BF Racing Win 12-Hour Thriller At Rocky
press release
Headed by ex Former Ford racer Brett Francis, the # 2 BF Racing team romped to victory lane during last weekend’s inaugural ‘Rockhampton 12 Hour’ at Fitzroy Park Raceway in what turned out to be a thrilling finish.
With a driver line up that consisted of Brett Francis, Michael Hutton and Matthew Taylor, the # 2 BF Racing team were able to hold on for the victory despite some dramas during the stages that required a pit stop in the last five minutes. At the fall of the chequered flag of the ‘Rockhampton 12 Hour’, which doubled as the fifth round of the Powered by Honda ProKart Australia Queensland Endurance Kart Championship, they managed to defeat the # 152 Phantom Racing team in second place, while in third place was the # 27 Resisales Racing team.
Above: The winning BF Racing team
The Top 3 place getters all finished on the lead lap with a total of 885 laps completed throughout the ‘Rockhampton 12 Hour’ event.
“Winning certainly wasn’t on our minds heading into the ‘Rockhampton 12 Hour’ but after the good speed we showed in qualifying then we were thinking that we were in with a good shot of a top three finish,” explained BF Racing team owner Brett Francis. “Throughout the race we had good consistent pace and we stayed out of trouble. As the race wore on things fell into place as a number of the front runners dropped out of contention and that put us in with a better chance of winning and that’s what we managed to do.”
Francis admitted that the last one hour of the ‘Rockhampton 12 Hour’ was a bit nerve racking.
“In the last hour we developed a muffler problem and we had to make a pit stop which consequently resulted in us losing our comfortable lead,” he said. “We needed to make a pit stop in the final five minutes but thankfully that wasn’t enough to deny us of the win and we were able to hold on.”
In what was their best result ever in ProKart Australia competition, the # 152 Phantom Racing team came very close to picking up the winning spoils but had to settle for the runner up position.
Above: Phantom Racing
The # 27 Resisales Racing team finished on the podium in third place and it was their strongest performance of this year’s Queensland Championship so far.
After qualifying on pole position, # 50 Team 5150R had a tough run throughout the ‘Rockhampton 12 Hour’ but managed to recover to finish in fourth place (882 laps), while their team-mates, # 51 Team 5150R finished back in fifth place (880 laps).
Local based # 43 Tracksa Racing placed in sixth, while # 42 Knk Scuderia, # 661 PDS Grand Prix, #101 Frog Racing and Mackay based # 95 Triple S Racing rounded out the Top 10 finishes.
Above: Dicing in the pack
Current Queensland Championship leaders # 661 PDS Grand Prix team had a dreadful run and therefore finished in a disappointed eighth place. Another team to suffer dramas were the # 24 KnK Karts team and although they showed good speed were forced to retire with loss of brakes.
Despite their dramas, the # 661 PDS Grand Prix team have been able to maintain their leads in the Queensland Championship point standings battle over # 51 and # 50 Team 5150R outfits.
Earlier in the event, qualifying for the ‘Rockhampton 12 Hour’ resulted in # 50 Team 5150R topping the time sheets ahead of # 2 BF Racing and # 661 PDS Grand Prix teams in second and third.
Above: The Knk Scuderia kart was forced to retire with brake issues.
The inaugural ‘Rockhampton 12 Hour’ was judged a great success and everyone at ProKart Australia, from the race officials to the teams, said that they are already looking forward to next year.
The sixth round of the Queensland Championship is going to be held on Saturday, August 14 at Tamworth’s Oakburn Park Raceway in North Western NSW for the inaugural running of the ‘Tamworth 12 Hour’. Both the National and NSW Championship rounds are also going to be held in conjunction with the ‘Tamworth 12 Hour’ in what shapes up to be one of the biggest events of the year.