Six (plus 1) Hours Of Wollongong
Saturday the 24th of August saw the Sportsman Enduro Karting Championship return to Wollongong Kart Raceway for the first time since 2017.
A small change in format saw the teams compete in a one hour race, requiring a minimum of two driver changes. This race was worth half points and the grid was set by a 5 year old drawing numbers out of a hat.
Kart 16 -Rubbins Racing and Kart 84 - Cargo Safe battled it out to the very end, at one point making contact with mere minutes left on the clock. In the end, Kart 16 - Rubbins Racing held on to take the victory 2.995 seconds clear of Kart 84 - Cargo Safe. Kart 12 - CJ Racing took position three, their first ever top three finish, only one lap behind the leaders.
The finishing positions of the one hour race was officially set as the grid positions for the main event, Six Hours Of Wollongong. It was a drama filled race with several karts having issues that caused lengthy pitstops.
After an hour of racing, it seemed the battle between Kart 16 - Rubbins Racing and Kart 84 - Cargo Safe would be the race for the win. Unfortunately for Kart 16 - Rubbins Racing, they suffered an issue with snapped header bolts that took them out of second place and dropped them a long way down the field.
This left the MAXX Class with a battle between Kart 84 - Cargo Safe and Kart 24 - Team TWR for the win. In the end, Kart 84 - Cargo Safe finished the race five laps in front to take yet another win, with Kart 24 - Team TWR in second place and Kart 11 - Legends taking out third.
In the Sportsman Class, Kart 70 - Karting Solutions got tangled up in an incident that required a new steering arm to be fitted and Kart 17 - CUB Racing suffered from a jammed accelerator which dropped them out of third position with only two hours to go. Kart 29 - Gardiner Racing and Kart 65 - CIA Racing drove away at the front with Kart 29 - Gardiner Racing crossing the line first, seven laps in front of Kart 65 - CIA Racing. Kart 66 - Better Still Racing was the beneficiary of all the others misfortunes, and finished third, their best ever finish.
At the end of six hours, the points from both races were added together to give us our trophy winners. In Sportsman Class, third place went to Kart 70 - Karting Solutions, second place to Kart 65 - CIA Racing and the winner was Kart 29 - Gardiner Racing. The MAXX class podium saw Kart 12 - CJ Racing awarded third, Kart 24 - Team TWR once again finished second and our winners trophy was handed to Kart 84 - Cargo Safe who extend their lead at the top of the championship.
Congratulations to all our trophy winners and to all our competitors for a great day of racing. From here, we move on to the big one, 24 Hours of Eastern Creek on October 5th and 6th. This race is open to all sealed 4 Stroke motors and a deal is being done with Eastern Creek Karts to field a Corporate Hire Kart field. Stay tuned to our facebook page in the coming weeks for more information and we hope to see you on the race track soon.
