The 2003 Pro Kart Endurance Championship
Round 9 - Daytona Sandown Park - 5 October
A full grid of 40 teams were greeted by a beautiful autumnal day, for this the final round of the Championship. With both the Overall and Clubman Championship’s still wide open, pit tension was at an all time high, with much time being spent on where each team needed to finish in relationship to one another, to ensure that personal goals could be achieved.
Qualifying went the way of David Bright Racing from JM Sport, with Kartoon and AJB making up the second row. Spencer Motorsport, who needed to beat AJB by some five places to take the championship, struggled down in an uncharacteristic 13th place.
After a trouble free start, DBR led the way with the field still pretty much in qualifying order, however Spencer had moved up to 7th place just behind Grassroots, but were slowly loosing touch with the front four. Within the first hour, a total of 9 teams had made unscheduled pit stops with an array of technical problems including SABL who were back down in 40th place. The Clubman battle was also in full swing with CJV in creditable 9th overall leaving champions elect in the form of CSF and Hairy Karts, down in 18th and 20th places.
Back at the sharp end, it was still DBR from J M Sport, Kartoon and AJB, whilst WMPC had moved up to 5th place with Spencer just behind them. As the two-hour mark approached, WMPC had a minor hiccup, allowing Spencer up into 5th place but now nearly a lap down on Kartoon, JM Sport and most importantly AJB, whilst DBR in the meantime, were starting to scamper off into the distance. Third place in the Championship was destined to go to Eau-Rouge, who would now have to rely on their drop round, as currently 27th place would not improve their chances, although their nearest threat, Grilli-Course were still floundering about in midfield.
Kartoon then moved up into second place, just one lap behind DBR but AJB and Spencer had stepped up the pace and were now on the same lap as well. With less than half distance to go, DBR pitted for fuel which now put the top four, all on the same lap, whilst CJV 1, Focus, SZR and FAB, all moved up into the top ten.
The Clubman’s chase was also in full swing, with podium contenders CJV 1, holding the advantage in an excellent 7th place overall, from Gas n Go in 9th, Europelaw in 10th and CSF in 12th, whilst champions elect, Hairy Karts, were down in 16th place and relying on their drop points to take them to victory.
With less than two hours to go, a red flag incident brought proceedings briefly to a halt, and after the restart it was still DBR, one lap clear of AJB, Kartoon, JM Sport and Spencer. With the final hour approaching, DBR who had led from the start of the race blew an engine to rob them of almost certain victory, and effectively put them into retirement. This gave AJB the lead and Spencer were now facing at a Championship defeat, barring another mechanical failure. In the last half an hour, Spencer closed down on Kartoon; Kartoon closed down on JM Sport and JM Sport closed down on the leaders AJB; but as the chequered flag fell and the top four all finished within seconds of each other, Spencer reign was over and the new 2003 Champions, AJB were crowned.
RESULTS
| R9 Overall Results |
| 1st
AJB Racing 2nd J M Sport 3rd Kartoon |
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| R9 Clubman Results |
| 1st
CJV 1 2nd Europelaw 3rd CSF |
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2003 CHAMPIONSHIP WINNERS
| 2003 Clubman Champions |
| 1st
Hairy Karts 2nd CJV 1 3rd CSF |
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2003 Overall Champions |
| 1st
AJB Racing 2nd Spencer Motorsport 3rd Eau-Rouge |
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Report & Photos by Paul Bowler.
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