Arthur Rogeon from Mayenne, has just kicked off a new season in elite international karting. His programmes are again oriented towards the European and World Championships and he will join the famous Belgian VDK team run by brothers Eric and Alain Verdaasdonk. The 15-year-old driver from Laval has just taken part in his first preparatory race in Portugal in which a last-gasp charge saw him clinch a place on the grid among the finalists.

Arthur is tackling 2022 full of hope thanks to this agreement that has already helped two French drivers to the world championship title in Junior. It hasn’t yet happened in OK, the blue-riband category (from 14 years old upwards) but it’s never too late!

However, before achieving this alliance that’s ripe with promise, the winter break was pretty chaotic. Rogeon thought he would be extending the deal commenced last September with the Praga factory. Unfortunately, an organisational shakeup in the team sowed doubt in the mind of the French driver pushing him to seek out an alternative solution, which he found with VDK in March.

From then on it was crucial for Arthur to start competing again as the other OK drivers had already done battle in six international races since the end of January. So he headed for Portimao for the first round of the Champions of the Future Euro Series to prepare for the kick-off of the European Championship a few days later on the same Portuguese circuit. But not with the VDK team! Because just at the time when Arthur’s programme was being put together VDK had already committed to racing in another event. But no worries. The Verdaasdonk Brothers reached an agreement with kart chassis constructor Kart Republic’s works team, whose products they use, so that Arthur could race at Portimao.

In the light of these imponderables the race could best be considered as a warm-up and an opportunity for Arthur to get to grips with the KR-IAME combination he will be driving all season. His performance showed that he had lost none of his fighting spirit!

In timed practice and the qualifying heats he had to struggle with inconsistent brakes that led to premature tyre wear. The result was that at the end of the five heats he was in 39th place out of 64. But there was still the Super Heat to save him from scoring a DNQ*! Although Arthur was jostled at the beginning of the race, he managed to finish 15th after starting in 20th position and clinched a place on the last row of the grid for the final. In the end he didn’t see the chequered flag in the weekend’s closing race because of a collision.

Arthur Rogeon: “I liked the KR chassis; it’s very directional and has good lateral grip. The brakes caused me a few problems so we’re going to examine this in view of the coming races that I’ll be doing with VDK. We had a remote debriefing session on Sunday evening and now I can’t wait to experience a full weekend’s racing with my new team.”

The first of the four events in the FIA European Karting Championship will take place on the Portimao circuit between 8-10 April before Zuera (Spain), Kristianstad (Sweden) and Franciacorta (Italy). The peak of the sporting season will be the Sarno circuit near Naples at which the world champion title will be awarded on 18th September.

*DNQ = Did Not Qualify