Junior driver Lewis Wherrell has taken out the FIA’s inaugural International Karting Ranking point score. Mini driver William Calleja was the best placed Australian, ranked 49th.
Other Aussies in the top 500 were:
- Sebastian Eskandari Marandi – 118
- Xavier Avramides – 206
- Lewis Francis – 214
- Dante Vinci – 331
- Max Walton – 340
All up, 1304 drivers scored points.
The full ranking is on the FIA website HERE.
FIA press release:
WHERRELL, 2023 FIA INTERNATIONAL KARTING RANKING (IKR) DRIVER OF THE YEAR
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The first year of the FIA IKR, introduced at the start of the 2023 season, has achieved its objectives perfectly. The winner is a young British driver competing in OK-Junior, Lewis Wherrell, who will be honoured at the FIA Karting awards ceremony.
The FIA IKR is a computerised ranking system open to all drivers holding a licence issued by a National Sporting Authority (ASN) recognised by the FIA and taking part in a karting competition, based on a model similar to the ATP rankings in tennis.
This ranking gives an overall view of a driver’s performance, regardless of the category in which he competes, as long as they use CIK-FIA homologated or recognised equipment. It’s an additional opportunity to reward drivers through an overall ranking that gives priority to consistency of performance throughout the year, as the eight best results are taken into account.
The 2023 season is drawing to a close and the top positions are firmly established. To date, 1,351 drivers are classified in 15 categories after 45 events. Lewis Wherrell has a total of 6344 points, earning him the honorary title of Driver of the Year 2023.
The 13-year-old Wherrell was competing in his second season in OK-Junior on a TM Kart-powered Exprit chassis for the Forza Racing team. He finished 4th in the FIA Karting European Championship – Junior and won the Champions of the Future Euro Series. Although he was unsuccessful in the Mondokart.com FIA Karting World Championship at Franciacorta, the FIA IKR did justice to his standard and commitment by enabling him to finish first out of all categories. The 2023 Driver of the Year will be honoured at the same time as the FIA Karting Champions at the FIA Karting Awards Ceremony in Nice on 2nd December.
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