1 Hour Enduro 26/09/2019
The Leaders Run Away and Leave Their Competition in the Dust
Good Evening and welcome to another exciting night of racing here at Kingston Park Raceway tonight is the 1-hour enduro challenge. That means 1 driver for 1 hour straight of racing on the Le Mans track with 1 pitstop mid race for a kart change. We had 19 drivers line up across the field with 7 drivers competing for the top spot in the light category and 12 drivers lined up to race for the top spot in the heavy weight category. As always the overall points leaders are returning to try and get an edge over their respective rivals with the winner of the last 2 rounds Daniel Martin coming down to try and do the trifecta he was joined by his team mate from the last round of the triple M tag team challenge and round 1 winner Robert Dair but tonight its every man for themselves. Dylan Jones also come down proving himself to be a regular in the competition with eager eyes on the victory coming very close a few times before. Our heavy’s points leader Beau Coplick joins us again after winning the first 2 races in the heavyweight category and also finishing on the podium last round with Luke Howard also down eager to claw back some points on Beau Coplick after losing a fair few points to him last round.
Race Control wasted no time getting qualifying under way and the pace setter early on was no other than Daniel Martin, Andy Barber was very close behind in 2nd being his first time joining us at the raceway for a while but he’s proving quickly that he hasn’t lost any talent out there. Luke Howard was the pace setter in the Heavies also being very competitive with the lights out there. Beau Coplick was a bit slow to get going in qualifying but by the end he did manage to get into the top 5 in the heavies. Just before the end of qualifying Robert Dair put in an absolute flyer to take pole position away from Daniel Martin with a 60.784 meaning he would start the race from first joining him on the front row would be Daniel Martin. Luke Howard managed to stay first in the heavies as well and also has put a fair few lights between himself and his heavyweight competitors this is going to be a huge assistance early on in the race to allow him to hopefully run away with this one but anything can happen in 1 hour and we have seen that in the past. The big surprise was Dylan Jones only managing 15th overall this will make coming through the field very difficult with his competitors out the front of the field. Without any hesitation though let’s get this race underway race control did a quick fuel up on the go karts gave the drivers a quick breather before the race ahead.
Our 19 drivers head off for their formation lap as the pace kart comes in Robert Dair and Daniel Martin set the pace down the straight the lights go green and they are off! Everyone gets through very cleanly at turn 1 Dylan Jones goes ultra-aggressive and makes up a hand full of spots early Daniel Martin just holds onto 2nd through turn 1 over Andy Barber who got a great jump but Daniel Martin finds himself in the lead now coming out of turn 3 after a mistake from Robert Dair who now has Andy Barber right on his tail to complete lap 1. Not even 3 laps in and Robert Dair is struggling losing 2nd to Andy Barber and has Brent Christofferson right on his tail meanwhile Daniel Martin is already starting to check out from the pack putting the hammer down early. 5 minutes in and Brent Christofferson finds himself passing Robert Dair for 3rd and finding himself in the lead of the heavies than disaster strikes an issue leaving him stricken by the side of the track at turn 2 losing him all those places but he gets back going in the race and is eager to make up for lose time. We skip to 15 minutes in and our pit window is almost open Robert Dair is really struggling atm our pole sitter battling it out with some of the heavies atm losing a position to Luke Howard who is our heavyweight leader and has Beau Coplick right behind him. Dylan Jones finds himself getting close to podium position in the lights making up for lost time early, but Daniel Martin already has almost 10 seconds on the rest of his competitors. The pit window opens, and Robert Dair wastes no time coming into the pits eager to jump in another go kart and get going again. As per the usual we have seen in these 1-hour races pit lane becomes very congested in the first say 2-5 mins with a few drivers losing a large amount of time simply stacked behind over drivers. This is why strategy is so important in these races you can’t afford to be losing large amounts of time in pitlane you simply won’t get it back. In the first 10 mins of the window being open we had 13 of our 19 drivers do their kart change overs this means we only have 6 drivers to do a