The 2003 Open Endurance Championship

Round 1 - 9th March
Daytona Milton Keynes

A pleasant but windy day greeted the teams for this the first round of the Summer Championship, with representation from the Prokarts, Promax's, TKM's, Thunderkarts and Bilands.

Red Brigade's Promax takes pole.

Qualifying resulted in a Biland and Promax front row, followed by 2 Thunderkarts, but within a few laps of the start, the TKM of SRT Juniors who only qualified in 8th place, stormed up the field to join The Red Brigade's Promax at the front of the field. SAS Racing were also going well until they blew an engine which unfortunately put them completely out of contention, and the Prokart of Tubetechnics threw a chain which took some considerable time to rectify.

Meanwhile The Red Brigade were still in the lead by 2 seconds from SRT Juniors, followed by Blue Thunder, RJB Racing, the Promax of Auctionmyigloo, and the Biland of SRT, making up the top Six.

With an hour and a half completed, and as a result of an array of fuel stop strategies, Blue Thunder hit the front with SRT Juniors still hanging on in 2nd place. RJB Racing were making good progress in 3rd place and slowly gaining on SRT Juniors and The Red brigade moved back up into 4th just in front of the Biland of SRT.

Then with over half distance completed, RJB Racing eventually moved into 2nd place and were now in pursuit of Blue Thunder, meanwhile Tube- Technics had made a good recovery and were now just outside the top six and marginally in front of Auctionmyigloo.

With an hour left to run, RJB Racing were slowly reeling in Blue Thunder, but looked unlikely to catch them before the conclusion of the race, meanwhile The Red Brigade had moved up again and now occupied 3rd position, displacing SRT Juniors to 4th. The Biland of SRT had a driver-moment, which resulted in a ten-lap pit stop, but once back on track, they put in the fastest lap of the day with a 1.03.777.

Blue Thunder in action.

In the closing stages of the race, the top three looked set, with Blue Thunder still clear of RJB Racing and The Red Brigade unchallenged in 3rd.

With just 5 laps to go, Blue Thunder's victory looked certain but then a snapped throttle cable forced them to pit. By the time a hasty repair had been undertaken, RJB Racing nipped past to take the chequered flag just as Blue Thunder rejoined the track, forcing them to settle for 2nd place.

Results

Overall Results of Round 1

Best in Class 

Report by Paul Bowler.

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