RPM24 Continue KnK Queensland Series Domination
Tweetfrom Ian McMah
The weekend of the 19th and 20th of May saw 18 teams contest round 3 of the 2012 Queensland Track Safety International ProKart Endurance Championship at Sandy Creek Raceway, home of the Warwick Kart Club.
The weekend was sadly tainted by news that long-time series stalwart, karting icon and 2011 Australian and New South Wales championship team co-manager Alan Denyer had suddenly passed away. It was with a heavy heart but in Alan’s memory that event organisers determined to continue as planned. Knowing Alan he would not have wanted it any other way and his presence was felt often throughout the weekend, both on and off track.
Located approximately 2 hours west of Brisbane, the Warwick Kart Club is fast becoming a highlight of the Queensland ProKart calendar, with Sandy Creek Raceway presenting teams with a challenging mix of high and low speed sections which are technical in nature and generally require a different set up approach to other circuits the series races at.
A number of teams went into this race with a very real chance of winning, despite the first 2 rounds being won by the team from MF-Tech Racing. Nexus Force KnK were optimistic of a successful weekend having already secured a 2nd and 3rd in the previous 2 events, whilst teams like AC Delco Cordless Tools and BF Racing had demonstrated exceptional pace in the previous round at Cooloola.
2011 Series champions Phantom Racing were determined to get their season back on track and had sourced new engines for this meeting, whilst the team at RPM24 had secured a new KnK Dominator to replace their still-competitive KnK Evolution, ensuring 4 teams would have the exact same KnK Dominator specification of MF-Tech, who had won every round of the Queensland Series thus far in 2012. It was very feasible that any one of 10 teams had a realistic chance at outright victory.
Practice provided different fortunes for a number of teams, with the AC Delco Cordless Tools team comfortably quickest, some 4 tenths faster than MF-Tech Racing.
Above: AC Delco Cordless Power Tools Racing’s Alan Gurr led the timesheets convincingly in practice
Phantom Racing arrived at the circuit ill prepared, as they wanted to install new valves due to suspected seating issues and any repairs or changes to engines used in the series require the supervision and approval of ProKart officials, given all engines used in the series are fully-sealed units to ensure parity. Whilst these repairs were underway, team driver Steve Thompson was on track in practice putting miles on the teams’ new engines so the team could undertake some comparative testing to determine what engines they’d use in the race.
Phantom Racing demonstrated at the previous round in Cooloola that they can replace an engine in under 5 minutes, a feat unheard of in ProKart until recently and one that ensured they salvaged a good points haul in that event. They put this process to good use at Warwick as they swapped their ‘new’ engines for their normal race engines (now sporting new valves) and Simon Ham went out for a few laps to determine if there was any discernable improvement or difference in lap times. Ultimately, their new engines proved faster so Phantom Racing have more work to do to determine why their previously ‘good’ old engines are not performing.
A number of the KnK teams experienced issues in practice. Nexus Force KnK had technical challenges which prevented them from doing much practice, as did the RPM24 team which had only received and prepared their new kart in the week leading up to the event, the kart not having turned a wheel prior to practice on Saturday morning.
RPM24’s Scott Pearce commented, “We got to the track with lots to do on the kart. VPR had brake issues so we lent them a hand, so when we hit the track we only got 10 or so practice laps”.
Qualifying followed a format similar to the current Formula 1 regulations with 3 x 10 minute sessions determining the fight for grid positions, with each session eliminating a number of teams. The final 10 minute session was a fight for pole position between the fastest 10 karts from Q2.
Qualifying was uneventful for most teams, however RPM24 experienced a major failure as Scott Pearce recalls; “Qualifying was bad for us, we were still trying to get a feel for the kart when we noticed we had a huge vibration under braking. Then the wheel fell off after 3 laps of Q3. We rushed the kart back in and made repairs and had to replace the hub as all of the wheel studs had sheared off. Despite having to fit a short hub to replace the long hub that had failed and being last to the grid, we were surprised to see ourselves in 5th spot”.
