How did it feel moving to Italy as a 13 year-old?
RK: I d run out of competition in Poland, and at the time the Italian championship was the toughest kart series out there. We wanted to find out if I could hold my own against the best drivers in Europe. A few other Polish drivers had tried to do the same thing in previous years, but never made it into the final race for the top 20. That was our aim. But then I took pole position and finished second in two races first time out. For both me and my father, that provided important confirmation that we had done the right thing. Things were going well, but there were also very bad times – when my dad ran out of money. Although we were reasonably well off by Polish standards in 1998, that didn t mean a great deal outside the country. Today, average earnings in Germany and Italy are still six or seven times higher than in Poland. We d got to the point where we only had enough money for one more race in the European Championship, then I got lucky with the contract from CRG. To start with I liv
