The Automobile Federation of Ukraine announced the convincing victory of Ukrainian karting driver Lev Krutogolov at the ROK Cup Festival 2023 in the International Racing discipline.
During the year, Lev Krutogolov participated in as many karting races as possible. There are 27 of them, which is even more than in the Formula 1 World Championship season, where there are 23 stages.
The Ukrainian started in four series: WSK, ROK, Champions of the Future, FIA European Championship. Somewhere he was in the lead, somewhere he worsened the result, somewhere, due to the inattention of the judges or the carelessness of other athletes, he flew off the track. It happened that the equipment failed at the very start.
The “ROC Cup Festival”, held in early December in Italy, turned out to be quite difficult. There the Franciacorta Track met the athletes with rain for the whole week and only for the final it stopped. Lev qualified second in the Junior ROK competition and had a good starting position. But a problem happened: at the start of the hit, the starter “flooded” and the car did not start…
While the mechanical starter was being carried, the peloton had already gone to the molding circle. The car was started, but now Lev had to start from the last position. And then a miracle happened: during the race, our athlete overtook 30 times and finished second.
Coach Gennady Borshch and the judges were pleasantly shocked by such a record-breaking race. But again there was trouble, because of which Levka was disqualified. It turned out that the electric starter wire was not turned on after it was started mechanically, so the Ukrainian’s result was canceled.
“During the 2023 season, we fell, we got up, we cried and laughed, we wanted to quit the sport, and then we picked ourselves up piece by piece and went to the start line again, because we can’t imagine our life without motorsport. This is a professional sport, and if you are not ready to face it, this is not the place for you,” Krutogolov later said.
Ukrainian Lev Krutogolov from the Borsch Racing team became the strongest karting driver at the international competitions in Italy “ROK Cup Festival 2023”. Photo: Borsch Racing
The next hit Lev was in the lead by a margin, but when overtaking someone still did not notice the Ukrainian and knocked him off the track. The guy returned to the track, continued the race, again beat many competitors, but only reached second position.
Lev Krutogolov won the third qualifying hit without interference. Our pilot took the lead already on the 9th lap, although other karting drivers were not far behind. The closest rival, Bogdan Cosma-Christopher from Romania, wanted to win, but the representative of the Borsch Racing team turned out to be quicker.
The top step of the podium was behind our karting driver: Lev Krutogolov became the winner. It’s worth saying here that our athlete succeeded in Italy in a Ukrainian car.