UK Karting - The 2005 Pro Kart Endurance Championship

Results & Reports
The 2005 Pro Kart Endurance Championship

The 2005 Pro Kart Endurance Championship
Round 1 - 27th March 2005 - Daytona Sandown Park

The 1st round of the 2005 Championship saw a maximum grid of 40 teams and a forecast which looked set to provide a reasonably dry day’s racing.

Lucas Racing set the pole from Baron Racing with a stunning 45.947-second lap, with Euro 24hr Karting and Cosport making up the second row.

After a slightly scrappy start Lucas Racing took up the lead, pursued by all the usual suspects, namely Euro 24, David Bright Racing, Jerky Boys, Baron and Pogue Mahone.

Within the first half hour, Lucas Racing had pulled out an 11 second lead over Euro 24 and Sin Racing had moved up to join the six-way battle for 2nd place.

At the one-hour mark DBR pitted early dropping them back to midfield and early casualties with mechanical failures included SD Racing, Appliance and Wild Cats.

As the first fuel stop window approached, Lucas Racing had extended their lead to such a degree, that they were able to refuel and still rejoin the race in 3rd place, sending out ominous signals to the ensuing pack.

With everyone refuelled and two and quarter hours racing completed, the order read, Lucas Racing, Jerky Boys, Euro 24, Baron, Sin and DBR with excellent showings from the top Pro Class teams of Pogue Mahone, Misfits and Gas’n’Go making up the top ten.

By half race distance, Baron Racing were now in 2nd place, just 18 seconds a drift of the leaders with Euro 24 and further 6 seconds back and Jerky Boys still in touch, just 15 second behind them. All of the first 4 teams were still on the same lap and some distance in front of the top Pro Class team, Gas‘n’Go in 5th place. However with the variants in fuel stop strategies, it looked like Lucas Racing were a fuel stop up, on all their pursuers.

With two hours to go, disaster stuck Baron Racing who were forced to make a long and unscheduled stop, which effectively put them out of contention. DBR had worked their way back up to 4th position behind Jerky Boys, Kartoon were now up into the top ten after an uncharacteristically poor qualifying session and Euro 24 were now taking the challenge to the leaders, with only7 seconds now separating them.

With just over an hour and a half to go, Euro 24 had caught and passed Lucas Racing to take the lead, but needed to build up a gap, big enough to execute a splash and dash stop, as Lucas Racing were now undoubtedly fuelled to the finish. Slowly but surely, Euro 24 increased their lead until they were force to refuel with just 35 minutes to go, rejoining about the same number of seconds behind Lucas Racing. The task was tough but not insurmountable and the kart was flying – then with only minutes remaining, one engine let go big time, forcing them to pit, rejoining and finishing the race on one engine, but managing to maintain their 2nd place from Jerky Boys who finished and excellent 3rd place just in front of DBR.

Behind the Super Pros, Pro-Class contenders Sin Racing, Pogue Mahone and Misfits finished in creditable 5th, 6th and 7th places respectively, with Teamworx taking the Clubman class honours, to conclude a magnificent start to the championship.

Results

Overall
1st Lucas Racing
2nd Euro 24hr Karting
3rd Jerky Boys

Pro Class
1st Sin Racing
2nd Pogue Mahone
3rd Misfits

Clubman Class
1st Teamworx
2nd Spin Doctors
3rd Sonic Deaf Monkeys

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