17/09/06 OSTRICOURT CHAMPIONNAT DE FRANCE GRAND PRIX KARTING

The FFSA Grand Prix meeting at Ostricourt saw a constellation of successes for Sodi, among them Norman Nato's 2nd place in the Junior class, numerous placings in Formula A and yet another victory for Anthony Abbasse, who has now accumulated enough points to be crowned of the France ICA champion !

The reigning 2005 France ICA champion, Anthony Abbasse, was expected to have a tough task to retain his title this season. As it turned out, the Sodi driver accomplished his mission with considerable panache. With a clean sweep in northern France, he took his tally to four wins in eight outings ! He's now sitting on a lead of 100 points in the championship and taking into account deductions he can't be caught mathematically. Only a double disqualification in the finals in Essay could change the course of events. "This victory gives me particular pleasure because the field this season includes some excellent drivers", said the 2006 European vice-champion. "The redesigned and newly resurfaced track was tough on the karts and it wasn't easy to find the right set-up. But my team was great and soon got everything right for the track conditions. I managed to get myself into first place in the qualifiers and then drove as best I could to stay ahead in the final stages. There's still a little way to go before I can say the title is mine, but I'm confident".
At Ostricourt, Mike Courquin was well placed to make it a double for Sodi until an over-optimistic attempt to overtake in the pre-final race put paid to his chances of a place on the podium. "It's terrible missing out on the title due to an incident like that", lamented Mike. "But the places I climbed in the final enabled me to retain my 2nd place in the championship standings and I'll do my level best to make it a 1-2 for Sodi in the overall standings, if only to thank them for providing me with such competitive mounts throughout the season".

Vergne is still in the running for the title
The Ostricourt Grand Prix was Kevin Breysse's debut race for the official Sodi team. "Now I know why I got beaten by a Sodi driver last year!" quipped Kevin. "This is a such highly professional team. They really know their stuff and their organisation is brilliant. They leave nothing to chance". No less than four karts based on the Sodi chassis were to be found in the first five places after the Formule A heats. Different teams, different engines, different race preparers but the same chassis. The run of successes continued into the finals, with a remarkable harvest of runners up places. The team's chief engineer, Franck Le Beller, was well-pleased with the way the weekend went. "Kevin Breysse settled straight into the team, coming second in his first race. Jean-Eric Vergne consolidated his 2nd place in the French championship standings and still has a great chance of winning the title. Private entries running on Sodi chassised karts also went well, with Nathanaël Berthon (Braun Racing), Laurent Miskiewicz (NS Compétition) and Arnaud Sarrazin (PKS) coming 3rd, 4th and 5th overall. Congratulations also go to Florian Alfano (PSM) for his 4th place in the final, which keeps him in the running for a place on the final championship podium."

Nato confirms
Following an excellent showing in the European Championships, Norman Nato once again impressed everyone with a superb second place on the podium coming from way down the field in 25th place after the heats. "I'm feeling better and better at the wheel of the Sodi SR5", he says. "Thanks to its great performance I was able to clock the fastest laps in both the prefinal and final races". Lying second in the championship standings going into the final meeting in Essay, Norman has a great card to play in Normandy on October 15th. Another of our heroes, Jim Pla, suffered a massive disappointment when he had to drop out on the final lap of his pre-final race. But with the bit firmly between his teeth in the final he ended up in 5th place after climbing from 23rd, to complete a fine clutch of results for Sodi. So all in all Sodi drivers had a field day out on the challenging new 1440-metre circuit at Ostricourt !