As racing gets more expensive, it becomes a smaller world and a smaller world. So it shouldn’t be a shock that F1’s brightest young star, Kimi Antonelli, raced with NASCAR’s brightest young star, Connor Zilisch. In karting, and not as a one-off, but for years together, Zilisch, in that time, became the first of what would be Kimi Antonelli’s many admirers!
Zilisch Seeing Kimi Antonelli’s speed up close and personal!
In 2017, Zilisch was winning kart races all across the USA. He and his family decided to move to Europe, specifically Italy. The capital of the karting world and the home nation of one Kimi Antonelli. So for a few years, the two prodigies often raced each other.
Enough for a young Zilisch to be impressed by the Italian. Learning from and admiring the future Mercedes driver. Connor spoke to Lydia Mee from motorsport.com about his time in Europe and Kimi, “I spent a lot of time in Europe. Those were some of the coolest moments of my life. I went to Europe as an 11, 12, 13, and 14-year-old. I spent a couple of summers over there when I was not in school. I would go over there for three months at a time, racing against guys like Kimi Antonelli.”
He added, “I spent three or four years racing against him. I always knew he was going to make it to F1. I always knew. He’s one of the best drivers, top three drivers I’ve ever raced against, just talent-wise. So I always knew he was one of the guys that was going to make it, and then guys like Arvid Lindblad, he’s going to race for VCARB.”
“It’s crazy to see that they’ve gone on to race in F1 and that kind of thing. But karting is such a cool sport. I didn’t realise it at the time, but those days and months that I spent in Europe, without my parents, growing up, I would ride my bike to dinner alone. Those were the coolest days of my life, and I didn’t realise it at the time how cool it was.”
“The memories that I have of it, looking back at it, I grew up and learned so much as a kid, and matured. I definitely look back on those days as some of the coolest days I’ll ever have.”
Zilisch’s reverence for his unique youth energizes him and gives him the skill and mindset to become the dominant and consistent young driver we see today. And only he knows how invaluable that time truly was to him.
Kimi Antonelli vs Connor Zilisch head-to-head!
But with the two prodigies going head to head often in their youth, it begs the question. Who did better? There’s not a lot of data about the kart races they two did together, but there is the 2019 SKUSA SuperNationals XXII in Las Vegas. Racing against one another in the Class: KA100 Junior class. It would be the Italian who finished ahead of the American Connor Zilisch. Zilisch finished 6th, and Kimi Antonelli earned a podium with a second-place finish. But he finished behind another NASCAR prodigy in Brent Crews!
In the 2019 FIA OKJ World Championship, Kimi Antonelli beat Zilisch in the standings by a lot. With Kimi finishing 5th in points and Zilisch finishing 24th at Portugal. And in the four race event at Angerville (FRA), Genk (BEL), Kristiand (SWE) and Le Mans (FRA). Kimi Antonelli finished second in the standings, scoring 63 overall, including a win in the finale. While Zilisch finished 25th in points, scoring a total of 10 points.
That’s all I could find, and while Zilisch didn’t often get the better of the Italian, he took what he learned from him and applied it to his later racing career. Which allowed him to become the star he is today and have more success in Karts later. In 2020 became the first ever American to win the CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy. Thanks a bunch for reading!
Image Credit: Patrick Vallely