kart change over in the last 10 minutes of the pit window these drivers have a good advantage over the others meaning they won’t have to stack behind others. Andy Barber comes in from 2nd to do his kart change over leaving pitlane with well over 8 seconds to spare he looks in a great chance to come 2nd but enters the track about 10 seconds behind Dylan Jones although there is a question if Dylan Jones did complete his mandatory 60 seconds in pitlane but race control will not be able to confirm that until the end of the race. Daniel Martin is continuing to stay out with a massive lead, he is our 2nd last competitor to enter the pitlane with just 2 mins to spare Luke Howard now inherits the Lead of the race but he still needs to do his kart change over. Daniel Martin comes back on track in 2nd with a lead of 25 seconds over Dylan Jones. We have only 1 minute to go of the pit window and Luke Jones drives past the pit entrance this is going to be touch and go if he makes it into pitlane in time next lap to avoid getting a penalty. He enters pit lane next lap around with just 10 seconds to spare does a very tidy kart change indeed and heads out again in 4th place overall and in the lead of the heavies still. We skip to 10 minutes to go and it’s the all familiar white OMP helmet of Daniel Martin with those black and orange alpinestar gloves almost 40 seconds up the road from Dylan Jones, Andy Barber isn’t to far behind just 8 seconds behind in 3rd with the 2 losing and gaining time on each other as they make their way through the traffic. Luke Howard is still in 4th and leader of our heavies with Robert Dair not to far behind but there is almost the state of Queensland gap between Luke Howard and Beau Coplick who is in 2nd these 2 have been season long rivals and at the moment Luke Howard is only 10 seconds away from putting Beau Coplick a lap down and Beau has his hands full with Ken Kennedy behind in 3rd these 2 you cant even fit a credit card between them. 5 minutes to go and we don’t need to mention who our leaders are that hasn’t changed at all but the battle between Beau Coplick and Ken Kennedy is getting intense so intense Rhett Jones is starting to close in he might be able to pinch a podium position here if anything happens. With just 2 mins to go there isn’t even a second separating Beau Coplick, Ken Kennedy and Rhett Jones but only 2 out of these 3 gentlemen can take 2nd and 3rd on the podium. Last Lap Rhett Jones overtakes Ken Kennedy for 3rd place Beau in just holding them off they cross the line Daniel Hasn’t crossed the line yet though he follows not far behind to win it the lights than go red after 30 seconds of Daniel Crossing the line he is so fair ahead no body on the same lap as him even takes the checkered flag before the red lights go on Dylan Jones takes provisional 2nd with Andy Barber in 3rd 55 seconds behind Daniel Martin. Luke Howard takes our provisional winner of the heavies Beau Coplick takes 2nd Ken Kennedy did get Rhett Jones back after they crossed the line but since Rhett Jones was ahead last time, they crossed the line he steals 3rd from Ken Kennedy.
Heavies Podium
The times are Added up Race Control do the podium presentation for the heavies first with Luke Howard winning it taking the top spot on the coca cola podium with the fastest lap of the race in the heavies with a 60.654. Beau Coplick held onto 2nd place and Rhett Jones picked Ken Kennedy’s back pocket to steal 3rd spot on the podium.
Light Podium
The Light podium was very controversial with Dylan Jones just falling 5 seconds short of doing his mandatory 60 seconds in pitlane for his kart change over dropping him to 6th overall in the lights this promoted our Pole sitter from qualifying Robert Dair to 3rd place. This also promoted Andy Barber to 2nd place as well with a massive grin on his face after such a tough race and our winner completing the trifecta was the one the only Daniel Martin even though he made it look easy he went on to comment how none of these wins have been easy that just driving these karts for an hour is a challenge in itself adding 18 other drivers into the mix who are all hungry for that top step make it that much harder and that much more rewarding. He went on to take out the fastest lap of the night honors as well with a 60.062.
Well that concludes our night of racing here at Kingston Park raceway we still have one more round of the Kingston park raceway 1 hour solo enduro to go so if you think you got what it takes to knock off Daniel Martin from that top step or if you weigh more than 85 kgs and you want to prove to Luke Howard and Beau Coplick that you can knock them off that podium make sure you come on down for our 5th and final round here at the Le Mans track until then I hope we all had one hell of a night out!
