Bienvenidos to Zuera: short guide to the Kz and Kz2 European Championship
- Cristina Mazzotti
- Apr 12, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: May 15, 2024
Soon after the first round of the OK and OKJ European championship in Valencia, KZ and KZ2 category will take part in their first round of Europeans in Zuera, Spain. With that being said, what does it mean when we talk about karting and European championships? What are the differences between these two categories? Let’s find it out together.
After a whopping 7 years the shifter categories return to Zuera, an historic track in the heart of the Autonomous community of Aragon; European championship will start here with its first round out of two, second one that will be held at Circuito Internazionale Napoli in July, while World champs will be in Wackersdorf in September and it’ll be a single race, unlike Europeans.
The KZ category will have 31 drivers in total, while the KZ2 category has now 92 drivers in its entry list, but only the 36 best drivers will have access to Sunday’s final.
The difference between KZ and KZ2 and the current champions of the series
The KZ engine is a two-stroke liquid-cooled engine, 6-speed gearbox and it can reach a top speed of 180 km/h. The KZ and KZ2 categories appear to be very similar, and that’s because they are, the technical differences are minimal, but the main difference is in its drivers. The KZ category represents the Elite of the shifter drivers, world champions, European champions or drivers that have obtained top spots results; while the KZ2 category is filled with newbies, but also quite experienced drivers that maybe didn’t have the same luck or results of the KZ drivers. The current champions are respectively Paolo Ippolito in KZ and Tom Leuillet in KZ2.
You know who also competed in this category? Current F1 World champion Max Verstappen who won the KZ World Champs back in 2013; amongst all the drivers who took part in this category we cannot forget to mention Bas Lammers, Jonathan Tonon, Danilo Rossi, Gianluca Beggio, Marco Ardigò and Paolo De Conto, who are multiple times winners and unforgettable legends of this category.
While in KZ2 it’s only dutiful to mention World Cup winners Lorenzo Travisanutto, Pedro Hiltbrand, Matteo Viganò, Arthur Carbonnel and Emilien Denner, who have shown to be competitive in most of the categories they’ve raced and are a part of this year’s KZ category.
How’s a karting weekend structured?
The weekend starts Thursday with Free Practices, which will continue on Friday morning; up next comes Qualifying, where a total ranking will determine the groups and starting grids of the heats. Groups you may ask yourself. Yes, most tracks can host a maximum of 36 drivers on the grid, this means that KZ will not be divided in groups, while KZ2 being 92 drivers will have groups from A to F that will race against each other in the heats of Friday evening and Saturday. On Sunday there will be two super heats for the KZ2 category, where only the top 72 drivers from the heats will have access to it and try to get the best result possible to be in the top 36 final ranking that will take part in the final; meanwhile KZ will have a single super heat because of its 31 drivers and then the final.
If we managed to get your attention with this small guide to international karting, we recommend you watch the racing weekend on the FIA Karting website and YouTube channel, and of course follow us for results and breaking news!
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