The founder of TM Racing, a true reference of shifter karts in the last decades, passed away on Sunday 12 July 2020. Yanek Sterzel, editor in chief of TKART, remembers him.

Claudio Flenghi left us and it still seems impossible to me. I was not a friend of him as we were only acquintances, as it usually happens between people of different generations. But by operating in the karting sector and having had the luck to be able to know him and to collaborate with TM Racing for what regards the kart division, I obviously looked upon him, either for the coat of arms of his company, or for the countless victories achieved with his engines, as an absolute legend. And like all the legends, you rely on them, you think they are invincible. Instead, Mr. Flenghi passed away yestrday morning, for me without warning. Only later I learned that he had started to suffer from more serious health problems a few months ago, up to the point that he was hospitalized in ICU due to pneumonia. A clinical picture that his body could not withstand.

I last met him in December, when with the guys from the TKART editorial team we went to Pesaro in TM Racing to make articles on the latest homologation engines. I arrived in the afternoon only to find him sitting at the table with an engine in his hands telling Max and Giovanni the secrets behind this and that technical choices. He really amazed me: he, who with such a pile of titles won could easily snub two young editorial staffers, was sitting there explaining a lot "but not everything, otherwise we help the competition too much", he said jokingly, but at the same time with a humility typical of those self-made men, who have an innate ability to continue to improve, without ever being satisfied, with their feet always firmly on the ground. Even after winning multiple world cups. Even with all the technical innovations introduced in the world of karting.

We lost a man who, despite of his mild manners and apparently shy attitude, had an incredibly lively, sharp, brilliant mind and a determination that only those who breathe engines and live for competitions have. And I'm not just talking about the technical skills that made him become "the lord of kart shifter engines" all over the world. I am also talking about his managerial skills, needed run a company that started as a way to let off steam for kart driver, to then become an institution in the world of karting, a flagship of the Italian motor industry as well as the workplace of dozens and dozens of people from which depends the life of as many families.

I still remember the first talks held about the TM Racing advertising that should have appeared on TKART. I still don't know how he did it, but at the end of a discussion where both obviously played their best cards, I ended up offering him a disproportionate discount. And to my "Mr. Flenghi, I think that you have won this negotiation, look at the deal you just inked!", he replied smiling "Here, see? You are walking away with a signed contract and you have also learned something new today, aren't you happy? ". In fact, he had given me a fast master’s degree in advanced business negotiations. He had literally thrown me a curve ball, I was not expecting that a gentle and apparently quiet gentleman would knock me out.

You know, it is not easy to win and not be hated or, even more difficult, to be respected. But he managed to do both very well. He got the upper hand in a business negotiation as he used to succeed on the track, on Sunday, during a race, leading all all the opponents. Who - I can assure you without fear of denial - have always respected, appreciated and rated him. Everyone, with no exceptions. All despite the defeats inflicted. Because even if losing against an honest opponent doesn’t feel good - because losing never feels good - it does not cause anger.

Mr. Flenghi did not like to appear. Never. Every time I proposed him an idea for TKART the answer was always the same: "We don't like to advertise ourselves too much". Which in my head sounded more like "For us, only facts matter, not words: our wins speaks for us". Which have been many, all over the world, in the last decades.

But there was an article he actually would have liked to make and he submitted the idea to me once I asked him about the first engine he had made: "If you are interested, when I have some spare time I’ll take all the engines out and we’ll make a nice article about them", he told me. Now that you are not among us anymore, Mr. Flenghi, I want to write that article and, actually, I feel I must write it anyway. To pay you a tribute. It will lack all the anecdotes and stories and all the details that only you knew. But that article needs to be done. I'm sure Filippo (to which I offer my condolences as well as to his family) and Franco will give me a hand.

May he rest in peace,

Yanek Sterzel