Matthew Graham is the new U18 World Champion! Graham (Zanardi) follows fellow Brit Jake Dennis as the 2011 CIK-FIA “U18” World Champion in the second staging of the championship.

It was a day of changing fortune for both of the top two contenders at Sarno in Italy on November 6th. Finland’s Pyry Ovaska (Maranello), the championship leader, had a very disappointing Saturday but went into the Final with every opportunity to win the title. He started on the front row but made a slow start. Both Graham and Frenchman Anthoine Hubert (Sodi) made better starts and Ovaska was soon seen to be struggling.

But Graham was not having things all his own way as Italy’s Antonio Giovinazzi (PCR), Denmark’s Martin Mortensen (Mach 1), and France’s Léo Roussel (Sodi) pressed forward. It was tight at the front but Graham made steady progress moving up to 3rd after 6 laps whilst Giovinazzi increased his lead. Henry Easthope (Sodi) and Hubert had a good battle until Graham eased by. As darkness descended Graham moved into 2nd place on lap 9 but Ovaska was dropping into the lower reaches of the top 20.

With just under two laps to go Mortensen passed Graham, but, with Ovaska’s problems, this was  not enough to prevent Graham from winning the title. “I was not certain I had won” he said, ‘”but when I saw my family hanging over the grandstand railing and waving and cheering, I knew I must be the champion” he acknowledged.

For Ovaska, it was a huge disappointment. “I felt I was good enough to win this championship, but some mechanical problems and also some penalties did not help me” he said with clear disappointment written all over his face.

Full report in the 'January 2012 issue of Karting

Photo by Kartpix