Arrival at the World’s top 30
With the WSK Super Masters Series in Sarno (ITA), the first half of the season ended successfully for Niklas Krütten last weekend after a couple of international racing appearances. He was able to enter the finals straightaway four times at overall six international top events and thereby established himself as one of the youngest drivers among the top 30 in the world. During the second half of the season he is going to start at the German Kart Championship.
After his twelfth birthday Niklas Krütten participated in international kart racing events in the KF junior class for the first time during the first half of the year. The kick-off into the season was the WSK Champions Cup; after that he went on to the Winter Cup Lonato and the Trofeo Andrea Margutti. Lastly Niklas started at three of four events of the WSK Super Masters Series. All these events are among the top-class and most difficult in the world. They have also bred numerous young talents during the past years.
At four of these events, in which up to 90 drivers from all over the world participated, the 12-year-old Trier resident was able to enter the final races of the best 34 straightaway and was therefore able to assert himself against a lot of strong and averagely two years older opponents. “It was my most important goal to gather experiences in strong international surroundings and to learn a lot from my new team Forza-Racing. This includes getting to know a new level of hardness and to deal with a lack of fairness from time to time. I never would have expected to enter the finals straightaway four times”, explains Niklas.
Last weekend, the aces met again at the finale of the WSK Super Masters Series in Sarno (ITA). It was Niklas’ first start on the high-speed track and he first had to get used to the wind shadow duels. He caught up with everyone at qualifying and became 15th driver of his group. During the heats the Tony-kart driver was able to achieve eighth, 13th and 14th positions. He was able to tie in with this performance during the pre-finale and finished this on the successful 12th place. He had some bad luck during the final race though and was involved in a collision at the start through no fault of his own. All in all, the rookie was content though: “Considering my speed more would have been possible. I was only a tenth of a second behind the front drivers. With a track length of more than 1.600m, that’s nothing.”
After the starts in Italy, Niklas now feels well equipped for the upcoming season kick-off of the German Kart Championship. Next weekend the first Championship points will be dealt out at the Prokart Raceland Wackersdorf. Niklas’ goal for the German Championship is clear: “I want to fight among the top ten and am really looking forward to the start. I know Wackersdorf really well from the past years.”
Niklas explicitly wants to thank his team and partners for the first half of the season: “It’s great to be a part of the Forza-family. My team leader Jamie Croxford and my mechanic Randal Lynn are doing a fantastic job. I’d also really like to thank my school, the Auguste-Viktoria secondary school in Trier. Without their support, my international starts in Italy wouldn’t have been possible.”
The races of the German Kart Championship are going to be broadcast live via online-stream from Saturday morning on at www. kart-dm.de.