On the eve of the final round of the 2008 European Championship, KartSport has this exclusive interview with points leader Gary Catt as the Tony Kart pilot attempts to upset his three-time Euro champ teammate. Here’s an excerpt…
“You have to beat the best to be the best.” It’s one of those wonderfully clichéd expressions that permeates all forms of sports. It’s also so patently obvious that it’s rather annoying in and of itself, like those warnings on toasters that caution you against using it while soaking in the bathtub, or to not wear a necktie while operating a tree-chipper.
Still, few karters have embraced the philosophy as much as British driver Gary Catt.
The 27-year-old factory Tony Kart driver wasn’t always baptized in green, after all. It was 2005 when he spent all of the European Championship season racing with PF International on a Birel, yet the results weren’t living up to the expectations. And so, in between the Euro series finale and the season-ending World Championships, Catt joined the factory TK squad where his two teammates were a pair of Italians who’d been dominating the sport: Davide Fore and Marco Ardigò. It was like joining a team where both Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton were already firmly entrenched. Catt arrived with his eyes wide open, knowing full well that he would be measured against the very highest standards and, at some point, he’d be expected to beat them.
At the time that Gary joined up with Tony Kart, Ardigò was fresh off his first European Championship crown while Fore was already a three time World Champion. That 2005 World Championship would not go spectacularly for Catt (DNF in the main), but he did enough to stay aboard the factory effort for the following year with the two Italian legends as his teammates.
Make sure you’ve got your latest FLASH plug-in (Available here) and then go read the full article in the latest digital edition of KartSport Magazine, which you can get HERE.
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