After the final qualifying session it was Brett Francis and the BF Racing team on pole position, with Alan Gurr in the AC Delco Cordless Tools MS Kart only 0.18 seconds away on the outside of the front row. Nathan Pearce demonstrated his speed by giving the KnK Tigers team their best-ever qualifying result with 3rd position and the remainder of the top 10 were (in order) Phantom Racing, RPM24, MF-Tech Racing, 2DADZ Racing, Kart Evo Motorsport, Atlas Racing and Nexus Force KnK.
This event was a 9 hour race that was held in 2 stages, with a 4-hour race on Saturday preceding a 5-hour race on Sunday. The 4-hour race on Saturday was to be ‘stopped’ by a safety car period and all karts were being held overnight in parc ferme conditions, which meant that teams could not undertake any repairs or maintenance and for all intents and purposes this was a straight 9-hour test of endurance.
The start of the race saw Alan Gurr in the AC Delco kart get the lead from pole sitter Brett Francis in the BF Racing Azzurro chassis, with RPM24’s Scott Pearce settling into 3rd on lap 2. A number of teams pitted early in the hope that an early safety car period might help them regain ground on the leaders and effectively give them a ‘free’ stop, given ProKart’s racing regulations require a minimum number of pit, driver and fuel stops across the duration of the event.
The lead varied throughout the first few hours as various team strategies played out, albeit that the early running was dominated by BF Racing and AC Delco Cordless Power Tools Racing who were demonstrating race-pace quicker than the rest of the field at that time. A rare mechanical issue for BF Racing saw the team lose 8 laps with what eventually was identified as a failed spark plug cap and this saw the team drop well out of contention and well down the order. It was to be a long road back for the team from there but ultimately they would secure a Top 10 result.
A number of strong strategy calls saw a new team lead the event in only their 3rd event, with the #17 kart of Astra Racing moving in to 1st place in lap 111.
When asked about leading their first event, team principle and driver Lochie Lawrence said, “Kart 17 moved forward to be running in 8th after the first four hours and had even lead the race at one point. We had a fantastic back and forth battle with Atlas Racing for most of the day and were stoked to pass them a few minutes before the emergence of the overnight Safety Car. The aim for the second five hours was to consolidate our position; however we got caught out on strategy with a few Safety Car periods occurring at inopportune times”.
Above: The number 17 kart of Team Astra led their first race at Warwick
That last comment really summed up the first 4 hours of this 9-hour event, with the race order constantly shifting as teams worked on optimizing their strategy with a number of safety car periods occurring early in the event.
As the first 4-hours of the event drew to a close there was a developing battle between RPM24, who despite their hub failure in qualifying and a lack of track time in their all-new KnK chassis were now leading the event, and MF-Tech, also running an identical KnK Dominator chassis. RPM24 driver Greg Robertson was displaying strong pace in the team’s all-new KnK Dominator, finding the kart much more aligned with his driving style than the team’s previous KnK Evolution chassis and the lap times supported this as he helped RPM24 remain towards the top of the leader board.
Teams were feverishly adjusting their strategies as this period of the event came to a close, as the planned intervention of a safety car brought with it a unique opportunity to adapt strategies and maximize the potential gains a safety car period can bring.
With only minutes to go, most teams had completed their planned pit stops and were awaiting the introduction of the safety car to bring the race to a ‘close’ at the end of 4 hours. By this stage, MF-Tech Racing’s Ian McMah had caught the RPM24 kart on track and a game of cat-and-mouse ensued as each team kept an eye on the other to determine who may call a last-minute pitstop.
Despite the RPM24 team frantically waving their pit board it was MF-Tech Racing who ultimately made a last minute call to pit, entering literally seconds before the safety car was deployed and ensuring that they would line up on Sunday morning’s restart a pit-stop ahead of RPM24.
