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| December 28, 2011 |
| Euro News: CRG - End of Year Balance and 2012 Plans |
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CRG expresses satisfaction for the season which has just finished. More commitment in the schedule for 2012, but no KF1 World Championship.
"Once again the season was a rather positive one, and we generally achieved what we had planned." This is the first comment released by CRG's chairman Giancarlo Tinini, at the end of a year with a full schedule both at industrial and at sports level.
POSITIVE MARKET FIGURES FOR CRG
Important selling figures for 2011. GRG confirmed last year's achievements, confirming its leadership at world level in the production of chassis, with a remarkable development in Asia and a significant consolidation in Europe and North America. It is not by chance, in fact, that on the potential podium reserved to the best dealers of CRG group, the first step is occupied by France thanks to the importer KCM di Cristian e Laurent Marchandise, followed by Canada with the company PSL and Japan with Nagahara Service. The recent deal signed by CRG and its three importers for USA and Canada (PSL, CRG America and CRG USA), for the import and the retailing of its products throughout all the North American territory, is a great step forward for the consolidation of CRG's presence in North America and the achievement of new and more important results in 2012.
SATISFACTION FOR THE SPORTS RESULTS. From the point of view of the sports results, in 2011 the CIK-FIA KZ1 World Cup title came back to CRG thanks to Jonathan Thonon, the veritable "cannibal" of the gearbox category. His results were also made possible by the efficiency showed - once again - by the CRG chassis combined with the performance of the Maxter engine set up by Savard. The result was also confirmed by Davide Forè's perfomance, excellent third on such an important podium. Another important result was that achieved by Fabian Federer in the CIK-FIA KZ2 European Championship.
Fabian won the European and the Italian title, with the assistance of the mechanic Bruno Dal Dosso. The podium of the KZ2 European championship was completed by Mirko Torsellini. The latter managed to win again in the WSK, thanks to the title he got in the WSK Final Cup in KZ2. Another KF3 title arrived in the WSK international series with Max Verstappen, winner in the Euro Series.
GIANCARLO TININI: EXCELLENT RESULTS IN KZ
Here Giancarlo Tinini's comment on the performances of his drivers in the season which has just finished.
"In the KZ category we achieved good results and we found some new promising guys who are growing up really well. I think we have found good drivers that we can put side by side with Thonon and Forè. Actually, we hoped to get better performances in KF3, where we thought we could win in the WSK Series but also in the World Cup and in the CIK-FIA European championship. In the same way, we didn't gather as much as we thought in KF2. Anyway, at least we can say we did a bit better at the end of the year. We missed the KZ1 European championship, which was maybe the easiest one to get. However, we got good results in the KZ2 European championship with Federer - first - and Torsellini - third - as well as in the KZ2 World Cup with Pex second and Federer third. We could have even won if Torsellini hadn't had a problem in the pre-final, after he had been the quickest driver on the track throughout the weekend.”
FEDERER AND TORSELLINI THE BEST SURPRISES OF 2011
So, Are Federer and Torsellini the two biggest surprises of the 2011 season?
"Absolutely. They are both joining the CRG official team in 2012. For Federer is a promotion, while for Torsellini a confirmation after his good 2011 season."
KF1 OUTDOES EXPECTATIONS
- What about KF1?
“To be sincere, here I did not expect the results we got. Eventually we closed the season achieving a series of good podiums with Jordon Lennox and Felice Tiene, besides a win and a second place after the penalty De Vries got in Belgium.Then Tiene stepped again onto the podium, in Sarno - despite it was successively taken away from him for a rather incomprehensible alleged irregularity -. Finally, there was the podium in Macao: all these results allowed us to close the season in the black. After all, it went better than I expected."
GREAT TEAM FOR 2012
- How is the CRG racing team going to be in 2012?
