The 2003 Pro Kart Endurance Championship

Round 5 - Daytona Sandown Park - 22 June

Despite a hot and humid forecast, heavy early morning rain had left the track very wet for practice and all 37 teams chose wet tyres for the qualifying session.

The SABL 2 team, put their kart firmly on pole from GameRacer, with AJB and David Bright Racing making up the second row. Many of the teams had elected to start on wets but this was shortly to prove a bad decision as the track dried rapidly in the first few laps resulting in some frantic tyre changing.

GameRacer and Eau Rouge

As the race order settled down, AJB led the field from Bright Racing, SABL, Focus, Eau-Rouge, and WMPC whilst Europelaw were the first retirement with a brake failure after just 12 laps. Westco led the Clubman's fraternity with a credible 11th place from Spin Doctors, Gas n Go, GTR, Rogue Racing and Hairy Karts while overall Championship leaders, Spencer Motorsport were back in 32nd place and about to go into retirement with major chassis problems.

With an hour and a half gone, Westco, Junior SABL, TGSR and Lost Boys had all been struck by the gremlins, whilst AJB still led with an ever increasing margin from Bright Racing, Focus and Lakeside. As the first fuel stop window approached, GameRacer were back up to 5th place with SABL, WMPC and TRT Racing in very close attendance and the leading Clubman was now GTR in 12th place overall, from Rogue Racing in 15th followed by Hairy Karts Chatburns and Equipe Vitesse.

Europelaw claims another victim

As the halfway stage approached, AJB had pulled out an impressive lead from Lakeside who were now in second place, just in front of Focus; SABL were now 4th with Bright Racing, SABL 2, GameRacer, Grilli-Corse and TRT Racing still in the hunt. More gremlins struck in this race of attrition and front runners SZR were back in the pits again, as were Equipe Vitesse, Gas n Go, Grassroots, just to name just but a few.

Back at the sharp end, and AJB now had an unassailable lead over Lakeside and Focus, SABL-2 were holding 4th from TRT Racing and SABL, with Grilli-Corse and Bright Racing just half-a-lap adrift. Hairy Karts were now leading Clubman from GTR, Rogue-Racing, and Box-Tech, whilst DrBx-Juniors, Eau-Rouge and WMPC were lurking just outside the top ten. More disaster as TRT Racing had a moment, GameRacer broke an axle and WMPC took a 45-minute pit stop, to leave the top six as AJB, Lakeside, SABL 2, Focus, SABL and Grilli-Corse.

Grilli's in the grass

With just over the hour to run, SABL slipped to 7th place in front of DrBx Juniors and Bright Racing, leaving Grilli-Corse to move up to 5th place and the fast finishing Eau-Rouge up into 6th. The fight for the minor places was now on with Grilli-Corse, SABL and Eau-Rouge all within a few seconds of each other, while SABL 2 and Lakeside slugged it out for the runner-up spot. Half an hour to go and SABL 2 secured 2nd place whilst Focus were still running in a safe 4th, Eau-Rouge passed Grilli-Corse and were now in hot pursuit of SABL's 5th spot. With the flag almost in sight, GTR led the clubman race with Hairy Karts and CJV 1, fighting it out for 2nd place. With minutes to go Eau-Rouge got the better of SABL to claim 5th, Focus cruised home in an easy 4th, Lakeside could do little about SABL2 in front of them and AJB crossed the line to take an impressive victory by some 3 laps.

RESULTS

Champagne shower for the winners

Clubman Podium

Report & Photos by Paul Bowler.

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