RPM24’s Scott Pearce noted;”After the race had started, we soon realised we were very much on the pace and battling for the lead. The first few hours were a battle, to actually not be the leader, with the top 5 so tight you could not afford to lose a lap behind the safety car and with all the new teams, the safety car was out often.”
“The end of the 1st day was a battle with MF-TECH and NEXUS, with a battle of strategy to once again, NOT be the leader, knowing you could pick up a free pit stop if you were second. MF-Tech did a great job, with Ian, the ‘ALONSO’ of Prokart making the right call, we ended the day in the lead, but MF–Tech were 1 stop up and this would be critical come Sunday. Sunday was really a catch up with us trying for the 1st 3 hours to catch the stop back on MF. We knew we were in the hunt and our pace was good, we just kept pushing.”
AC Delco Cordless Tools Racing ended Saturday’s first 4 hour stage in 3rd place and had this to say, “The race seemed like a game of cat and mouse, with no real outstanding race leader. The first four hours went smoothly and more importantly to plan. Leading into the safety car period the boys were placed in third. The team going into the night confident, but slightly apprehensive as to what the morning would bring.”
And so Sunday morning’s restart was taken under safety car conditions, with teams restarting in the order they had formed behind the safety car at the conclusion of the first 4-hour event, with RPM24 lining up first behind the safety car and 2nd placed MF-Tech some 9 karts behind them and AC Delco a further 3 karts behind.
Sunday’s race was less eventful than Saturday’s but still included a number of safety car periods. Most teams were essentially tied-in to their strategy as a result of the higher than expected safety car periods on Saturday however the team from Force Nexus KnK made an exceptional call to pit for fuel just before a safety car was deployed, effectively gaining them a lap on the field and leaving the only other teams with plenty of work to do if they were going to challenge for victory.
It took another hour but ultimately the teams from RPM24 and MF-Tech found sufficient on-track speed and savvy strategy calls to unlap themselves and It now became apparent that barring any failure, the event would be contested primarily by Nexus Force KnK, RPM24 and MF-Tech, who were all by now a lap clear of the rest of the field and with a similar or greater number of pitstops and all running identical KnK Dominator chassis.
After these 3 teams had made their final stops, Force Nexus KnK led RPM24 by approximately 11 seconds, with MF-Tech a further 9 seconds adrift. With quicker on-track pace at that stage of the event, the RPM24 kart was gaining slightly each lap, driver Dustin Pocock giving his all in his pursuit of Aaron Keane in the #88 Force Nexus KnK Dominator. Without the pace to challenge, MF-Tech looked to consolidate their championship position and whilst they kept an eye on the leading teams their primary goal was to secure a healthy points haul and retain their championship lead.
With 10 minutes to go the gap between Force Nexus KnK and RPM24 was under 3 seconds, closing around 4 tenths every lap and it seemed likely that both karts would be nose-to-tail with only a handful of laps remaining.
With only minutes remaining, Dustin Pocock in the RPM24 kart made his challenge at pit-corner, both karts running side-by-side on the run up the short chute leading to the main straight and Aaron Keane making it very clear that he wasn’t going to settle for second by taking a look up the inside on the run into the hairpin on the very next lap.
Above: The moment the RPM24 team passed Force Nexus KnK for the lead
Both karts ran nose-to-tail again for the next few laps until they encountered lapped traffic and the gap grew by a few kart lengths as both leading karts worked their way through.
Lapped traffic ultimately eroded any potential for Force Nexus KnK to regain the lead, with a racing incident into the hairpin minutes later resulting in a spin for the #88 kart, the team losing a valuable 6 seconds yet still remaining clear of 3rd placed MF-Tech,
From there the RPM24 team lapped confidently yet conservatively to bring home the win, with Force Nexus KnK in 2nd and MF-Tech in 3rd place. These 3 karts were the only karts that finished on the lead lap.
