Trackside Team Dominate Opening SEK Round


by Chris Kapp 2 March 2017

The opening round of the SEK 2017 Championship has been run and won by Trackside Motorsport in the most gruelling of conditions on February 12 at Sydney’s Eastern Creek International Karting Raceway.

Round One of the year is always one of the most intense after a long off-season with all the teams having put in plenty of hard work and everyone looking forward to getting back on track with high expectations.


pic - Dave Oliver, DOPHOTO.com.au

This year certainly lived up to the hype with one of the most challenging days our series has seen, with a fast field and temperatures pushing up towards 40 degrees to keep the field very busy throughout  the day.

Qualifying was taken out by Trackside Motorsport, which turned out to be an ominous sign for the rest of the field as they had a clear advantage over the number 70 kart of Lifestyle Autos who enjoyed one of their best ever qualifying efforts at Eastern Creek.

The race kicked off just on 11am in what turned out to be nearly the hottest part of the day, making hard work for the drivers who lead out the event. The pace was fierce with Trackside and Lifestyle Autos stringing out the field behind them with some great battles going on all through the order. 


Above: Ready for the start (pic - Dave Oliver, DOPHOTO.com.au)

Given the conditions, a decision was made to add more compulsory pit stops and shorten the stint lengths, which lead to some interesting strategies mixing up the field and keeping everyone guessing.

There was still plenty of drama along the way with Legends being tangled up with the timing gear on their way into Pit Lane and losing a bit of time.  Karts 70 and 88 were both penalised for being underweight which dropped them both back down the field, bad luck struck Karts 57 and 93 who faced more than their share of mechanical issues for the day.

 

The challenging conditions definitely took a toll on each of the teams but the standard of the driving was incredibly high which lead to the race being green for the entire 8 hours!

This was the first event which SEK had run the Sportsman Class, a 2nd class that is made up of teams who turn up to have fun and run competitively in the mid field . CIA Racing ran away with the Class win and finished a commendable 9th outright.


pic - Dave Oliver, DOPHOTO.com.au

At the front of the pack, the story remained unchanged with Trackside Motorsport dominating the event with the fastest lap and taking the win with a five lap margin. Project Rhonda took second outright from Legends in what saw some of the most spectacular racing over the final few stints.  There was a great battle for the minor placings also with Engine Motorsport snatching fourth from Full Noise and Atlas Racing.

The next round of the series is set to be run at the challenging Orange circuit on the 18th of March.  For anyone interested in getting involved please contact the club at sportsmanendurokarting@gmail.com

 

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