Karting race action at season kick off of Champions of the Future Academy Program in Portimão

The Champions of the Future Academy Program is spanning across six weekends throughout the year. It marks the second full season of the international series. 

RESULTS:

The first stop of the Champions of the Future Academy Program 2025 kicked off in Portimão (POR) last weekend and both days featured thrilling race action, as the highly talented drivers gave it all on track. In three categories based on the age of the young drivers, tight battles were to be watched on the race track. Here one can get an impression of how some of the most talented next race car drivers look like.

Category: OK-N SENIOR: Markas Šilkūnas (LTU) kicks off the season in unstoppable form – 3/4 of the heats and 100% Finals win rate, a strong performance all weekend round! He wins with over one second ahead of Wojciech Woda (POL) and Chiara Battig (SUI). Racing action at its best in this category!

Category: OK-N JUNIOR: Albert Tamm (SUI) wins the category ahead of Stasionis Nojus (LTU) and Xie Huifei (ITA) who cross the finish line in an extremely close battle.

Category: MINI 60: Niccoló Perico (ITA) continues his dominance over the weekend, cruising to another convincing win! Another intense fight for the podium in the final lap of Mini 60 happens as Zayne Burgess (USA) and Wynn Godchalk (USA) collide while battling, ending their hopes for a podium finish. A dramatic end to an epic race, leaving Brageot Mattis (FRA) on second and Wynn Godchalk (USA) on third place.

The Champions of the future Academy program was launched in 2023. The targets behind the series are the following:

• Raise female participation in karting
• Each driver receive a completely new kart, a kart trolley, awning space, work bench, limited tires and fuel
• To ensure similarity within the engines, all engines are dyno tested
• Each evening all the engines are collected, controlled, and then a new lottery takes place before FP1
• To give the drivers more than one chance the event consists of two races on the same weekend with a race one and podium and a race two and podium
• Provide drivers with a high-level event using CIK-FIA homologated material, while racing on a level playing field by eliminating the team aspect and various material components a kart has today