RACEWEB 2 HOUR CAR CLUB ENDURO
Event: 7 June 2015 | Words & photos: RaceMasteR J | Venue: Kenilworth Karting, Cape Town

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So we decided to put together a little social event in the form of a 2 hour go kart endurance race at our HQ in Kenilworth Karting for a few interested car clubs and crews. I used to participate in these back in the day, when I was half my current size, and always remembered it to be huge amounts of fun. Racing against friends, rivals and some real “racing” drivers, it always posed a challenge to finish the race on the podium.


Since there hasn’t been any of these events for a long time now, I decided to host one ourselves. Not knowing what sort of interest it would get initially I was skeptical. But the Cape Town car scene proved my suspicions wrong as I was still getting people wanting to enter teams on the morning of the event.


Usually a max of 6 teams race on track, but with special permission from Kenilworth Karting we were granted a 7th team being able to race. The more the merrier and it proved to be action packed from start to finish.


Teams that entered were the following: Team Worked Racing, Club S2k, Cape ST Owners Club, D-Evo RC Drift Club, Subaru Fun Crew, Audi Club SA and Team Fix-A-Smash. Some people were in favour of the Fix-A-Smash team with their regular visits to the Century Karting track and rally driving background.


Other clubs like ST Owners were putting in some track time before the event while Club S2k was the only club to book me for a private practice and coaching session prior to the event. Other clubs were pretty nonchalant about it and decided to wing it on the day. After all, it’s only a social event anyways.


But the word social went flying out the window when the flag dropped. People went from friendly and smiling to aggressive and move out the way very quickly. But at the end of the day, all petrol heads are naturally competitive and that’s what I love about these types of events.


Before the race could start a drivers briefing was carried out followed by a Q&A session for anyone who felt they were still in the dark. Karts were randomly drawn from a bag and the 5 minute qualifying session started immediately. Each team sent out their best and fastest driver to qualify in the kart they chose.


But the point of qualifying is to set your best possible lap time. In order to do that you need open track. But it seemed that qualifying turned out to be a race for many. About 4 to 5 teams all bunched up in a pack bumping and barging their way around the track… the clever ones laid back and waited for open track which resulted in the following starting grid positions...


1. Club S2k, 2.Fix-A-Smash, 3. Cape ST Owners, 4. D-Evo, 5. Worked Racing, 6. SFC and in 7. Audi Club SA.
A rolling start saw many a surprised face but the excitement was too much to bear for the Fix-A-Smash team as they ended up over taking before the flag could drop. Gannon the race director had to give everyone another formation lap in order to get the rolling start done properly with everyone in their correct grid position.


When the flag dropped it was 2 hours of nonstop action. Club S2k was pulling a nice lead up front but a few kart issues saw them drop down with the ST Owners taking over first place closely followed by D-Evo and Fix-A-Smash. A separate race was between SFC, Worked Racing and Audi Club. But as time went on positions were constantly being changed due to driver changes and plenty more accidents.


The clever guys were the ones to stay out of trouble. The less bumping and knocking you do the less chance there is of kart breakdowns. Guys tend to forget that it is a 2 hour endurance race and each team needs to look after their kart. Different driving styles and lack of track time resulted in some silly mistakes by many drivers and a lot of “in the tyres” moments.


But hey, that’s racing! It comes with the territory. With a minimum of 12 driver stamps/driver changes needed at the end of the 2 hours, timing and strategy was key and those who put in the effort reaped the result at the end of the race.


At the end of the 120 minutes the following teams made it across the line… in 7th place it was the Subaru Fun Crew. Unfortunately for them their luck ran out sooner than later with a few more unexpected kart issues. But eventually they were back in the race and fighting for 6th place with the Audi Club. At the rate they were driving they would have finished 6th but a driver error due to fatigue saw them crash into the tyres at the very end of the race cementing their 7th place overall.


In 6th place was the Audi Club who was just more than happy not to come last, the position they had been in for 90% of the race. 5th Place saw total new comers Team Worked Racing cross the line even with an injured driver they managed to fight back in the later stage of the race. 4th Went to team Fix-A-Smash, proving that the competition was harder than usual.


On the podium in 3rd place saw team D-Evo RC Drift Club. Clearly their time spent drifting RC cars at Kenilworth Karting has paid off. 2nd Place was the hard fought Cape ST Owners Club who battled long and hard throughout the race but just couldn’t manage to get to where they wanted to be at. Which is exactly where Club S2k ended up being, in a well deserved 1st place.


Where ever you may have come, well done to every team, driver and spectator a like for attending and supporting the Raceweb 2 hour enduro! It won’t be the last so stay tuned for the next one! Check out the rest of the gallery below for more pics.

Junaid Hamid
RaceMasteR J

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