Bray One of the Favourites In Belgium This Weekend

Bray One of the Favourites In Belgium This Weekend

There will be no 'dark horse' status for top Kiwi karter Daniel Bray at the opening round of this year's European KZ2 Championship in Belgium this weekend.

The 27-year-old came very close to winning last year's KZ2 Super Cup title in France and this year is named as one of the drivers to beat by the CIK-FIA website.

"Among the most prominent drivers," the website's preview says,"are Joel Johansson from Sweden (Righetti/Parilla/Bridgestone), Marco Zanchetta (Maranello/TM/Bridgestone) from Italy and Daniel Bray (GP/TM/Bridgestone) from New Zealand.

Also expected to impress in the 82-strong field are 2012 champion Simas Juodvirsis (Energy/Maxter/Bridgestone) from Lithuania, 2011 winner Fabian Federer (CRG/Maxter/Bridgestone) from Italy and Douglas Lundberg (Alpha/Parilla/Bridgestone) from Sweden.

This weekend's meeting at the Genk track in Eastern Belgium is the first of three which carry points for the year's KZ (the premier category), KZ2 and KF (Junior) class championships.

It has attracted 240 of the world's best karters from 41 different countries with Bray the only one from Australasia and one of only a handful from outside Europe.

Having finished second in the premier S1 class on the SuperKarts USA Pro Tour last year, and won all four rounds held so far of the local KZ2 series, this year, Aucklander Bray has had an excellent build-up to this week's event and is confident of a good showing.

"I'd like to think a top three in the championship this year is possible," he said before flying out on Monday.

For the past three years Bray has combined programmes in the United States and Europe, but this year he has decided to concentrate on building up his GP Karts team here, and contesting the full, now three-round, European championship.

Despite foregoing a US campaign this year he is still on a very tight schedule, having flown out on Monday for this weekend's meeting in Belgium, but due back home again next Wednesday to prepare for the final round of this year's Top Half Series in Auckland over the June 21/22 weekend.

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