The 2003 Pro Kart Endurance Championship

Round 8 - Daytona Sandown Park - 7 September

True to form, another dry race day greeted the teams, for this, the penultimate round of the series. With both the Overall and Clubman Championship’s still wide open, pit tension was running high and many of the front running teams would encounter their fair share of problems as the day unfolded.

Qualifying was unsurprising in the form of a Spencer Motorsport and AJB front row, with Appliance Maintenance and JM Sport just behind.

After a trouble free start, Spencer and AJB led the way with DBR-Eglem moving swiftly up the third place at the expense of JM Sport, Appliance Maintenance and CFS 1. Within the first half hour, a hand full of teams were already in trouble with an array of mechanical problems, including Grassroots, GTR, CTC, Lost Boys and British Canadian, whilst Spencer and AJB relentlessly eased away from the rest of the field. With an hour gone, DBR Eglem were 11 seconds adrift of the leading pair, with CSF1 and Appliance Maintenance occupying creditable 5th and 6th places respectively as leading Clubmans. Team Zaremba moved up to 7th position with Grilli Corse, Eau-Rouge and WMPC in very close attendance whilst early contenders, CJV 1 dropped back into the midfield after an unscheduled stop.

With the first of the fuel stops completed, Spencer still led AJB by 0.4 of a second with DBR-Eglem still chasing and clear of JM Sport, Appliance Maintenance and CFS 1 making up the top half dozen. WMPC fell foul of the weighbridge, dropping them back to 25th place and GTR’s day, went from bad to worse as they floundered in 36th position. Midfield, SABL and Lakeside were having a lacklustre day and Grassroots had made steady progress back through the field to a satisfactory 11th position after a poor start.

The leaders, Spencer Motorsport then lost an engine which, despite some excellent pit work, dropped then back to 7th position and initially appeared to have put paid to their day and possibly the Championship. However with two and a half hours still left to run, they had worked their way back up to 4th place behind CSF, with DBR Eglem closing down the leaders AJB.

Disaster then befell AJB in the form of a collapsed wheel bearing and they rejoin 2 laps behind new race leaders DBR Eglem and only 14 seconds in front of Spencer who had eased back up into 3rd place. Team Zaremba then moved up into 4th position ahead of Appliance Maintenance and CSF 1, with JM Sport just 4 seconds behind, and gaining.

With just over an hour to go, DBR Eglem’s lead was reduced to 1 lap as they received a stop-go penalty for a pit infringement, and Team Zaremba dropped back behind CSF, JM Sport and Appliance Maintenance who were now back up to 4th place.

In the closing stages, Team Zaremba suffered a major failure, effectively putting them out of contention, Eau-Rouge moved in front of CSF 1 to occupy 6th place, JM Sport were gaining on Appliance Maintenance and Spencer were gaining on AJB. With the chequered flag almost in sight the DBR-Eglem kart was now coasting to victory and despite Spencer closing down the gap to 2nd place AJB, to less than ten seconds, they ran out of time and had to settle for the last podium place.

This result was insufficient to conclude the Championship and therefore it will go down to the wire for both the Overall and Clubmans awards, the last round should be a sight to behold.

RESULTS

Overall Podium

Report & Photos by Paul Bowler.

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