“Max Verstappen and Arnaud Kozlinski are not going to be with us anymore. I do thank them for their contribution. Despite that, for 2012 we are arranging thingsquite well, also in categories where we didn't push too much this year, such as the KF2. New members are joining us in the KF3 and KF2 categories: Jordon Lennox and Felice Tiene are racing with us besides our last purchase, the English Luke Varley - he achieved excellent results in these last years - , and the new British champion Tom Joyner, who is racing with on the LH Lewis Hamilton line. In KF3 we have Alex Palou, from Barcelona, Spanish champion with good results also at international level, and the American Santino Ferrucci, who has got several good results in the Cadets both in the USA and Britain. In KZ1 we have Jonathan Thonon, Davide Forè, Jorrit Pex, Fabian Federer and Mirko Torsellini. Lennox and Tiene will also race in KZ2, when they will be able to. Other possible drivers can still join in, but we haven't decided yet. For example we'd like to have Laura Tillet still with us, but the English girl seems tohave decided to keep on running in KF1, a category which is no more part of our plans.”
FULL COMMITMENT AT INTERNATIONAL LEVEL IN 2012, BUT NO KF1
- So, no more KF1 World Championship?
“The KF1 World Championship, as it is today, is no more part of our plans. It is a nonsense to run a world championship in five rounds with 20 drivers. I prefer to concentrate on KF2, at least there is market. I think it is ridiculous to race a five round world championship today, in these conditions. At this point I'd rather run a single round, where maybe we would have been able to see 40 drivers on the starting line. With the current world economic situation it is no longer possible a five round championship. We finished a World Championship in Japan with 8 European drivers and 12 Japanese drivers. The situation is clear: keeping on doing like that is a nonsense."
CRG'S PLANS FOR 2012
- Which are CRG's plans for the 2012 season?
“We are starting in Italy, with the Winter Cup of Lonato. Then we are also participating in the Andrea Margutti Trophy, given that Lonato is the venue of this international race. Then the WSK Master Series and the Euro Series, besides all the CIK-FIA championships, with the exception of the KF1."
TECHNICAL NOVELTIES AND NEW BRANDS
- The 2012 schedule for CRG also contains some technical novelties and new brands...
"We will have the CRG chassis with a new homologation. We have already had several excellent results with them; so excellent that in our last tests the data were really positive. The new Kalì-Kart will make its debut, with a driver in each category in order to show the quality of this new product. Anyway, generally speaking I'm really satisfied. We have worked well on all the new products,including the new Maranello and LH chassis: for sure we will get great satisfactions from them."
THE NEW ONE-MAKE WITH GEARBOX: FORMULA 5 BY MAXTER”
- Then there is the new one-make Formula 5 by Maxter...
“This new one-make, for me, should represent the first step for those drivers who aim at running in car-racing, in Formula. the new Formula 5 one-make has Maxter as constructor, both for the chassis and for the engine. it is a brand new one-make with gearbox and electric start: it represents an absolute novelty for our market, but other countries have already showed a great interest. It issuitable both for very young drivers and for more expert drivers, and it can be used on those 700/800 metre tracks which are so widespread all around the world. On these track a four gear shift is fitter, while on faster tracks it will be possible to use a six gear shift, so drivers will be able to operate the Maxter KZ engines at full throttle. Shifting from 4 to 6 gears is very easy: it will be sufficient to turn a pin. Younger drivers should use the four gear shift, so they can focus on their driving. In these cases the power, thanks to a special manifold, is reduced from 40 to 27 hp. I consider this new category as the ideal solution for those who want to progress to car-racing: they can learn how to use the gears, how to start, how to control the braking changing down or how to overtake using the gears. They are all skills you can learn on such a kart, that is a kart with gearbox. And anyway everybody knows that drivers who made experiences on karts with gearbox, when progressing to car-racing, have some advantage over their colleagues coming from direct drive karts. Those who will drive cars will necessarily need to use gears, to manage the rpm when shifting the gears, the power of the engine in the right torque, shifting in the right moment: all these skills are doubtlessly an advantage. And, of course, we should never forget that driving a kart with gears is much more fun than driving a direct drive kart. For the time being, this is a medium term project, but the interest aroused by the product in those who tried itcould give interesting results rather soon.”
THE 2012 CRG OFFICIALTEAM
KZ1
Jonathan Thonon (B)
Davide Forè (I)
Fabian Federer (I)
Mirko Torsellini (I)
Jorrit Pex (B)
KZ2
Jordon Lennox-Lamb (GB)
Felice Tiene (I)
KF2
Jordon Lennox-Lamb (GB)
Felice Tiene (I)
Luke Varley (GB)
Tom Joyner (GB) - LH
KF3
Alex Palou (E)
Santino Ferrucci (USA) |
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