After 4 days of competition at F1 Race Factory Indoor Karting center in Phoenix - USA, 20 year old Brazilian driver Rodrigo Faulhaber (Team NOVA Top Kart) was able to overcome all odds and obstacles, and emerge as the 2007 Indoor Kart World Champion!
Eighty-five drivers from 13 different countries flocked to the mega-sized F1 Race Factory Phoenix facility for a shot at the 2007 World Title of kart racing's most popular class: 4cycle rental kart racing. After 4 days of competition, which included 5 races ranging between 30 minute sprints and 1.5 hour long endurance events, Rodrigo Faulhaber was able to beat the 2005 World Champion, Austrian Werner Truegler (Team Plus-City Kartsport.at), for this year's Title by just 3.5 points, the smallest margin ever. Truegler himself edged 3rd place Mathias Grooten (Team Talentpromotion.be) from Belgium by a mere 1 point. Grooten actually finished in a tie for 3rd with his team mate Bart Van de Vel, but had the tie-breaker advantage of 3 wins over Van de Vel's 1 victory during the event. The 2005 and 2006 IKWC points races had been close, but this one was the closest.
Rodrigo Faulhaber is the 2007 Indoor Kart World Champion!
The result puts on hold, at least for now, the complete Austrian domination of the Drivers World Championship, which began in 2005 with Truegler's World Championship Title, and continued in 2006, with Alexander Gumpenberger's Title. Gumpenberger unfortunately was an absent figure from this year's IKWC, as he is now committing his racing budget entirely to racing in the Formula BMW Lista Championship in Europe. Truegler however, did not disappoint, and scored a podium finish at every race he was in at the 2007 World Championship. Oddly, Trugler could not find his way to the top step of the podium, but consistency made him 2nd best only to Faulhaber, who won 3 races on his way to the Title. Truegler now has an set an amazing record of 11 podiums in 15 World Championship races, including 3 wins.
Rodrigo Faulhaber's 2007 World Championship was a sweet reversal of fortune from his 2006 effort, when after setting the lap record for the F1RF track in practice, his race results were only good for a 14th place finish overall. Along with the 2007 World Championship Title, Faulhaber won a 3 day Formula 2000 racing school at the American Racing Academy (now part of the Mario Andretti Racing School), and $1000 in cash from F1 Race Factory and Racingschools.com. In an unprecedented genuinely nice gesture, Faulhaber donated $600 from his cash award to American driver Tony Rolfson (Team GO FAST Energy Drink), in the hope that it will help him be at next year's IKWC. Rolfson and Faulhaber developed a good friedship through the IKWC, and both were favorites for this year's Title. Rolfson however, had a miserable time with mechanical problems in 2007, and even a late victory in Race 4, was not enough to get him in the final.
The 2007 IKWC also marked the arrival of a new powerhouse team in the sport, Team Talent Promotion from Belgium, who took the 2007 Team World Championship Title as well as the Nations Cup Title to Belgium. The team and its drivers are very well known in the Belgium karting community, and a huge number of karting fans from Belgium were following the IKWC races live via the internet, by accessing F1 Race Factory's timing system's website (Oscar). The Brazilian fans have been using the system to follow the races live since last year and it has been extremely helpful in expanding the Indoor Kart World Championship fan base. The Team also steped up as an award sponsor at the IKWC, and offered a test day in one of their Formula Renault cars in Belgium to the best placed European driver. Werner Truegler won this award, and was indeed a truly deserving winner of this prize. The 2nd and 3rd place teams were bothe from Brazil, the NOVA TopKart.com.br and TopKart.com.br Barra teams, respectively.
The 2007 IKWC Final GP grid was composed of 9 Brazilians, 7 Americans, 5 Belgians, 2 Canadians, and 2 Austrians. Both the youngest and the oldest drivers in the competition (Luir Miranda,13 y.o. from Brazil, and Chico Ingles, 58 y.o. from Brazil) not only made it into the Final Grand Prix, but both also won races on their way to the final. On the American side, Team GO FAST Energy Drink was one of the favorites, and had 2 drivers in the Final with great chances. Multi-time Arizona Champion Truman Godfrey and team mate Jeff Saiani had a fantastic first 4 IKWC races, but neither had any luck on the final, finishing in 18th and 17th places respectively. The result put Godfrey in 7th and Saiani in 13th for the overall 2007 IKWC results. USA Champion Tony Rolfson had terrible luck with karts breaking during the race and not even a victory in race 3 was enough to get him into the final. The best American performance in 2007 came from driver Mike Smith, who finished 4th in the Final and 5th overall, driving for the BSHracing.com team from Oregon. Like Truegler, Smith had no wins, but consistent good results kept him in the Title fight until the end.
