Involuntary out for Niklas Krütten in La Conca
Last weekend, the WSK Super Masters Series’ third Championship event took place in South-Italian La Conca. KF-junior-rookie Niklas Krütten showed a positive learning development even with the challenging track conditions, but he was prevented from entering the finale due to an accident.
In best spring weather and with temperatures around 20°C, 70 international KF juniors started at the third event of the WSK Super Masters Series. It already became clear during free trainings that this wouldn’t be an easy event for the young driver. “I’ve never experienced these kinds of grip conditions in Germany before”, Niklas explained and continued: “If you steer wrongly once, you’re basically glued to the track. We now have to find a fitting setup for me.”
During qualifying he then only achieved 54th starting position. From the back of the field it was difficult for the 12-year-old Tony kart driver to drive to the front. Constant fights for positions slowed him down repeatedly. Niklas didn’t give up though, kept working on the setup of his kart and by the third heat he was on eye-level with his opponents regarding lap times. Due to numerous collisions he wasn’t able to get past 55th place on the overall list of rankings after the heats though.
“These four races were already really exhausting. My opponents have a lot more experience with these conditions. We’ve now found a setup which I can handle strength-wise and which is still fast”, Niklas said on Saturday evening.
The most difficult task awaited him in the pre-finale: From 28th starting position he had to gain eleven places to be able to enter the finale. Niklas was highly motivated before the race and highlighted his possibilities during warm up once again. The race ended more quickly than he’d hoped though. Right after the start he was knocked out by an opponent and ended up in the off. He was accordingly disappointed: “What can I say? Just like in Castelletto, some drivers obviously turn their brains off and knock others over without regrets. That’s really unfortunate and falsifies the overall result. Despite this I’ve still learned a lot and my team has done a great job.”
The Forza Racing-protégé is going to travel to England next weekend and is going to start a program with his fitness partner ProPerformance. One week later he is then going to start at the finale of the WSK Super Masters Series in Sarno.