Rounding out the Top 10 were Phantom Racing (152), AC Delco Cordless Power Tools Racing (87), 2DADZ Racing (224), KnK Tigers (64), Atlas Racing (22), BF Racing (2) making a remarkable recovery from their disastrous Saturday to finish 9th and Team Astra (17) in 10th.
After the race, RPM24 team principle Scott Pearce said, “The last hour was the drive of our life, with Nexus getting a fuel stop under safety car, they took the lead from MF-Tech and we were about 35 seconds behind. Earlier in the day I had said to the boys, don’t touch a ripple strip and don’t run off track, but in the last hour I said to Dustin, drive it as hard as you can, it’s “win it or bin it” time. I pushed like crazy and had a very good stint, Dustin jumped in at the last stop and found himself 11 seconds behind with 30min to go, he slowly caught Aaron in the Nexus KnK and had a great battle with him for the lead, then got past into pit corner and pulled out for a 6 second win. The whole day was such an intense battle and one of our finest wins. I myself have been involved with KNK karts for 5 years now and was wrapped to see an all-KnK podium finishing 1-2-3: great stuff. The spirit of the weekend was great also, with all teams showing great sportsmanship and respect to each other.”
Above: RPM24’s Dustin Pocock commences his victory lap
The win was an emotional one for the team from RPM24. The team dedicated their win to Dustin’s father Russell Pocock, who sadly passed away earlier this year and whom the team is named after – Russell Pocock Motorsport (RPM).
It was fitting that Dustin was the driver on-track fighting for and eventually securing the win – as he held the chequered flag aloft there were many misty-eyed people applauding from pitlane and the paddock. The entire RPM24 team of Scott Pearce, Greg Robertson and Dustin Pocock had contributed to this win and it made victory all the better knowing that each driver had given their all both in the lead-up to the event and on track.
Above: The winning team RPM24, Scott Pearce, Dustin Pocock and Greg Robertson
The “hard-charger” award is sponsored by AC Delco Power Tools and acknowledges the performance of a team who has fought back through the field, with their finishing position relative to their position at the 1-hour mark determining who receives the award. For this event, Force Nexus KnK won the AC Delco Power Tools Hard Charger award (picture below) and when combined with their 2nd place, this event was a very successful outing for the team.
Matt Dicinoski, Alan Gurr, Colin Palmer and the entire team at AC Delco Power Tools Racing lamented a weekend of missed opportunities. They had the pace to win, but ultimately a few missed opportunities saw them finish 5th. From the moment they debuted in the series this team has demonstrated commanding pace and it is surely a matter of time before the team, which enjoys support not only AC Delco but also Racer Industries, Freestyle Wrapz and Rema Tip Top Australia, find themselves on the top step of the podium.
The “Best Presented Award” was won by the #64 KnK Tigers, renowned for their ‘pink’ version of the traditional KnK factory livery. This award meant a great deal to the KnK Tigers and team manger Guy Tingey (who is also the Australian distributor for KnK Karts). The ‘pink’ livery holds a special place in their hearts as it is designed in memory of their beautiful daughter Naomi who passed away suddenly at home aged just 36 years. The loss of Naomi left a void that the family struggles to overcome on a daily basis, yet through their ProKart and other kart related activities the Tingey family finds solace as Naomi was always around the family at racetracks and racing and racing related activities bring back many great memories of the times the family spent together. It was a well-earned reward and the design of the kart draws comments constantly.
Above: The winner of the Best Presented award - KnK Tigers
Whilst their 3rd place ensures MF-Tech retain their series lead, in securing 2nd place Nexus Force KnK have closed the gap and now sit only 24 points adrift. Phantom Racing continue to hold 3rd place in the championship a further 42 points behind, however with 200 points awarded for a win the championship remains wide open as the series heads to the next round and what is arguably the toughest test in Australian Motorsport, the ProKart 24 hour which is being held on Sunday 10th and Monday 11th June, 2012 in Tamworth, New South Wales.
