braak (NL) Zanardi-Parilla-BS; 6. Tomas Eidjord (N) Gillard-Parilla-BS; 7. Takahide Sugiyama (J) Tony Kart-Vortex-BS; 8. Ryuichi Nara (J) Tony Kart-Vortex-D; 9. Hirotada Kobayashi (J) Kosmic-Vortex-D; 10. Stefano Marcelo (RP) Maranello-Vortex-BS

KF3: 1. Gerard Barrabeig (E) FA Kart-Vortex-D; 2. Tom Grice (GB) Gillard-XTR-D; 3. Carlos Sainz Jr (E) FA Kart-Vortex-D; 4.  Michelle Gatting (DK) Gillard-XTR-D; 5. Nicolaj Moller Madsen (DK) Tony Kart-Vortex-D; 6. Francisco Javier Suarez (E) FA Kart-Vortex-D; 7. Vittorio Ghirelli (I) Tony Kart-Vortex-D; 8. Ryuya Fujie (J) Tony Kart-Vortex-D; 9. Nigel Fisher (NL) Gillard-XTR-D; 10. Bryan Mehta (MAL) Birel-XTR-D;