After a 3 year run at the F1 Race Factory in Phoenix, the 2008 IKWC will likely take place in Belgium. This would kick off a new calendar system for the IKWC, which would have the event performing a yearly rotation between Belgium, Brazil, and the USA. The expansion hopes open the series to an even broader world audience of drivers and fans, and to improve the overall level of the sport from every aspect of its infrastructure.
A more complete IKWC recap and additional pictures will be posted soon.
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2007 IKWC Drivers Championship Results - TOP 15
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| 1 - Rodrigo Faulhaber - Brazil - (NOVA Top Kart) |
117.0 pts
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| 2 - Werner Truegler - Austria - (Plus-City.at / kartsport.at) |
113.5
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| 3 - Mathias Grooten - Belgium - (TalentPromotion.be) |
112.5*
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| 4 - Bart Van de Vel - Belgium - (TalentPromotion.be) |
112.5
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| 5 - Mike Smith - USA - (BSHracing.com) |
109.5
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| 6 - Pedro Washington - Brazil - (NOVA Top Kart) |
106.0*
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| 7 - Truman Godfrey - USA - (GO FAST Energy Drink) |
106.0
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| 8 - Herwig Heckl - Austria - (Plus-City.at / kartsport.at) |
105.0
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| 9 - Andre Addison - Brazil - (Top Kart Barra) |
104.5*
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| 10- Chico Ingles - Brazil - (NOVA Top Kart) |
104.5
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| 11- Ed Cordeiro - Brazil - (Top Kart Barra) |
104.0
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| 12- Jordan Yakiwchuk - Canada - (Team 333/Canada) |
103.5*
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| 13- Jeff Saiani - USA - (GO FAST Energy Drink) |
103.5
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| 14- Dave Carter - Canada - (Team 333/Canada) |
102.5
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| 15- Luir Miranda - Brazil - (NOVA Top Kart) |
98.5
|
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2007 IKWC Team Championship Results - TOP 10
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| 1 - TalentPromotion.be - (Belgium) |
127
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| 2 - NOVA / TopKart.com.br - (Brazil) |
122
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| 3 - TopKart.com.br Barra - (Brazil) |
115*
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| 4 - Plus-City.at / Kartsport.at - (Austria) |
115
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| 5 - Team 333/Canada - (USA/Canada) |
113*
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| 6 - Team GO FAST Energy Drink - (USA) |
113*
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| 7 - BSHracing.com - (USA) |
113
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| 8 - Team F1 - (USA) |
105
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| 9 - TopKart.com.br Norte Shopping - (Brazil) |
100*
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| 10- Team Dromo1.com - (USA) |
100
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2007 IKWC Nations Cup Results
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| 1 - Belgium |
123
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| 2 - USA |
121
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| 3 - Brazil |
120
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| 4 - Austria |
114
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| 5 - Canada |
111
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| 6 - Colombia |
78
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| 7 - Australia |
69
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| 8 - New Zealand |
67
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| 9 - Italy |
66*
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| 10 - Netherlands |
66
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| 11- Sweden |
64
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| 12- Philippines |
63
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| 13- India |
60
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| 14- Puerto Rico |
58
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| 15- Mexico |
57
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2007 IKWC Masters Results (drivers over 40 y.o.) - TOP 5
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| 1 - Herwig Heckl - Austria - (Plus-City.at / Kartsport.at) |
105.0
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| 2 - Chico Ingles - Brazil - (NOVA TopKart.com.br) |
104.5
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| 3 - Ed Cordeiro - Brazil - (TopKart.com.br Barra) |
104.0
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| 4 - Slow Assis - Brazil - (TopKart.com.br Norte Shopping) |
97.5
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| 5 - Rich Bowen - USA - (Bowen Racing) |
78.5
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2007 IKWC Womens Individual Results
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| 1 - April Smith - USA - (ASR Racing) |
70.0
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| 2 - Amy Elizondo - USA - (Elizondo Racing) |
60.0
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| 3 - Daniela Simon - Austria - (Plus-City.at / Kartsport.at) |
15.0
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* tie breaker: best race result.
