The 2003 Open Endurance Championship

Round 2 - 27th April
Daytona Milton Keynes

Tecserve on pole

The damp start quickly conceded to a dry, warm and windy day, for this the second round of the Summer Championship. With representation from all six classes, it would be interesting to see how the Prokarts would fair with their 7-lap advantage over a mixed field of similarly performing formulae.

Qualifying resulted in a Pro-Extreme/Thunderkart front row, courtesy of Tecserv and Blue Thunder followed by the Pro-Max's of Special Racing Projects and The Red Brigade.

SRT's Biland

From the off, the Pro-Extreme of Tecserv set the pace from The Red Brigade's Promax, SRT's Biland moved up to 3rd just in front of Blue Thunder and Special Racing Projects, with RJB's Thunderkart making up the top six. Once the race had settled down, the Prokarts were given their 7-lap advantage and the leader board now read, Storming Normans in the lead with the second place Prokart of Thermokart some 20 seconds behind. 40 minutes into the race and the Red Brigade had to pit with a loose exhaust, Autocats were having a torrid time and Auctionmyigloo were also having their fair share of problems. With an hour and a quarter gone, the Pro-Extreme of Tecserv had eaten two and a half laps into the lead of the prokarts, closely followed by SRT's Biland, Blue Thunder, RJB, Junior SRT in the TKM and Special Racing Projects who had already made a fuel stop. At about half distance SRT-Juniors struck disaster with a reoccurring chain problem, effectively putting them out of contention, and Tecserv along with the SRT Biland, had split the two leading Prokarts and were now only a lap behind Storming Normans. With 2 hours to go, Thermokart's Prokart lost a steering column bolt and the SRT Biland pitted with a clutch problem, leaving the top six as follows, Storming Normans, Tecserve, Special Racing Projects, who had been making steady progress up the field, then RJB, Blue Thunder and Auctionmyigloo.

With just over an hours racing left, the varying array of fuel stops had clouded the true picture, but Storming Normans Prokart was still in the lead from Blue Thunder, with Tecserv, Special Racing Projects and RJB, all on the same lap. Storming Normans then pitted for a routine stop but were unfortunately just under weight and the ensuing penalty dropped them well down the field, and Blue Thunder were forced into semi- retirement. With now just 30 minutes to go, it was the Extreme of Tecserv, from RJB's Thunderkart and the Promax of Special Racing Projects, all within 10 seconds of each other. As they race for the flag, Special Racing Projects moved up to 2nd and then with minutes to go, took over the lead spot, as RJB's Thunderkart got the better of Tecserv's Extreme. If that wasn't enough to claim a grandstand finish, Special Racing Project's brakes then failed and they struggled across the line to take victory by the smallest of margins.

Results

Overall Results of Round 2

Best in Class 

Report by Paul Bowler.

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