Strong international premiere by Niklas Krütten
Last weekend, Niklas Krütten travelled to La Conca (Italy) for his first WSK race. Among a demanding KF junior field with an extremely high power density, the young Trier resident was able to impress due to a strong performance and achieved entering the finals immediately at his first international race.
“We travelled to La Conca without high expectations”, Niklas Krütten summed up. The result was impressive in the end though. Counting 54 drivers, the juniors who had arrived from all over the world were the strongest field of participants and already showed a high power density during the free trainings. “The entire field is ranking within a second, so no one can afford making any mistakes during qualifying”, Krütten analyzed.
In addition to his racing premiere, it was also Niklas’ first start for his new team Forza Racing from Great Britain. Team leader Jamie Croxford used to be a Birel factory driver and was able to celebrate great successes with his own team during the past years. The team is relying on one of the best current chassis: the Tony kart chassis. “The cooperation with my team is perfect. It’s a lot of fun to work in such a professional environment and I’ve already learned a lot so far”, Niki rejoiced.
Things got serious for the first time during qualifying on Friday. The twelve-year-old driver from Rhineland-Palatine had a good starting position (31st) and got through the first three heats without considerable problems – despite the rain. Unfortunately, an accident that wasn’t his fault threw him back considerably during the last heat and Niklas fell back to the overall 44th place.
He then drove for the final ticket during the pre-finale. From 22nd starting position the youngster had to at least improve his position to 17th place and was even able to do a little better in the end. In dry weather conditions Niklas fought his way forward to 16th place and achieved entering the final race. This started with a thundershower. During a perfect first lap, Niklas drove onto the 12th position and kept close to the leading drivers. Unfortunately he had problems with his front spoiler though and repairing it in the pit cost important minutes, which only put him on 29th place in the end.
“I can still hardly believe it. To enter the finale at my first international race was incredible. Everything worked perfectly, rain or shine. The front spoiler that came off was annoying of course, otherwise ending up in the top 15 would have been realistic”, Niki rejoiced in the evening.
Niklas Krütten is going to continue in three weeks at the Lonato Winter Cup on the South Garda Circuit. Close to Lake Garda, strong competition is going to await him once again.