19° MARGUTTI TROPHY PARMA, MARCH, 8-9-10 2008

MARGUTTI SALUTES ITALY WITH ITS SUCCESSFUL PARTICIPATION

The long awaited 2008 19th Edition Margutti Trophy, despite bad weather, confirmed the foreseen invasion of drivers from all over the world, respecting the wait times. Out of the over 200 participants, a well-nourished group of Italian kart drivers found themselves having to hold off the assault of German, British, French, Spanish, South American, Czech, and Russian adversaries, among others.
Starting next year, the event will be diverted to Spain, or more precisely to the ³Circuit International LUCAS GUERRERO² in Valencia. In fact, the Parma race track, active since the 1960s, will close definitively at the end of the season.
From the sporting point of view, the Emiliano weekend saw the Birel colours in plain view. In the KF3, Ignazio D¹Agosto (Tony Kart) won, but many Birel drivers gave outstanding performances, confirming the technical competitiveness of the 2008 chassis. In particular, Riccardo Agostini (team KSB), ran an excellent race, despite an accident in the rounds that forced him to recover from the rear both in the Semi-finals and the Final, where with various passes he moved from 26th place up to 9th place, registering the fastest lap in the race. Coleselli (team KSB) was also unfortunate, having been involved in a few exits from the track, the last one, in the beginning of the final, also compromised the race for Viberti (team Savani). In fact, the Piemontese driver started off in the 6th row after having gained an excellent 6th place spot in the Semifinal, but after the contact he was forced to withdraw. Beretta was even more unfortunate, with an exit from the track during the Semifinal while occupying the lead. In the KF2 Jack Harvey (Birel-Iame), after having dominated the Semifinal, was also in the lead in the Final, when his engine failed him. The lead therefore passed to Giacomo Patrono who took 2nd place behind Zednek Groman (Maranello). Finally, in the KF1, success went to the British Gary Catt (Tony) ahead of Bressan and Ardigò, but the Birel colours countered the withdraw of Cesetti (Birel-Tm) due to a gas line break while he occupied 2nd place. Even Toman’s race was compromised due to a technical problem in the Semifinal when he was in 3rd place.

Comments by the Birel drivers:

Jack Harvey - KF2 (Birel-Iame): "despite the misfortune that caused us to have to withdraw, we are all very satisfied: we are working very well, the team is very tight-knit and we feel that we are able to have an excellent season. The chassis worked very well, and even the engine, especially on the dry track, showed that it is top of the line.”

Giacomo Patrono - KF2 (Birel-Tm): "Harvey and I could have taken 1st and 2nd, taking the same chassis with different engines to the podium: it was within our reach. As for me, in the final I suffered a little due to an imperfect set-up, in any case, we tried several solutions together with Harvey and we are aware of having an excellent potential for the season that is about to begin. Even on the motoring front, we are very satisfied, the TM technicians are working very well and we are already substantially on a par with the best engines of our competition.”

Sauro Cesetti - KF1 (Birel-Tm): "The track conditions and Saturday’s rain greatly influenced the work that we had to do on the technical front. But Sunday, with the dry track, we ended up being very competitive both with the chassis and the engine. The 2008 chassis seem to be born under a lucky star and even the results in the other classes are noticeable. In the same manner, I am very happy with the TM engine that, in this phase of development, has already regained much of the gap that we paid to our direct competition”.