Phillip Island Enduro

A six-hour "Champ Kart Enduro" was held at the Phillip Island circuit last month (Saturday 21st of June). However, the event wasnt on the full Grand Prix circuit.

The Champ Kart track is a scale replica of the main GP circuit and has a length of 760m. It was completed about 2 years ago.

The three driver team of Moxinator Racing (Ian Branson, Amanda Branson & David Catchpole) won the 6-hour. The race utilised the venues four-stroke powered Swiss Hutless karts. "They are maintained to the highest standard of any hire kart venue I have ever visited" Branson informed KartSportNews.

Race day was an early start with all teams at the Champ Kart Centre by 7.30am. There were 12 teams of three drivers each. "Karts were assigned to teams by way of a draw out of the hat to ensure that no team had a special kart. They were prepared and set up exactly the same with new tyres and drive belts and additional karts were also prepped in case of mechanical failure."

Above: Winners are grinners! Branson x2 and Catchpole.

The karts were tested for parity on the Friday prior an found to be within 2/100ths of a second over a set distance.

Changing weather conditions saw some early strategic moves with driver line ups within the team. "With first stint drivers in the karts, we were sent out for one warm up lap then stopped in single file on the main straight for the start" Branson explained.

The green flag dropped and 12 eager drivers jostled for position without incident. Over the next 6 hours there was some very close and exciting racing. There was a bit of rubbing, a bit of good luck and only a very small amount of bad luck.

"It rained and dried out quite a few times and the teams that matched the drivers to the conditions faired best. Each driver did 4 stints of 30 minutes and were not allowed to do a double stint. In all it was a great day of racing."

Final Result:
1. Moxinator Racing (Ian Branson, Amanda Branson, David Catchpole)
2. Dilligaf Racing (David Neely, Ben Nielsen, Paul Grieve)
3. NE Firma (Nigel Evans, James Patton, Adrian O'Gorman)

Above: pit stop

Above: the 2nd placed team accept their trophies (David Neely, Ben Nielsen, Paul Grieve)

Above: Applause for the winners as they head into a dry pit lane

Home