Cox & Conroy Challenge NZ’s Finest At Big Ben Pies Enduro

press release

Former Junior Yamaha National Kart Champion Chris Cox teamed up with Invercargill’s Jamie Conroy for the 2 hour and 5 minute Big Ben Pies Senior Enduro event at Christchurch Kart Club during the weekend of 27th & 28th June.

Despite being two of the youngest drivers in a field which included an impressive line up of NZ’s finest, from V8 Super Car driver Jason Richards, A1 GP driver Johnny Reid, talent from NZ V8’s in Andy Knight and Adam Brook, Formula Ford 2009 Champion Richie Stanaway, Martin Short, Matthew Penrose and Simon Evans also from Formula Ford and a host of other talent from Motorsport and Karting champions including Hamish Cross, Matthew Hamilton, Ryan Grant and Ryan Urban, the two youngsters achieved a very impressive 2nd place in their Rotax Max Open Kart from 1st place Andy Knight and Ryan Grant in their Vortex 125 Shifter.

After qualifying 4th ahead of many more powerful packages and slipping to 5th after a top 10 pole shuffle the lads knew they had the pace to challenge the more powerful DD2’s and shifter karts in the field and were confident in the reliability of their Supreme Engines Rotax Max motor and Arrow X1 chassis.  All that remained was for them to go out and punch out fast and consistent laps for 2 hours and try as efficiently as possible to get through the traffic as they came up to lap it.

Chris went out as the first driver and after a reasonably good start which saw Chris predictably lose a few positions to the higher horsepower karts behind him on the grid, he soon settled into a good rhythm which saw him lying in third place by lap 28.  Unfortunately, whilst lapping a slower driver in lap 50 Chris was squeezed off the track and dropped back to 6th place.  Luckily there was no damage to the kart and Chris pulled off a very impressive performance to drive back to 2nd place, un-lap himself from the leader and build a healthy gap ahead of Hamish Cross in third place before his pit stop.

This year’s rules required that each team complete a 5 minute pit stop lap and the team would have been hard pushed to time it any more perfectly, registering a pit stop lap of just over 5 minutes 1 second.

Jamie continued where Chris had left off and drove the second stint superbly well, proving his skill as an outstanding driver by dealing with a set up which by this stage was beginning to grip up and tyres which were wearing quickly.  He pulled off some superb overtakes on traffic he was lapping and never looked in any danger of losing their 2nd place standing despite Jason Richards closing the gap slightly in the final laps of the race.

The overjoyed duo and their team are delighted with the result especially as they had no huge expectations as they were probably the least experienced team in this class which had an impressive 28 team lineup, and were well aware that their package was, on paper, considerably less powerful than many others.

Huge thanks to Christchurch Kart Club for hosting the event and Big Ben Pies, Jason Richards and all of the class sponsors for their generosity and support.

Chris and Jamie would like to acknowledge their sponsors for the event; Supreme Engines & Kart Supplies, Apex Karting Ltd, Virtual Ideas Web Designs and Electronics Specialists Invercargill.

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