Thomas Knopper

It was with great sadness that I heard of the death of Thomas Knopper during a kart race in Germany recently.

A former European Formula KZ2 champion in 2007, I last saw Thomas race at Wackersdorf just a few short weeks ago, and my thoughts go out to his family and friends.

Fatalities in karting are rare and the circumstances of Thomas' accident are unkown, but it is important that steps are taken to try and prevent a similar accident happening again. Karts are very fast these days, so if an Italian karting magazine is suggesting track improvements need to be made, then there should be no "if's" or "buts".

JFDI as a fomer kart champion once said!

Bas Lammers - Eurpean Champion

Ignore the fact that Swiss Airlines are incompetent when it comes to looking after your luggage, which was evident by the fact that they 'lost' my case on both the outbound and inbound flights to and from Nurnberg in Germany via Zurich. So if we ignore that sorry fact, then the European Formula KZ1 and KZ2 Championship at Wackersdorf over the weekend, was really quite an enjoyable event.

In Dutch ace Bas Lammers the Formula KZ1 class European title has gone to a truly worthy driver, which means the Intrepid team for whom Lammers drives, pulled off a major coup when they signed Bas to drive for them. In company with his young and promising 16-year old team-mate Norman Nato, who is clearly a future champion in the making, Intrepid is now perhaps 'the' major force in International gearbox karting.

Hot and humid over the whole weekend, the 80% chance of rain on Sunday failed to materialise, although it is unlikely Lammers would have been affected by the weather, as his skill in the wet is just as good as it is when it is dry.

The only pity, one of two, is that Lammers is not British.

And as for the other pity, where is my luggage please Mr Swiss Airlines..?