Karting - Team DDR Racing win closely fought endurance |09 May 2018

The first round of the 2018 Endurance season which was held last Sunday was a resounding success, especially in quick changing weather conditions which tested the teams made up of three drivers each in this seven karts team entry.

Team DDR Racing, comprising Dave Rene, Danielson Melanie and Roland Delcy, took victory after the one hour nonstop event. This was the closest victory as though they were over a lap ahead of second place finishers Team BPL made up of Peter Fred, Mitra Labrosse and Christian Bastienne. After a series of penalties for minor infringement during the races were calculated, the winners had won by a mere 28 seconds after completing 54 laps.

In third place were team MLM of Marc Delcy, Lennon Delorie and Nivram Narman with a total of 52 laps.

The race started with a Le Mans style run to the karts and off, and at the time rain had recently fallen and the track was still damp, leading to a few teams being caught up with the slippery conditions and spinning off, from that time team DDR Racing had already opened a gap on the rest of the field as they moved into their first pit stop. At this time one of the favourites on paper, team RSM, comprising Liza Rene-Cosgrow, Stephan Simon and Dominic Morin were involved in a crash which required mechanical attention, this kept them in the pits for a long time while they repaired their kart before continuing. However, later on, when they had clawed their way back into contention, they were rammed from behind and this time they broke their steering and were out immediately.

During this time, team KAL of Krisl Gopal, Louisa Lafortune and Amadave Camille held fourth place, but they lost a lot of time after they made a few errors in their stints which dropped them down to 48 laps.

Next up were team DWS comprising Dean Germain, Phillipa Samson and Fabio William who managed to complete 41 laps at the end for fifth place. A guest team made up of the Oceanic Motors staff took sixth position after completing 40 laps, which was a good achievement since only two of the three drivers have any karting experience.

It was hoped that rain would fall sometime in-between the race just to spice up the competition, but instead the circuit dried out half way through the race which made it more favourable to the drivers who made faster laps and less mistakes.

It was enjoyed by all and they will be looking forward for another one towards the end of the year.

Contributed